Inovelli vs Homeseer

The price of the red series and homeseer’s dimmer is about the same price for me, give or take a dollar.

Are there features that inovelli red series dimmer has that I would Make me lean to inovelli vs homeseer or vice versa.

Thanks

Hey @Myads – happy to chime in here and I actually was asked this on Reddit not too long ago, so if you don’t mind, I’ll do some copy/paste. Here’s the link for reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/comments/dtrvcs/homeseer_vs_innovelli/f6z5p0g?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x


Great question and I obviously want to throw the disclaimer out that I have a vested interest in Inovelli, but I’ll try to be as un-biased as possible.

First, let me say that HomeSeer has always been, in my opinion, the most innovative brand out there. They were the first to come out with the double-tap (scene control) feature, the first to come out with multi-colored LED notifications and honestly, they’ve had a lot of amazing configuration features that are second to none.

Before I started Inovelli, I had a lot of their stuff in my house and it’s where I drew a lot of inspiration from when creating our Gen 1 switches.

I noticed a lot of other brands were pretty basic (ie: turn light on/off/dim) but HS took it to the next level. Problem is that no one really knew about it outside the “Power Users”.

Our Gen 1 switches incorporated the scene control and a lot of the same customizations (and even a few more) but there was only so much we could do as we were dealing with a, “white label” product (ie: it already existed and we just slapped our name on it and modified the firmware a bit).

Moving to Gen 2 allowed us to start from scratch and really evaluate what people wanted, what worked on Gen 1 and what didn’t (from user experience) and create something that was our own design.

We still took inspiration from HS, but added our own spin to it. Eric M. (our CTO) really dug deep and evaluated everything that Z-Wave had to offer and came up with a way to change configuration settings from the switch itself which opened up a lot of opportunities for people who don’t have a Hub that can edit parameters (ie: Wink, Ring, etc). So, now you can change dim settings, min/max settings and much more directly from the switch.

In addition, one of the biggest differences from our Gen 1 vs HomeSeer was the way they interacted in a 3-Way setting.

Our Gen 1’s worked with existing (dumb) switches whereas HS used auxiliary switches. There are benefits to both (dumb switches save you money, but you can’t dim from the dumb side, whereas aux switches are $20/piece, but allow you to dim from both sides).

Our Gen 2’s allow you to choose which option you want now, which is pretty sweet.

So, from a firmware feature set, I don’t really know all the advanced parameters the new HS line has, but if I had to take a guess, it’s probably pretty similar and if it isn’t, I’m sure HS can easily add some of the features we have to their switch via an OTA update. But I’ll let them speak to that. From a hardware standpoint, the difference is the 3-Way setup option and also ours can be used without a neutral wire.

Again, I have nothing but respect for them and I firmly believe they are on the cutting edge of Z-Wave and highly recommend them to anyone (if they’re not interested in us lol).

Hope that helps?

Eric

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I’ll add to the above, and I don’t work for Inovelli so have no vested interest in either. :slight_smile: I too have both HomeSeer and Inovelli products. Here are my thoughts:

  1. At list price, they’re actually pretty different: Inovelli’s is $39 at list price, whereas HomeSeer’s is $50 (but occasionally on sale for less, like $45 now from HomeSeer directly, still at list on Amazon; Inovelli costs a bit more on Amazon but has free shipping over $60 from Inovelli directly, which HomeSeer doesn’t offer no matter how much you spend).
  2. Warranty: HomeSeer has a 2-year warranty. I have an HS-WS200+ that is about 1.5 years old, just e-mailed when with a problem, and they’re sending me a replacement and a label to send the old/current one back. I cannot find warranty information for Inovelli anywhere. Hopefully rarely a concern, and I’m sure Inovelli has something, but I can’t find it…
  3. Features: both have multi-tap (Central Scene) support. Inovelli how has an extra button, but they’re otherwise pretty similar. But Inovelli goes on: you can disable the relay (people have asked for this in the HomeSeer forums and they’re like “lol why”) for use with, say, smart bulbs. The LED bar is also wider and easier to see on the Inovelli on both the switches and dimmers; I find the HomeSeer one hard to distinguish from far away. HomeSeer does have individually addressable LEDs on the dimmers (just one on the switch), whereas Inovelli is a single setting for the whole bar, but again, with how hard the HomeSeer is to read from far away, I’m not sure how much this difference matters in real life. The Inovelli dimmer can also be used in a non-neutral setting, and it allows for changing many Z-Wave parameters on the device itself—like disabling the relay and changing the LED bar—if your hub doesn’t support it (though I’d suggest getting a better hub myself).

My vote goes to Inovelli (and the lower price doesn’t hurt), but there are good things to say about both.

Thanks. I have a new home with neutrals and I have a decent hub. Many of the benefits you mention don’t apply to me. However the larger led strip is good for sight by the inovelli team and allowing a non-neutral setting is key for the masses. The only item missing from my read so far across forums is controlling scenes from the Aux switch. But if that can be done with a firmware update then I see no reason whatsoever why someone wouldn’t buy inovelli.

The replies on this reddit post have some more useful info comparing Inovelli and HomeSeer.

In a nutshell-
HomeSeer lets you individually control LEDs. Inovelli doesn’t, but Inovelli has more colors and flash patterns. HomeSeer’s LEDs are harder to see from farther away, so this is a matter of taste.
Inovelli lets you disable the internal relay or make it remote control only (smart bulb mode). HomeSeer doesn’t support this.
Inovelli works without neutral. HomeSeer switches and dimmers REQUIRE neutral.
Inovelli has energy usage monitoring (if you use neutral). HomeSeer doesn’t (although knowing how many KWh a LED uses is of debatable usefulness).
Inovelli supports 3way with smart addon switches or dumb 3way switches. HomeSeer only supports smart addon switches.
Inovelli allows setting config parameters locally (with the config button and multiple taps). HomeSeer only allows parameters to be set from Z-Wave.

Inovelli costs $37 / $40 (switch / dimmer). HomeSeer costs $45-$50 (switch / dimmer).

Both companies have active communities.

You’re going to get a great product either way IMHO.

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