First of all I have to say, that I’m using Fibaro for more than 3 years intensively for myself and some of my customers. So far didn’t find better solution for all use cases I have, but I think its time to start to look more intensively for alternatives. Why? Here are the most critical reasons:
Remote system access – each time I do connect to HC from outside, I’m getting little bit nervous whether I do succeed. Its cause mostly by Fibaros issues in past with remote access. Unfortunately its back these days. This unreliability will most probably persist because of past experience. No imagine, what are the all sexy use cases for, when you can’t access this system remotely. I can’t arm/disarm the alarm when housekeeper comes to my house, neither to change the heating system setting, or extra irrigate a garden. Suddenly you lose control and comfort, just because Fibaro can’t provide reliable service. It’s a pity that 20€ IP camera from China is more reliable with remote access than 600€ Fibaro system! I didn’t have any issue connecting to those Chinese IP cams ever (I’m not touching security issue here).
Push and email notifications – problem of past days that persist from Sunday till now (Wednesday). Imagine that you won’t receive notifications from your bank about transaction for such a long time? In my case, notification take very critical part in the system. Im being notified when Solar system start/stop to produce electricity (to fine-tune the system), alarm notifications including snapshots from cameras, smoke or flood notifications to ensure that everything is OK. Can I relay on such a system now? Maybe my house is on fire at this moment I’m writing this article…
Bugs and bugs and bugs – every new update I’m getting excited about new features and bugs fixed. However on the other side, every new update I’m scared of new bugs that appear in system. Its kind of Fibaros best practice, fix one think and “develop” some new bugs on already working features (e.g. weather trigger issue, VD icons issue, VD stops working issue etc…)
Support – and last but not least, Fibaro support, for such a critical system as a home automation is, should be much better and 24/7. Come on guys, the fact that there is a holiday in Poland, doesn’t mean that all home automation owners across the world can wait for several days for your help! Not mentioning the fact, that “Missing template” for Aeon micro switch is persisiting in my system since the very beginning (3 years!) without any option to remove it. Downloaded template provided to fibaro support for a few times in the past…
Development of user requested features – there are tons of requests on Fibaro forum, asking Fibaro to fix or develop small features that would significantly improve user experience. One of the examples is “low battery notification” being send by email every half an hour!!! That represent 96 emails if I’m away from a home for a weekend!!!
So to conclude, I’m staying with Fibaro, but only until a time I do find a suitable alternative for my use cases. Then, good bye Fibaro.