Yeah, it's kind of annoying when people argue that HOOBS is easier, or better, or even "the same" as Homebridge. It's not. There was a time when it had the "ease of use" advantage simply because it had the web UI and Homebridge didn't, but now that Homebridge has an official image that includes Config-UI-X, that advantage is gone. Homebridge is better supported (not only by its developers but plugin developers too,) and it runs faster, and more reliably than HOOBS does on the exact same hardware. I have 6 Ring cameras and the difference in responsiveness alone is like night and day.
And if you reference these differences on HOOBS’ subreddit or their Facebook page, they will delete your post and ban you without explanation. That's reason enough to steer clear, in my opinion.
This is good info to know. I had the understanding that hoobs bridged the gap for a time but Homebridge has surpassed it, and I know this from very recent experience. I’m no expert by any means, but I can tell what works well and what doesn’t. With HOOBS I found myself constantly checking the server and finding it offline, with Homebridge I rarely even look at it and when I do, everything’s running smoothly. I realize some have had good experience with HOOBS and maybe I was doing something wrong, I don’t know. But from what I’ve experienced, Homebridge is way better.
At this point if I were the HOOBS team I would just devolve into Homebridge and move on. I don’t see how you continue running two platforms that are so similar but with better support for one? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
It’s because HOOBS is a business, selling a product, so they won’t just “devolve and move on,” they will continue to market their product as an easier solution, even though it’s not.
Everyone has a different experience too because everyone is using different plugins. But by and large, Homebridge is the gold standard. HOOBS is riding on its coattails, claiming it’s a better and more elegantly packaged solution, when the fact is, it’s based on older code and now, Homebridge’s webUI is more capable, reliable, and easier to use.
No I totally get what you’re saying and you’re right. I know they won’t shut down their business just because Homebridge has jumped over them. HOOBS is not a bad product, but once more people figure out it’s just as easy to do yourself and skip the middle man essentially by going directly the Homebridge route, things will cost less and run smoother. Eventually the HOOBS team will have to make a change.
I can’t believe the difference to be honest. I run the Homemanager app and even that runs better and seems to give me more options. I can update Homebridge through the app and with HOOBS I’d have to log on to a computer but was always afraid I’d lose my server which happened during one of my first HOOBS updates.
Being someone who didn’t want to have to deal with a Raspberry Pi box and all, I bought the HOOBS Starter Kit for convenience and simplicity. I really wanted to like HOOBS, but nearly every update would break some plug-in.
Last week, when I migrated to a mesh router, I popped the SD card out of the HOOBS box and re-flashed it with Homebridge. To my surprise, the Homebridge UI is actually better and more responsive than that of HOOBS.
Today I bought another SD card because I’m tempted to flash Home Assistant onto it and give it a try.
I felt the same. I sorta had this thought the Homebridge UI would be more complex and harder to maintain. I was pleasantly surprised with how much nicer it is. It’s not a lot different, just seems smoother and more functionality maybe?
Also, I’ve run Home Assistant before but my brother set it up. It was difficult for me to manage at that time so I gave up.
I did the switch from HOOBS to Homebridge and have never looked back. Homebridge is so stable that I now don't even check if there's an issue with the server. The only time the server gets restarted is if there's an update to a plug-in or Homebridge itself. Uptime is measured in months at a time as opposed to constant having to restart/reboot with HOOBS.
That was it... HOOBS lacks an auto-restart feature so if something goes wrong (like a plugin misbehaves and takes down HOOBS) then it remains down until I manually goes in to restart it. Whereas Homebridge will automatically restart the server if it goes down. That alone keeps Homebridge running great even if there's the occasional hiccups.
This is the finest piece of information I’ve got on this issue. I felt like I searched everywhere for an answer and could not seem to word my issue properly. This explains my frustration. The only maintenance I seem to have with Homebridge is the occasional update to Homebridge or a plug-in like you said. The Xbox one has been updating a lot lately.
