Samsung SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit

Smartthings is a home automation system that is cloud based. You can make it be a faux security system, but it isn't a security system.

Be warned, if your internet goes down, this pretty much stops. Or if the ST servers die. Or are DDOSed. Or are unavailable from a DNS issue. Only 2 apps work without the cloud brain. You can't control it directly over wifi, all commands route through the cloud.

You will likely need to install a logic engine like webcore. Many devices need special apps (device handlers) to allow you to control them or see their properties. You may need to buy a package like RBoy to get devices to work if you don't want to write your own code.

It is a very cheap gateway drug to get into HA. All other purchases should be either Zwave or ZigBee HA so they can migrate to another controller if/when you outgrow ST. Choose one or the other, as they are mesh networks and get stronger with more devices, so splitting between ZigBee and zwave will give you two weak meshes.

I personally prefer zwave because more locks and thermostats are available in zwave but there's nothing wrong with ZigBee HA.

The next step up product is either Hubitat or Wink. Wink has more history and possibly more device support but it still has some cloud dependency (but more of it works w/o internet than ST). Hubitat can live without the internet and can run smartthings apps but it's pretty new so their track record is short (but good).

I already have the v2, but if I were buying again I would go with the v2 for the upgraded hardware specs (cpu/ram) and battery backup. They made the v3 with lower spec hardware to make it cheaper and more appealing to the mass market. I have read the v3 is Zigbee 3.0 certified and there is a bluetooth option they may turn on. If those are appealing to you then v3 will probably suit your needs. If those aren't a concern then the v2 is a good price with some features that are better than the v3.

Of course there is always the consideration of which products they plan to support and for how long. Obi is a good example where their 100 series could still work with the Google Voice changes if they would have released a new firmware, but they chose to drop it and make you get a 200 series instead.

Everytime this comes up i buy the bundle and ebay the hub . Filled all my house with sensors plugs n motion sensing for next to nothing lol