It also works find with other zigbee stuff (in both directions, you can pair MUCH cheaper Ikea bulbs to the Hue bridge, and pair Hue bulbs to other zigbee coordinators), even if they don't really advertise that.

I've tried using other products that were "cheaper". They work at first, but then issues. First, I bought a compatible bulk LED strip. The listing suggested the power supply to use, but it was way too weak to push the entire strip. Luckily, I bought the strip to cut into sections for using in multiple places. The suggested power supply was still to weak for the smaller sections. Knowing how to calculate the draw per inch of strip length is imperative. Once that was done, the strip itself left a lot to be desired. I bought the proper controller for the RGBWW config, and once synced, the color settings would drift. I would set them in the Hue app, and once happy just forget about it and go about my day. After some time, the color would just be different. After some time, I noticed that one section of my strip had smoked all of the LEDs for one color. Luckily the did not result in a fire, but every LED in this section is clearly burned and obviously no longer working. The other LEDs in the RGBW are working still.

In the end, it would have been cheaper and less time consuming had I just bought the Philips Hue strips.

I got a Sowilo LED Strip (the discontinued Bifröst-147, replaced by -168) with their recommended power supply and Hue Controller, and I couldn't be happier. Its advantage over Hue is that it's much brighter.

https://sowilodesign.com/

I'm told there are cheaper equivalent solutions out there, but Sowilo's mostly turnkey solution was good enough for me. It helps keep S.A.D. at bay.

I did the underside of all our kitchen cupboards in CCT RGBW LEDs linked to a Hue bridge (nearly 5 metres split over three controllers and PSUs), I’m thankful I thoroughly researched the topic before buying anything as nearly a year on, I’ve never had a single issue with any of it.

The key learning from my research was to buy commercial grade PSUs and LEDs from a proper retailer that supplies industry and over spec the PSUs - if you calculate your LEDs need 40w, get something like a 60w PSU. I don’t think it cost significantly more than if I purchased cheap no name Chinese stuff off Amazon.

As a side note, I didn’t go for the Hue strips because the LEDs would have been a lot less bright, the cut points were far more restrictive and it also would have worked out more expensive.

The only caveat with this is that they don't expose them over Homekit if you do this, you'll need to use Homebridge to get that going.

Ah good to know. I personally only use the hue app itself, Home Assistant, and Alexa, and they all show up in all three by default.

HomeAssistant also has a built-in HomeKit Bridge integration. Was a seamless setup experience for me.

This is a really annoying limitation that I genuinely don't understand the need for. It seems a really irritating place to throw up an arbitrary wall. If they're going to let me use the bulbs with their system in the first place, why cripple them by not bridging them to HomeKit with whatever level of functionality they already support them for?

I bought two cheaper bulbs and won't buy any more of those because of this. So I guess if the reason is "money grab" i have to grudgingly admit it was successful.

Homebridge with the Hue plugin is incredibly simple and easy to put together, can put it on a Raspi. I’d recommend trying it.