the power is in the flows and local network
The initial setup of this smart hub is probably the easiest thing since it’s just a matter of supplying it power and connecting the ethernet to the router. After some initial firmware updates, it’s ready to go via the phone app or the desktop web app at my.homey.app and setting up an account.As far as adding my existing smart devices to this hub goes, it installs some apps based on the brand of the smart devices and of course it needs to also be compatible with the communication protocol (there’s a separate hub that can also be linked to this to extend it to work with more communication protocols). I was able to add some things via just logging into my existing accounts with the various smart brands, but when I was going through that process, I ran into some authentication issues where the homey website was having issues. I ended up going to do something else for an hour before trying again, then it started to work again, so I guess there were some server issues. I assume that if I wasn’t re-pairing my devices directly to the hub, then it’s going through the internet to operate the devices. I may be wrong here, but I assume I would need to re-pair each and every smart device with the hub itself in order to have it work completely locally where if my internet didn’t work, all the devices would at least still operate via the hub.The speed when operating the devices are about the same as when using the smart devices apps or via alexa/google. The homey app does allow for what appears to be much more powerful workflow feature, they call flows, that lets you create routines that are more advanced and across all the devices that can connect to it. It’s similar to the alexa app’s routines, but again, much more advanced and visually appealing.I think the only other oddness about using a third-party smart home hub is that I would still need to use the original app in order the update the firmware of the devices. I think some newer communication protocols probably handle it, but older devices may not have that same luxury. And if it’s not paired with the original app, then I’m not sure it’s worth re-pairing to the original app, which I assume would then need to be re-paired back to the hub after. And if I had it in some workflow, wouldn’t it break until it is fixed? Of course, I could just leave it un-updated, but then it wouldn’t be updated with security fixes. Anyway, that was just something that I was thinking about with regard to that scenario, so I’m not sure how that whole scenario would actually play out.All in all, this smart hub is great if you want to go full local management of all smart devices, so the internet isn’t required. The workflows are also much more advanced. For me, while I have a lot of smart devices, I don’t really have too many smart device workflows. The 2 or 3 that I do have works fine inside alexa’s ecosystem, and alexa also already automatically finds all my devices, so as far as basic functionality goes, that has been good enough albeit requiring internet connectivity.

Pretty good alternative to other hub systems
I’m still messing around with this and getting things incorporated into the ecosystem. The main thing I got it for was creating automation for my smart home. For this it works “ok”. My biggest issue is there isn’t a good way to set the color of lights to specific values. There are a log of plug-in’s available for it, so there is probably something out there that I’m looking for but haven’t found yet. Overall it’s been solid and has shown no issues or connectivity problems with with my network or any devices I have connected. It’s a bit cumbersome to add certain devices, and some you think should be supported, aren’t. One of the big ones for me is Govee devices. Sure, it supports Govee in general, but not everything. Seems to only be Govee devices that support direct LAN connection. This is a bit annoying to say the least as not all Govee devices support this.The automations as a whole are WAY easier to work with than say Home Assistant as I don’t need to program or write code to make it do more complex automations. I LOVE this and will be why I keep using it. The downside is if I can’t get all my devices connected to it, it leaves holes in my automations.

Great If Your Devices Are Supported
he Homey Pro mini is a well-built smart home hub with support for Zigbee, Ethernet, Matter, and Thread. It integrates nicely with Apple Siri, Alexa, and Google Home, but keep in mind — it’s best if your smart devices are already compatible with the app. It’s a sleek, compact hub that works great once everything is connected, but not ideal for adding unsupported devices.