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Getting quotes for a smart home is a strange experience. Three companies visit the same house, look at the same rooms, and come back with numbers that are lakhs apart. One promises everything. One talks only about their app. One asks a lot of questions and does not quote at all on the first visit.
Most people, understandably, pick somewhere in the middle and hope for the best.
The problem is that the difference between these quotes usually has nothing to do with the price of the hardware. It has to do with what is being built underneath — and that part is invisible until something goes wrong two years later.
So here is what to actually look at.
First, understand what you are buying
There are broadly three kinds of players in the market.
Product sellers. They sell smart switches and devices. You buy, you install, you configure. Cheapest option, and completely fine if your needs are small and you are comfortable doing the setup yourself.
Installers and integrators. They buy hardware from various brands and put it together for you. Quality varies enormously here, because the outcome depends entirely on the individual doing the design work.
System companies. They design the platform, the panels, and the software as one thing, then install and support it. Higher upfront cost, but the pieces are built to work together rather than being made to work together.
None of these is automatically right. But knowing which one you are talking to explains a lot about the quote in your hand.
The questions that actually filter people out
Most home automation companies in India will handle a straightforward enquiry well. These are the questions that separate them.
"Does the system work if my internet is down?"
This is the most important question on the list and the one people ask least. If the answer involves any hesitation, or a phrase like "well, most functions, " pay attention. A system with proper local control keeps working — lights, panels, scenes, schedules — with only the remote access going away. A cloud-dependent system turns your house into an ornament every time the ISP has a bad afternoon.
Which protocols do you support?
You want to hear open standards mentioned — Matter, Zigbee, KNX, DALI. If the answer is essentially "our own system, " you are buying a locked ecosystem. That is fine for two years and painful in year five, when you want to add something and discover your only supplier is them.
Can I see the design before I get a price?
Serious companies want your floor plan first. They count points, look at where you actually sit and sleep, ask about your routine. A quote produced before anyone has seen the layout is a product list, not a design.
What happens after installation?
Ask specifically: who do I call in year three, what does support cost, how do additions work. Automation is not a one-time transaction. Your routines will change, you will want to expand, panels will occasionally need attention. Companies that have not thought about year three tend to get vague here.
Will the physical switches still work?
They should. Every automated point should have a manual control that behaves normally. If the answer is "everything is through the app, " think about your parents, your guests, and the person who cleans your house.
Red flags worth walking away from
Quotes given over the phone without seeing the property
Heavy pressure to decide immediately, or discounts that expire in 48 hours
No written scope document listing exactly what is being controlled
Reluctance to share references or completed project addresses
No local presence anywhere near your city
Vague answers about who owns and maintains the software
That last one matters more than it sounds. If the company is reselling somebody else's platform and that somebody else shuts down, your house is stranded.
The wiring decision you make once
Before comparing companies at all, decide this: wired or wireless.
Wireless suits finished homes, apartments, and rentals. Fast, no civil work, easy to expand. It depends on your Wi-Fi being healthy and on devices staying connected.
Wired suits anything under construction or renovation. More stable, scales to large homes, does not care about your router. The cable itself costs very little. Opening finished walls later costs a great deal.
If your electrical work is not yet final, run the conduit. It is the cheapest insurance in the entire project, and it keeps every option open regardless of which company you eventually pick.
Where Wohnux sits in this
Wohnux is a German-engineered smart home brand, and the engineering culture behind it shapes a specific set of choices.
Local control first. The system runs on your hardware. No internet means no remote access, not a dead house.
Open standards.
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