Hive

About the vendor and its products

Hive is a British company with its origins in British Gas, and the products are primarily designed for use in Britain/Ireland. The product selection is quite similar to other vendors, but also with some more unique solutions, including various services/subscriptions linked to the physical devices:

• Hubs, in a couple of different version, including built-inmemory so that the smart home will work even if the network connection is lost. For some of the products, a hub is required.

• Heating solutions, spanning smart termostats and a smart radiator valve

• Security solutions, which in addition to various sensors (see below) primarily consist of outdoor and indoor security camera

• Smart lighting, including a number of different smart bulbs, with sockets E14, E27, and GU10

• Sensors, for door/window and motion

• Smart plug, with a physical on/off switch

• Leak monitoring, consisting of a physical sensor and a service linked to this

The Hive devices are operated using a dedicated Hive app. There is also support for Amazon Echo and Google Home as well as IFTTT and Phillips Hue. In May 2020, support for Apple Home was also launched, albeit only for the newest base station and selected components.

Our experiences

I have no personal experiences with any of these products, but I am especially fascinated by the in-wall outlets, allowing replacing traditional outlets with smart versions.