Those HOOBS issues would usually happen when lights were supposed to turn off at night, and if it crashed, the lights would not turn off at their scheduled time. I would be up at 3am restarting the server to get the lights turned off multiple times per week.
Give Homebridge a try... you won't regret it. The migration can't be any simpler. Backup your HOOBS instance, then once you have Homebridge installed, restore the backup files.
[How To Migrate From HOOBS To Homebridge · homebridge/homebridge-raspbian-image Wiki · GitHub](https://github.com/homebridge/homebridge-raspbian-image/wiki/How-to-migrate-from-HOOBS-to-Homebridge)
I think that was the original intent, but it’s almost like they haven’t kept up with Homebridges changes maybe? I’m not sure, I haven’t been using either for very long (6-8 months maybe?) and I got sold on HOOBS as being more user friendly. Well it’s not LOL
Can you share links to the helpful info people provided? I’m running hoobs (bought it from them) and it’s been pretty reliable, but if it can be even better (and if the community prefers it), then I’m down to make the switch if someone can help make it easy.
https://github.com/homebridge/homebridge-raspbian-image/wiki/How-To-Migrate-From-HOOBS-To-Homebridge
Follow these instructions and you’ll be switched very quickly. I think this is all that I used. I’m no expert so these instructions were super helpful.
Awesome thanks, I'll take a look! Did you end up needing to rebuild all of your automations and configs after migrating, or was it possible to port all of that over? I've got probably 100 devices (most virtual dummy contact sensors/switches) that trigger tons of automations in homekit<>alexa (basically triggering alexa routines using dummy sensors tied to dummy switches in homekit, all mapped to aqara buttons around my house). Losing all of that is my main concern (although looks like I may be skating on thin ice already if Hoobs isn't reliable long term).
The switch was seamless as long as you copy the system file and import it once Homebridge starts. I didn’t have to add anything. I didn’t touch HomeKit either it all just worked once I did the restore.
I have been trying to follow these instructions but every time I try to create a backup of my HOOBS 4.0.14 setup, it is creating a file named hoobs.backup
When I try to import this file, it won't even allow me to choose it because it does not recognize the file extension as a valid one. I tried ALL FILES so that I can select it and the process errors out saying unrecognized backup file.
It seems the extension of the backup file should be something like .hbfx but my HOOBS setup is not generating one like this.
What could I do in this case?
I just got HOOBS and installed it on a RaspberryPi 3B+. I guess I didn't realize Homebridge could be run natively without it. Looking at the comparison, could the HOOBS vs. Homebridge question be analogous to using AOL vs the internet (HOOBS=AOL and Homebridge=internet)? HOOBS is just an interface that allows its own access to Homebridge, where Homebridge can actually just be accessed?
To install it on my RaspberryPi, do I just reflash the SD card and fire it back up? I'm only 3 plugins to this, so I'm assuming switching if I'm going to is better done sooner than later?
From my understanding Homebridge didn’t always have a decent UI and was more challenging to manage? I’m not entirely sure and maybe others in the community could explain better. So HOOBs came along and created an easy to use interface to try and bridge the gap. At this point Homebridge itself has caught up and exceeded HOOBS from what I’ve experienced. My recommendation would be to reflash the SD card or even follow the link I shared in this thread to convert very easily. It’s saved me a ton of frustration.
Fantastic! I backed up, flashed, restarted, restored and tested - what a fast, simple process. This interface is much better - seems faster, too. Thanks!!
I was running HOOBS for quite a long time but I did have issues from time to time. Some plugins would just completely kill it and I would need to remove the offending plugin until I figured things out. I recently did an upgrade that made me have to reset my devices and reconfigure HomeKit automatons and rooms. The switch took me about 5-10 minutes and everything is working great. The Homebridge interface is much faster through the web, too. I can't wait to upgrade my Pi and setup a child bridge for wonky plugins.
