Homey Pro Backups (formerly Homey+) subscription

Ideas & Suggestions
152

LOL
I don’t think you realize what a real high end automation system costs.

I have a Homey since firmware 0.1. I can tell you, everything got SO much better since then.

If you buy a new Fibaro or AeonLabs module it will cost you 40 to 60€, so 4 to 6 years of subscription to Homey+. IMHO it’s really sad that everybody here is reacting like little children when they want to invest in home automation but 10€ it too much to pay.

When you’re that pissed off, and Homey isn’t working anymore for you then just sell it and go buy your 3 other systems for the money you get.
Why are you choosing to stay unhappy? Get rid of it and be a happier man…

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153

@Fire69

Its not the money … its the IDEA.

If homey worked flawless … no rings of dead or loss of flows due to a simple firmware upgrade … sure make it a payed option.

Lots of other big companies do not offer free backup … BUT also a lot of small companies DO offer free ( especialy with a time consuming customer experience an buggy systems )

Everybody knows it took a huge amount of time and tweaking to get their flows and devices working. So most people will pay the €10 because they are “forced” . Stating “you do not have to pay” and stating “nobody is forcing you” … THAT is acting like a child !!

Whats next “just €4,99 for zigbee rewrite” ? And we should not complain … because hey: “nobody is forcing you to buy zigbee devices”. Childish !!!

Also like I explained before the backups are Probably small. 1 mb txt file can hold thousands of flows and settings. Backup for apps is just a reference that shows homey what to download automatically from the already excisting appstore ! No expensive extra backup servers build … just 1 or 2 tb backup space rented ( that cost virtual nothing !)

For the “fanatics” that state :
“ but you support poor little athom as a small company and if you do not you are stupid and i am better “

I supported them with € 399 … if you want to extra support them … why did you not ask their bank account in the past and just donate €10 to poor little Athom before ?

Last but not least … now there is a backup option and i already did see people that will migrate to the pro !!
THAT is extra income also … that is a normal bussinessmodel … and could have happened with free backup also !!!

Now Athom just runs the risk of loosing customers.

And believe me … in the next few years there will be some good alternatives comming ( with free backup :slight_smile: )

EDIT :slight_smile:
Also a backup feature is HELPING athom. If you have an issue now you can easily start from scratch. He you have a backup !

A backup feature also allows CUSTOMERS to experiment in trying to find an issue ( removing apps and corresponding flows one by one to find an issue for example … easy to recover with backup ).

Before backup feature i for one was not experimenting to find a memory leak … just restart daily. Because of such things bug stay in unnececery long

This will help Athom in support and finding bugs also … causing better mouth to mouth … gaining more income.
ALSO IF BACKUP IS FREE

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154

It would be much more constructive if you provide information which system do you recommend. System capable to support zwave and zigbee without need of programming?

155

Not recommending something doesn’t mean something else is recommendable instead.

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156

Agree. But sometimes to be able to appreciate something, you need to experience something different. I had Fibaro and Vera before and Im willing to test other solutions as well. But so far didn’t find the Alternative to Homey. HC3 seems to be candidate, but so far based on user feedback its more buggy then working and no one knows when and how zigbee and other protocols will be supported.

157

I’m also a BIG opponent against subscription models. And it’s not even the money that bugs me. It’s the dependence you create to the company. Yes, for now it’s only backups. But they mentioned there will be more things that they are going to push to the subscription model. I bought Homey, mainly for the independence. But what happens when Atom goes bankrupt… I probably can’t make any back-ups any more. Yes, for now it’s only the back-up function that won’t work any more… But what’s the next thing they add to the subscription model. Is this just the beginning to make the us users completely dependable? You might think: “its only a backup function”… Yes, but shouldn’t a simple backup function be a basic function of Homey? And if you think a bit further… why should you need a back-up function. Mainly if something malfunctioned inside the software / hardware. So to protect yourself for their bugs in software / hardware you need to pay. Yes, it can crash by other third party programmers / plugins. But that was also Athom’s business choice, to let the community develop for them. Even with my iPhone / iPad I can download a local backup.

So yes… if they make you already dependable to them for a simple back-up function, I’m worried for the future…

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158

Imagine lightning hits your house and fries your Homey, or maybe a more realistic example, while cleaning you hit it and it falls on the floor and breaks (several users posted about this kind of accident already), would that be Athom’s fault too?
Hardware breaks, simple as that. Circuits die of old age, you drop it, lightning hits, you drop it in the toilet (probably not your Homey but stil :wink:). Homey has been on the market for +5 years, there are no known hardware-problems (at least that can break your Homey),
So even if Athom’s software would be perfect (which no software ever is), a backup is always a great idea.
You like living on the edge? Don’t get Homey+, problem solved.

