I have a two Echos in my house. One Dot in my room and the big one in my kitchen. Two months ago I bought the Hue lights kit and Smartthings for security and have been using them since then. The smart things is cool but I haven't had a whole lot of time to mess around with it. The reason I bought it is its the only DYI security system you can modify and use just about any Z-wave product and it works with almost everything out here. Smartthings is cool but it's still limited on what I want it to do. I rely a lot on the IF automation app. The home automation thing is still in its infancy. If you have time to do a lot of research, then look into Smartthings and see if it can do what you want it to do. It may require some messing around with code to get the devices you want. I have a key pad attached to it, but the issue I have is Smartthings doesn't officially support keypads and I have to rely on custom software and that software may have stopped getting updates from its developer. So whenever I set the alarm, it still goes off when I open the door even though I set a time delay because it's conflicting with Samsungs Smartthings Security app. So you have to know what you are doing with Smartthings or it can be a headache.
Hue on the other hand is awesome! Though with my roommate, I have trouble getting him into this tech era so he turns off the light switch and I can't control the lights or they wont automate when we are away. I need to put some tape over those switches. Hue does have it's automated switches but I can't really modify this house I'm renting. The reason I really like Hue vs all the other brands is it has Apple Home Kit so I can just swipe up on my phone and I can control my lights in the iPhone dash. It works well with Amazon Echo because Phillips and Amazon are partnered in this home automation endeavor. Amazon has that frustration free packaging with Hue and buying the bulb packs means it's cheaper than just buying them at Best Buy. I believe that the Hue second generation and up lights wont go obsolete for a long time so these babys will last. I recommend buying the color starter kit first since those are fun to play with and they do everything when it comes to color. Then just slowly buying the bulbs like the white ones and the colored ones. The colored ones are really expensive but the white ones aren't that bad at just $15 a bulb. They're LED anyways so they're gonna last you for 10 years. Haven't been doing it lately but I plan to just buy a pack of bulbs every paycheck. The Hue app is crap but the lights work with everything so I just use the IF app to automate those. Alexa sometimes has a difficult time finding the lights whenever I command her to turn on the kitchen lights. So you will have some hiccups and it's always faster to just flick the switch, but hue lights are a good peace of mind when you're not at home during the night.
Overall, Home Automation is still in its infancy. Smartthings requires the tech smarts so you be the judge on getting that. Hue is awesome though their app sucks and there isn't a whole variety of bulbs ( I want flood lights!). Amazon Echo is cool though she sometimes complains to me she can't find the Hue bulbs and she finally finds them after the third try when I could have already switch the light switch up twice to trigger the bulbs. Yea, still in its infancy but get the bulbs an echo for starters.