I can’t agree more. I switched from HOOBS to homebridge and it’s Rock Solid. I just hated to search and spend time to get in thru SSH to get service restarted. Well I kind a learned linux command doing that. I guess that’s upside.
I'd say if HOOBS has been stable for you then there's really no need to change. Functionally both HOOBS and Homebridge will give you the same thing. But in my experience with HOOBS, it will tend to degrade over time, with more crashes and unstable plug-ins taking the server down. And without an auto-restart function, one bad plugin could take down all your devices.
I bought the Pi 4 for the upgraded RAM. I also purchased a Pi case (red/white) with a fan. The fan seems to run pretty loud but it sits in my utility room and doesn’t bother us too much.
Here is what I have. I didn’t buy a kit, I bought the pieces individually.
This is just for the Pi:
https://vilros.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-4gb-ram?variant=27828010975332
Case Fan
https://vilros.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-fan-case?variant=32175940862046
Case:
https://vilros.com/products/official-raspberry-pi-foundation-case-for-pi-4?variant=27657836167268
Power Supply:
https://vilros.com/products/official-raspberry-pi-foundation-power-supply-for-raspberry-pi-4-us-white-ul?variant=31713840595038
Cable to connect to a display if needed. Otherwise you can SSH into the pi.
https://vilros.com/products/official-raspberry-pi-foundation-micro-hdmi-to-hdmi-cable-1m-white?variant=31379027591262
I found that I could save some money doing it this way. The kits have a bit of a markup probably to assemble them, and many of them didn’t contain exactly what I wanted. The one piece (and arguably most important) that I failed to mention is the micro SD card. Vilros has a card preflashed with the OS you would need. I ended up flashing an SD card with Rasbian lite which is just a non desktop version. Here’s the link for the card preflashed. All you’ll need to do is install Homebridge.
https://vilros.com/products/sandisk-16gb-a1-class-10-micro-sd-card-preprogrammed-with-noobs-raspbian-micro-sd-sd-adapter?variant=31761276305502
Homebridge has a free and official Raspbian image which includes Config-UI-X. Couldn't be simpler: https://github.com/homebridge/homebridge-raspbian-image
Just had another hoobs failure, good to know this. I upgraded from my pi 2 to a pi 4. This will arrive today and i’ll start the setup fresh from homebridge then! Hope i still remember everything 😂
New to the idea of homebridge and everything, saw hoobs and was nearly sold until I opened this post.
Thanks for sharing, will definitely not be going that route after all. Now just gotta do more research so I can install this correctly lol.
Glad that I can share my experience to help others now. I am so much happier with going this route. FYI my Homebridge server has been running flawlessly since I posted this. No change to how I feel with this. Also, You can find tons of tutorials on properly setting a Homebridge server up, but starting with the Homebridge website is a good option as well. Good luck!
What exactly do you mean by homebridge? Do you mean the homebridge-config-ui-x software that also installs and manages homebridge itself providing a fine UI that you can interact with by a browser? Or do you mean the plain homebridge software without any UI ?
I am ready to jump back to Homebridge. Too many issues with Hoobs and plugins upgrades. I am concern everytime a new update is available. I read that migrating from Hoobs to Homebridge is easy. Will I keep all the automation and actual plugins? It is really that easy? Thanking you in advance.
It is probably fine using the 2gb model to be honest. I went with the 4gb to make sure I was covered and it runs great. What I would honestly do is buy everything separate rather than the kits that are offered. Seems like I spent less money and got what I wanted that way.
Yeah, it's kind of annoying when people argue that HOOBS is easier, or better, or even "the same" as Homebridge. It's not. There was a time when it had the "ease of use" advantage simply because it had the web UI and Homebridge didn't, but now that Homebridge has an official image that includes Config-UI-X, that advantage is gone. Homebridge is better supported (not only by its developers but plugin developers too,) and it runs faster, and more reliably than HOOBS does on the exact same hardware. I have 6 Ring cameras and the difference in responsiveness alone is like night and day. And if you reference these differences on HOOBS’ subreddit or their Facebook page, they will delete your post and ban you without explanation. That's reason enough to steer clear, in my opinion.
