Wink Hub 1 vs. Hub 2 used to be a reasonable question. In 2026, it is not. Wink is a zombie service – barely alive, no active development since 2019, subscription required just to turn your lights on, and a track record of multi-week outages that would make a network engineer cry. If you came here comparing the two hubs, stop. Neither one is worth buying. This page now tells you what to buy instead.
What Happened to Wink
Wink launched in 2014 as a spin-off from Quirky – an invention crowdfunding company that spectacularly burned through $185 million before filing for bankruptcy in 2015. Wink survived the wreckage, got sold to Flextronics for $15 million, then sold again to Will.i.am’s company i.am+ for $59 million in 2017. That trajectory alone should have been a warning sign.
In May 2020, Wink pulled the move that cemented its reputation: out of nowhere, they announced that the hubs – marketed as “no monthly fees required” – would require a $4.99/month subscription within a week or all cloud features (voice control, automations, remote access) would be cut off. Users with first-gen hubs had a choice between paying indefinitely for something they bought outright, or having a moderately expensive paperweight.
The subscription didn’t stabilize anything. In July 2022, the servers went down for nearly a month – subscribers paying for a service that simply did not work. The company went silent. No communication, no timeline, no refunds. The platform came back, raised prices to $5.99/month in early 2024, and has continued staggering along with periodic outages. There is no new hardware. There is no new software. There is effectively no company.
If you already own a Wink Hub and it’s working today, it may or may not work tomorrow. That is not a foundation for a smart home.
What to Buy Instead in 2026
The good news: the smart home hub market in 2026 is genuinely excellent. Three platforms dominate, and they suit three different types of person. Here is a straight read on which one is for you.
Hubitat Elevation C-8 Pro – Best for Local-First Power Users
The Hubitat Elevation C-8 Pro is what you buy when you want your automations to run locally with zero cloud dependency. Everything happens on the hub itself – no internet required, no subscription, no servers going down in the middle of the night and locking you out of your own thermostat.
The C-8 Pro runs Z-Wave 800 LR, Zigbee 3.0, Bluetooth, Matter 1.5, and LAN integrations. External antennas give it meaningfully better range than most competitors. It supports 1,000+ devices across 100+ brands. The processor (2GHz Cortex-A55, 2GB RAM) is fast enough that automations fire in under a second.
The trade-off is the interface – Hubitat’s UI looks like a web app from 2012, and building complex automations in “Rule Machine” requires patience and forum-diving. If that sounds like your idea of a weekend well spent, Hubitat is the best hub you can buy. If it sounds exhausting, read on.
Samsung SmartThings – Best for Getting Started Fast
SmartThings is the easiest on-ramp to a proper smart home. Samsung’s app is polished, setup is genuinely guided, and the ecosystem is massive – Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, and a huge library of direct integrations. If you’re migrating from Wink and want your existing Z-Wave and Zigbee devices to just work, SmartThings is the path of least resistance.
The main limitation is cloud dependency. Automations route through Samsung’s servers, which means a service outage affects your home – the exact problem that burned Wink users. Samsung is not going anywhere, so the risk is lower, but local-only operation it is not. No subscription required for core functionality, which is how it should be.
Note: Samsung stopped making a standalone SmartThings Hub. The current approach is to use a compatible Samsung device (a SmartThings-enabled TV or appliance) as the hub, or use a third-party hub that runs SmartThings firmware. Check compatibility with your existing devices before buying.
Home Assistant Green – Best Open Platform, No Ongoing Cost
Home Assistant is the most powerful home automation platform available, and the Home Assistant Green is the purpose-built hardware for it ($99). Plug in, connect to your network, and you have a fully local, completely open platform with no subscription, no vendor lock-in, and an active open-source community that ships updates constantly.
Home Assistant supports more integrations than anything else on this list – thousands of devices, services, and APIs. The automation engine is genuinely powerful once you learn it. The learning curve is the steepest of the three, but there is more documentation, more tutorials, and more community support than Hubitat or SmartThings combined.
For Zigbee and Z-Wave, add a Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1 USB dongle (~$35). That gives you a complete setup for under $140 with no recurring fees – ever.
Quick Comparison
| Hubitat C-8 Pro | SmartThings | Home Assistant Green | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local processing | Yes, fully | Partial | Yes, fully |
| Subscription | None | None (core) | None |
| Z-Wave + Zigbee | Built-in | Built-in | Via USB dongle |
| Matter support | Yes (1.5) | Yes | Yes |
| Setup difficulty | Moderate-hard | Easy | Moderate-hard |
| Best for | Local-first, tech-comfortable users | New users, Samsung households | Power users, tinkerers |
Migrating From Wink: How to Move Your Devices
The actual migration is straightforward for Z-Wave and Zigbee devices – both protocols are hardware-agnostic. You unpair from Wink and re-pair to the new hub. There is no data transfer; you just rebuild your automations on the new platform.
Factory reset or exclude each Z-Wave device from Wink
On your Wink app, remove each Z-Wave device individually. If Wink is unresponsive, use your Z-Wave device’s physical exclusion process (usually triple-clicking or holding a button – check the device manual). Z-Wave exclusion can be triggered from any hub in exclusion mode, so even if Wink is down you can clear devices.
Factory reset Zigbee devices
Zigbee devices use a different exclusion method – most require a specific button sequence to reset to factory defaults. Check your device manufacturer’s instructions. Common method: hold the pairing button for 10+ seconds until the indicator light flashes a reset pattern.
Set up your new hub (Hubitat, SmartThings, or Home Assistant)
Follow the hub’s setup guide to connect it to your network and get the dashboard running. For Hubitat and Home Assistant, this takes 10-15 minutes. SmartThings is typically faster with the guided app setup.
Pair devices to the new hub
Put the new hub in pairing mode and trigger pairing on each device. Z-Wave and Zigbee devices pair the same way they did with Wink – usually a button press or power cycle sequence. Add devices one at a time and confirm each one before moving to the next.
Rebuild your automations
This is the only genuinely time-consuming step. You cannot import automations from Wink – they are rebuilt from scratch on the new platform. Take the opportunity to simplify: most people migrate 80% of their automations and quietly drop the 20% that never worked reliably anyway.
FAQ
Is Wink still working in 2026?
Technically, yes – Wink’s servers are still online as of mid-2026. But the platform requires a $5.99/month subscription, has had multiple multi-week outages, has released no new hardware or software since 2019, and the parent company shows no signs of active operation. It is not a platform worth building a smart home on.
Will my Wink Hub devices work on a new hub?
Yes, if your devices use Z-Wave or Zigbee (which most Wink-compatible devices do). These are open protocols. You exclude the device from Wink, factory reset it, and pair it to your new hub. The physical device is fine – only the cloud layer is the problem.
What is the best Wink alternative in 2026?
For local control with no subscription: Hubitat Elevation C-8 Pro. For ease of setup: SmartThings. For maximum flexibility and an open platform: Home Assistant Green. All three are significantly better supported than Wink was at its peak.
Does Wink work with Matter?
No. Wink has not received any meaningful software updates since 2019. Matter, the new smart home interoperability standard, is not supported. Every alternative recommended above supports Matter 1.0 or higher.
Should I buy a Wink Hub 2 if I find one cheap?
No. Even at $10 it is not worth it. The subscription costs more than the hardware within a few months, the service is unreliable, and you will eventually need to migrate anyway. Buy the right hub now.