When I started my home automation, I wanted as little frustration as possible. I knew that you just can't rely on companies, so I ensured everything is control

When I started my home automation, I wanted as little frustration as possible. I knew that you just can't rely on companies, so I ensured everything is controlled in-house. Use ZigBee. ZigBee devices create their own mesh network, so Wi-Fi can be down and things still work. ZigBee does use 2.4 GHz, so you may need to move your router to use a different frequency. Use a Hubitat Elevation or other dedicated server with ZigBee and a UPS power backup. Again, this means the automation logic is independent of the network. Wi-Fi and/or Internet can go down and home automation continues to work. The Hubitat has community driven package management. Once set up, it's a breeze to perform updates. If you still want to use Alexa, Google and Siri, use bridge software to the services. I use Home Bridge to give access to my Hubitat to HomeKit. Home Bridge in docker means upgrading is letting Watchtower do its thing. Home Bridge rebuilds it's plugins every start, so restarting the docker container brings everything up-to-date. The most unreliable part has been Google. I have Nest thermostats, and Google cancels the Home Bridge login token now and then. HomeKit integration is excellent, but I wish Siri wasn't so daft at times recognizing speech.