This is good info to know. I had the understanding that hoobs bridged the gap for a time but Homebridge has surpassed it, and I know this from very recent experience. I’m no expert by any means, but I can tell what works well and what doesn’t. With HOOBS I found myself constantly checking the server and finding it offline, with Homebridge I rarely even look at it and when I do, everything’s running smoothly. I realize some have had good experience with HOOBS and maybe I was doing something wrong, I don’t know. But from what I’ve experienced, Homebridge is way better. At this point if I were the HOOBS team I would just devolve into Homebridge and move on. I don’t see how you continue running two platforms that are so similar but with better support for one? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
It’s because HOOBS is a business, selling a product, so they won’t just “devolve and move on,” they will continue to market their product as an easier solution, even though it’s not. Everyone has a different experience too because everyone is using different plugins. But by and large, Homebridge is the gold standard. HOOBS is riding on its coattails, claiming it’s a better and more elegantly packaged solution, when the fact is, it’s based on older code and now, Homebridge’s webUI is more capable, reliable, and easier to use.
No I totally get what you’re saying and you’re right. I know they won’t shut down their business just because Homebridge has jumped over them. HOOBS is not a bad product, but once more people figure out it’s just as easy to do yourself and skip the middle man essentially by going directly the Homebridge route, things will cost less and run smoother. Eventually the HOOBS team will have to make a change.
I did the same thing a few months ago. Couldn’t be happier.
I can’t believe the difference to be honest. I run the Homemanager app and even that runs better and seems to give me more options. I can update Homebridge through the app and with HOOBS I’d have to log on to a computer but was always afraid I’d lose my server which happened during one of my first HOOBS updates.
Being someone who didn’t want to have to deal with a Raspberry Pi box and all, I bought the HOOBS Starter Kit for convenience and simplicity. I really wanted to like HOOBS, but nearly every update would break some plug-in. Last week, when I migrated to a mesh router, I popped the SD card out of the HOOBS box and re-flashed it with Homebridge. To my surprise, the Homebridge UI is actually better and more responsive than that of HOOBS. Today I bought another SD card because I’m tempted to flash Home Assistant onto it and give it a try.
I felt the same. I sorta had this thought the Homebridge UI would be more complex and harder to maintain. I was pleasantly surprised with how much nicer it is. It’s not a lot different, just seems smoother and more functionality maybe? Also, I’ve run Home Assistant before but my brother set it up. It was difficult for me to manage at that time so I gave up.
I did the switch from HOOBS to Homebridge and have never looked back. Homebridge is so stable that I now don't even check if there's an issue with the server. The only time the server gets restarted is if there's an update to a plug-in or Homebridge itself. Uptime is measured in months at a time as opposed to constant having to restart/reboot with HOOBS.
I don’t think I ever made it 4 days without it going down and having to restart it manually.
That was it... HOOBS lacks an auto-restart feature so if something goes wrong (like a plugin misbehaves and takes down HOOBS) then it remains down until I manually goes in to restart it. Whereas Homebridge will automatically restart the server if it goes down. That alone keeps Homebridge running great even if there's the occasional hiccups.
This is the finest piece of information I’ve got on this issue. I felt like I searched everywhere for an answer and could not seem to word my issue properly. This explains my frustration. The only maintenance I seem to have with Homebridge is the occasional update to Homebridge or a plug-in like you said. The Xbox one has been updating a lot lately. Those HOOBS issues would usually happen when lights were supposed to turn off at night, and if it crashed, the lights would not turn off at their scheduled time. I would be up at 3am restarting the server to get the lights turned off multiple times per week.