159

If you think that 10 euro’s is a lot for homey subscription. Just check this out

Screenshot_20200223_122858_com.facebook.katana
Screenshot_20200223_122858_com.facebook.katana1440×3120 548 KB

48 euro’s for letting your neighbors check out your home when there’s an alarm. That’s what I call a scam

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160

Apples versus pears.

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161

Yeah yeah I now it’s only a alarm. Just wanted to point that the subscription of homey I almost nothing.

162

Plus its not mandatory for Homey, right?

I don’t actually think anyone is complaining about the price. Mostly about whether backup should be part of the subscription.

163

Then build your own service app anf back itvup to your cloud storage environment (who is going to pay for the disc‘s, mirroring and i.o.
Ot build ab app that backups to a local PC, ever calculated wat the real cost are for such a solution (please make it fault tolerant to)

Nobody forces you into subscription, your free tp build a better solution, how much openness do you want?

It‘s not a lockin, it‘s just one of the many apps available…

164

No, you’re not, because important parts of Homey are not accessible. Otherwise, a proper backup&restore app would probably have existed months (if not years) ago.

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165

I used Domoticz before this, if I wanted openness I could have gotten that for free (and yes, that includes backups). I want a hassle-free domotica solution, which is why I bought a Homey. Homey isn’t very open btw, which I’m happy with. I think it’s in a happy in between medium between too closed and fully open. But that should be improved by being able to plan for the long term as a customer and/or as a developer. They just aren’t very transparent towards their customers.

Regarding cost, if I had to make for for 10.000+ customers I bet ya it’s cheaper than €10 a year each.

This whole conversation is just typical for companies that pivot to a subscription model.
For example I bought a lifetime subscription to software last year and 3 months later they stopped development. However they introduced new software (almost identical to the one I bought), which was based on a subscription model. Do you think I was pissed off? Yeah of course, but I would have been if I had known this a year in advance, because then I could have weighed up the pros and cons. It’s purely down to poor communication. If people had known this earlier there wouldn’t have been uproar.

166

Here’s another example why we should heavy resist these cloud / server dependence constructions. Just came in:
https://www.osram.com/cb/lightify/index.jsp
Bang… the lights are useless. Thank you.

Another recent one, Hue Bridge V1 (Dutch article):


Bang… Hue lights unusable. Your welcome.

And these aren’t small companies either. We are talking about Phillips and Osram.

167

Osram:

To control your smart lights and plugs beyond August 31st, 2021, you need to fully reset your entire system. Afterwards you can simply integrate it into any other ZigBee® compatible system – like other smart lighting or smart home systems with intelligent assistants that are available on the market.

Philips:

Na 30 april 2020 zullen er geen software-updates meer beschikbaar worden gesteld voor de Hue bridge v1. Ook de compatibiliteit met onze online diensten zal dan worden beëindigd. De Hue bridge v1 kan uitsluitend lokaal worden bediend via de speciale Philips Hue bridge v1-app.

FWIW, Homey also depends on cloud services, as many people have found out when their internet connection went down and they couldn’t reach Homey anymore.

168

Another Domotica company that decided that a subscription model is a nice way doing business:

TLDR:
Thank you for buying our stuff in the past, now you need to pay us $5 a month to keep the lights, sensors and other devices working. Or we keep those devices hostage until you pay us.

169

So Happy Athom didn’t have to do it that way …

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170

Not yet haha!

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171

I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a lifetime of upgrades for one purchase, regardless of what Athom advertised with. I’d rather pay a small amount every month, when the alternative is Athom going bankrupt, which means you never get an update for Homey or Athom’s apps and you can’t send it back when something fails.

I don’t see the point in suggesting that Athom might one day ‘hold or devices hostage’, when they haven’t done that up untill now. Or do one of you guys have inside information that Athom is planning on asking money for keeping the led-ring lit?

I agree that communication is key. They have to be clear about the costs, what’s included and what not. It also bugs me that a subscription is suddenly introduced. But I also sympathize with a company that is trying to fulfill their customers needs (Zigbee rewrite, back-up, updating own apps, approving community apps, adding languages, Google integration, Zones, etc.) without going bankrupt.

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