

Obviously this means you need to be a bit more tech savvy and invested in your smart home, but also means you aren’t held back by a single company deciding what products you can use. Many of these will work at a basic level anyway, but you can often find community developed device handlers that add the necessary functionality to make them work at their best. Thanks to an open framework and support for industry standard protocols like ZigBee and Z-Wave, enthusiasts can roll their own support for additional devices. These are the easiest to use with the platform, but it’s not limited to those alone. Official support means that devices are automatically recognized and all their features are fully supported inside the SmartThings app. With the new hubs and smart phone app it is now easier to get going with SmartThings, and the list of officially supported devices is now quite respectable. While originally very enthusiast focused, growth and maturity have opened the system up to a more diverse user base. The SmartThings platform has been going from strength to strength since it was acquired by Samsung in 2014. This is the current model SmartThings hub from Aeotec. Regardless, both of these platforms require a hub in order to gain access to their ecosystem, so when considering the question of Wink vs SmartThings we need to look at their hub products in conjunction with platform capabilities. Wink is going after the less tech savvy, or at least less time invested, smart home user, where Samsung’s offering started out as a more enthusiast focused product that’s been working towards a broader market. While there are some key similarities, the two are targeted at different user segments.

Wink and SmartThings are two well known platforms that offer to simplify the business of managing your devices. Smart home platforms provide a more brand-agnostic approach to integrating and controlling smart devices, but these too generally require some sort of hub in order to do this. With the growing number of smart devices makers on the market, and the proliferation of bespoke smart home hubs along with them, you may want to look at some options for consolidating your smart home setup. When you buy through links in this article, I may earn an affiliate commission.