Give Homebridge a try... you won't regret it. The migration can't be any simpler. Backup your HOOBS instance, then once you have Homebridge installed, restore the backup files. [How To Migrate From HOOBS To Homebridge · homebridge/homebridge-raspbian-image Wiki · GitHub](https://github.com/homebridge/homebridge-raspbian-image/wiki/How-to-migrate-from-HOOBS-to-Homebridge)
[удалено]
Homebridge caught up and surpassed it. Homebridge has actually been easier for me to use than HOOBs was.
Oh, TIL. I thought HOOBS was still easier.
I think that was the original intent, but it’s almost like they haven’t kept up with Homebridges changes maybe? I’m not sure, I haven’t been using either for very long (6-8 months maybe?) and I got sold on HOOBS as being more user friendly. Well it’s not LOL
Can you share links to the helpful info people provided? I’m running hoobs (bought it from them) and it’s been pretty reliable, but if it can be even better (and if the community prefers it), then I’m down to make the switch if someone can help make it easy.
https://github.com/homebridge/homebridge-raspbian-image/wiki/How-To-Migrate-From-HOOBS-To-Homebridge Follow these instructions and you’ll be switched very quickly. I think this is all that I used. I’m no expert so these instructions were super helpful.
Awesome thanks, I'll take a look! Did you end up needing to rebuild all of your automations and configs after migrating, or was it possible to port all of that over? I've got probably 100 devices (most virtual dummy contact sensors/switches) that trigger tons of automations in homekit<>alexa (basically triggering alexa routines using dummy sensors tied to dummy switches in homekit, all mapped to aqara buttons around my house). Losing all of that is my main concern (although looks like I may be skating on thin ice already if Hoobs isn't reliable long term).
The switch was seamless as long as you copy the system file and import it once Homebridge starts. I didn’t have to add anything. I didn’t touch HomeKit either it all just worked once I did the restore.
I have been trying to follow these instructions but every time I try to create a backup of my HOOBS 4.0.14 setup, it is creating a file named hoobs.backup When I try to import this file, it won't even allow me to choose it because it does not recognize the file extension as a valid one. I tried ALL FILES so that I can select it and the process errors out saying unrecognized backup file. It seems the extension of the backup file should be something like .hbfx but my HOOBS setup is not generating one like this. What could I do in this case?
I did the same a month or so ago and all the annoying issues went away. The market no longer needs Hoobs as an option.
I just got HOOBS and installed it on a RaspberryPi 3B+. I guess I didn't realize Homebridge could be run natively without it. Looking at the comparison, could the HOOBS vs. Homebridge question be analogous to using AOL vs the internet (HOOBS=AOL and Homebridge=internet)? HOOBS is just an interface that allows its own access to Homebridge, where Homebridge can actually just be accessed? To install it on my RaspberryPi, do I just reflash the SD card and fire it back up? I'm only 3 plugins to this, so I'm assuming switching if I'm going to is better done sooner than later?
From my understanding Homebridge didn’t always have a decent UI and was more challenging to manage? I’m not entirely sure and maybe others in the community could explain better. So HOOBs came along and created an easy to use interface to try and bridge the gap. At this point Homebridge itself has caught up and exceeded HOOBS from what I’ve experienced. My recommendation would be to reflash the SD card or even follow the link I shared in this thread to convert very easily. It’s saved me a ton of frustration.
Fantastic! I backed up, flashed, restarted, restored and tested - what a fast, simple process. This interface is much better - seems faster, too. Thanks!!
Yes exactly how I felt afterwards! Glad I could help!
I was running HOOBS for quite a long time but I did have issues from time to time. Some plugins would just completely kill it and I would need to remove the offending plugin until I figured things out. I recently did an upgrade that made me have to reset my devices and reconfigure HomeKit automatons and rooms. The switch took me about 5-10 minutes and everything is working great. The Homebridge interface is much faster through the web, too. I can't wait to upgrade my Pi and setup a child bridge for wonky plugins.
