Maybe you have a problem with the phone app? I don't use it. They speak UPnP, so I use that from a node.js server.

http://i.imgur.com/aYOaB1e.jpg

I have no problem with connected devices using WiFi. I'd rather talk to them directly over TCP than have to use some hub to bridge different networks.

I've actually had a lot of problems connecting them to WiFi, since before the firmware update they don't allow most special characters, and for some reason they can't hit my router due to range. I had to actually get a WiFi repeater to get everything up and running. Hmm it could have been the amount of UPnP traffic as well. I got about four switches, four plugs, and four motion sensors. Even when I didn't poll them with the iOS app, they would just randomly fail to follow their rules or maybe the motion sensors would fail to send messages.

Yeah I'm not keen on spending money for a hub with different radios but I literally just finished packing up all my WeMos today for a return. Too bad. I got them at a pretty decent discount too. I guess I'm willing to pay a little more for something that just works. I probably should have just kept them and got a Smartthings hub.

That said, it's not necessarily a bad thing for devices to have a hub. The hue lights, for example, hook up to a zigbee base station with an ethernet jack. So I never needed to enter a wifi password in the first place ;-)

That said, I had range issues too. The antennas must be microscopic. Maybe we'll have pCell routers someday.