Homey Pro 2026 Review

Product Name: Introduction

• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Ethernet (via adapter)
• Ecosystem: Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread, Matter, IR, and 433MHz

Homey has gone from being a powerful smart home system with limited support to one of the most flexible and well-supported systems around, making it the best overall system for controlling your smart home in my eyes. Homey Pro 2026 gives enthusiasts a little more of what they need. A more powerful hub that can handle more devices and apps.

This is a basic tweak for the early 2023 version of the hub, but is it worth upgrading, or is it worth buying new if you’re new to Homey? Read my full review to find out.

Design and protocol support

• Ethernet via adapter
• Supports Zigbee, Thread, Matter, IR, and 433MHz devices

There is no cosmetic difference between the Homey Pro Early 2023 hub and the Homey Pro 2026 that I am reviewing here. This is a bit of a shame as it feels like a missed opportunity to make some tweaks to the unit.

Notably, although it has dual-band Wi-Fi 5 built-in, it still doesn’t have the Ethernet port that the Homey Pro mini has (although entry-level hubs don’t have Wi-Fi). There is an optional Ethernet adapter, but a standard wired connection is more convenient.

We recommend purchasing an Ethernet adapter. For such devices, I prefer a wired connection because the connection is more stable. However, I would first connect Homey Pro 2026 to Wi-Fi.

Once connected to Wi-Fi, plug in your Ethernet adapter and the hub will switch to a wired connection. Then, if a problem occurs, the Pro 2026 can fall back to Wi-Fi.

Homey Pro 2026 has the same protocol support as Pro Early 2023. This means Zigbee, Thread, Matter, 433MHz, and InfraRed are all supported. We also support an even wider range of devices in the cloud that don’t support direct connectivity.

So what’s the difference? Homey Pro 2026 has twice the RAM. It’s 4GB compared to the old model’s 2GB. This increases the app limit from the old 60 to over 100. For large homes (or growing homes) with many smart devices, the new limits provide even more flexibility.

Features and usage

• Supports over 100 apps
• very powerful flow
• Some considerations may need to be made to make Thread work

Adding Homey Pro 2026 to your app is easy. If you have an old hub, you can back it up and then restore it (I pay a low monthly fee for a cloud backup service, which makes life easier). All devices will reconnect, but you will need to wait a while.

Otherwise, if you’re starting from scratch, add a hub and follow the wizard to create your home configuration. This allows you to create floors and then rooms according to the layout of your house.

Adding devices is simple in most cases, but Thread devices are worth mentioning. Due to how the radio is set up, Zigbee and Thread are shared. Currently, Homey Pro 2026 cannot join an existing Thread network, which may limit its range.

I placed the Homey Pro 2026 in my garden office and was unable to connect directly to the Matter over Thread devices inside the house. When I moved the Pro 2026 to the back of the kitchen, the house was covered, but the Ultion Nuki 2025 smart lock could not connect.

Connecting more plug-in Thread devices to Homey Pro 2026 can help improve your mesh network, but this is surprisingly rare. All Thread devices that are not hubs are battery powered.

Thread has a second limitation. The initial connection is via Bluetooth, so the Pro 2026 must first be within Bluetooth range. It’s not always possible to get the device that close.

There are options. If you really need to, you can run two Homey Pro devices. This creates two separate instances, but you can use the HomeyLink app to bridge them, allowing you to control multiple devices from one interface.

In an ideal world, Homey would launch an updated version of Bridge with Thread support (the current version offers Z-Wave and IR) to extend coverage.

You can then first connect the Thread device to another system and then add secondary control via Homey. This is how I connect my device to Apple Home and share it to Homey.

In this way, we had a stable connection for all our devices, including the Tado X heating system and the Ultion Nuki 2025 smart lock. This method also allows backup control. If Homey goes down, you can still control it remotely via Apple Home.

Device support is excellent. Obviously anything that uses Matter can be connected, but the range of official and unofficial apps now covers all of my devices. For example, when using the Community Ring app, you can receive an incoming call alarm (2^n.d.-gen). You no longer need a Raspberry Pi to run HomeBridge for Apple Home because Homey does it all for you.

This is also a very powerful system. At its most basic, the simple interface gives each device its own tile, so you can, for example, turn on the lights, unlock the door, or close the blinds.

Automation (we call it flow at Homey) makes things really powerful. There are options to keep it simple. For example, unlocking your office door opens the blinds and turns off your Ring alarm (and vice versa when you lock the door).

However, the flow also has an And option, which allows for more flexibility. Therefore, you can use this option to lock the office door and turn on the garden lights after sunset. That way, the garden lights will only come on when it gets dark, illuminating your path back to the house.

Homey Pro also exposes more triggers from your device. When you connect your Tado With Homey, you get both of these triggers, plus the option to monitor things like humidity changes.

The website also has an advanced Flow Creator that uses flowcharts to create very powerful flows (multiple triggers and actions, plus the ability to wait for multiple things to happen). When you add custom variables, Homey does everything from the simplest to the most complex.

The current is also fast. As soon as I unlock the office, the blind man comes to life. And it’s all very reliable. In fact, I’ve migrated all my routines to Homey because it provides all the controls and device support I need.

final thoughts

The question isn’t whether Homey Pro 2026 is particularly good, but whether it’s worth buying for you. If you’re interested in Homey and your old bridge has reached its limit, choose this new bridge. Similarly, if you are new to this system but have a lot of smart devices, this is the best purchase for you.

If your old hub is working fine, it’s not worth upgrading. Also, if you don’t have many smart devices but like the look of Homey, the Homey Pro mini is a better starting point and is much cheaper.

Test method

When we publish a review, you can rest assured that it is the result of long-term testing.

A smart home hub typically exists within an ecosystem, or set of products that all work together in harmony. Therefore, it is impossible to use connected lights for a week and make a judgment.

We test smart home kits all day, every day, so we know what’s important and how a particular hub compares to the alternatives you’re considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and unbiased, and of course we don’t receive direct compensation to review devices.

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