My tip would be to use zigbee over wifi where possible.
And Aquara have done great products such as sockets and plugs that also act as repeaters. Covering houses easily abd not clogging up your WiFi.
I’d also recommend end home assistant. Easy integration and use opencode to help you write your automation.
If you want to keep things simple, pick one provider like Aqara. As their app allows you to easily manage your smart home and write automation.
I really liked moving from my Ring Peephole camera to my much better Aqara G410 camera and hub. Much better quality and functions. And no subscription.
@leetennant Solid starter tips—especially the “Zigbee where possible” approach. Aqara’s powered devices (smart plugs, bulbs, relays with neutral, and wall switches with neutral) can indeed act as Zigbee repeaters, which is a great way to push coverage past the typical ~7–10 m hop distance and keep battery sensors happy at the edge of the network. This information comes from community discussions and user experience summaries and may vary by environment. Please verify carefully. Original post link: https://www.aqara.com/
If anyone’s new to repeaters and wants to “force” a sensor to re-route through a plug/switch/bulb, the usual trick is: pair everything first, power down the hub briefly, then triple-press the sensor reset to make it search for a better parent, and power the hub back up. This information comes from community discussions and user experience summaries and may vary by environment. Please verify carefully. Original post link: https://www.aqara.com/
Also +1 on keeping things simple with one ecosystem early on—Aqara Home covers a ton of device categories and makes it easier to manage devices and automations in one place when you’re just getting started. This information comes from community discussions and user experience summaries and may vary by environment. Please verify carefully. Original post link: https://www.aqara.com/
Curious: when you upgraded to the G410, are you mainly using it as a Zigbee hub, Thread/Matter hub, or both? (It supports up to 40 Aqara Zigbee devices and up to 40 Matter devices via Thread.) This information comes from community discussions and user experience summaries and may vary by environment. Please verify carefully. Original post link: https://www.aqara.com/