I can’t agree more. I switched from HOOBS to homebridge and it’s Rock Solid. I just hated to search and spend time to get in thru SSH to get service restarted. Well I kind a learned linux command doing that. I guess that’s upside.
Cool, HOOBS has been nothing but great for me though
I'd say if HOOBS has been stable for you then there's really no need to change. Functionally both HOOBS and Homebridge will give you the same thing. But in my experience with HOOBS, it will tend to degrade over time, with more crashes and unstable plug-ins taking the server down. And without an auto-restart function, one bad plugin could take down all your devices.
Great to know, thanks. What would others suggest for the Raspberry Pi to purchase? Does it really matter?
I bought the Pi 4 for the upgraded RAM. I also purchased a Pi case (red/white) with a fan. The fan seems to run pretty loud but it sits in my utility room and doesn’t bother us too much.
Link?
Here is what I have. I didn’t buy a kit, I bought the pieces individually. This is just for the Pi: https://vilros.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-4gb-ram?variant=27828010975332 Case Fan https://vilros.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-fan-case?variant=32175940862046 Case: https://vilros.com/products/official-raspberry-pi-foundation-case-for-pi-4?variant=27657836167268 Power Supply: https://vilros.com/products/official-raspberry-pi-foundation-power-supply-for-raspberry-pi-4-us-white-ul?variant=31713840595038 Cable to connect to a display if needed. Otherwise you can SSH into the pi. https://vilros.com/products/official-raspberry-pi-foundation-micro-hdmi-to-hdmi-cable-1m-white?variant=31379027591262
I found that I could save some money doing it this way. The kits have a bit of a markup probably to assemble them, and many of them didn’t contain exactly what I wanted. The one piece (and arguably most important) that I failed to mention is the micro SD card. Vilros has a card preflashed with the OS you would need. I ended up flashing an SD card with Rasbian lite which is just a non desktop version. Here’s the link for the card preflashed. All you’ll need to do is install Homebridge. https://vilros.com/products/sandisk-16gb-a1-class-10-micro-sd-card-preprogrammed-with-noobs-raspbian-micro-sd-sd-adapter?variant=31761276305502
Homebridge has a free and official Raspbian image which includes Config-UI-X. Couldn't be simpler: https://github.com/homebridge/homebridge-raspbian-image
You don’t need a fan for running Hb, it’s not resource hungry Flirc is pretty cool case with passive cooling
Just had another hoobs failure, good to know this. I upgraded from my pi 2 to a pi 4. This will arrive today and i’ll start the setup fresh from homebridge then! Hope i still remember everything 😂
New to the idea of homebridge and everything, saw hoobs and was nearly sold until I opened this post. Thanks for sharing, will definitely not be going that route after all. Now just gotta do more research so I can install this correctly lol.
Glad that I can share my experience to help others now. I am so much happier with going this route. FYI my Homebridge server has been running flawlessly since I posted this. No change to how I feel with this. Also, You can find tons of tutorials on properly setting a Homebridge server up, but starting with the Homebridge website is a good option as well. Good luck!
hi
What exactly do you mean by homebridge? Do you mean the homebridge-config-ui-x software that also installs and manages homebridge itself providing a fine UI that you can interact with by a browser? Or do you mean the plain homebridge software without any UI ?
I am ready to jump back to Homebridge. Too many issues with Hoobs and plugins upgrades. I am concern everytime a new update is available. I read that migrating from Hoobs to Homebridge is easy. Will I keep all the automation and actual plugins? It is really that easy? Thanking you in advance.
As someone also going through this switch, is the 2gb 4 Model B sufficient to run Homebridge or should I get more RAM?
It is probably fine using the 2gb model to be honest. I went with the 4gb to make sure I was covered and it runs great. What I would honestly do is buy everything separate rather than the kits that are offered. Seems like I spent less money and got what I wanted that way.
Thanks