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Choose local or cloud control for a garage door

Updated 7 Nov 2026. Garage.

A contact closed at the opener and an account reached over Wi-Fi fail in different ways. The two paths below are separate, and the installation notes are not a lab test.

Decide which failure you care about before you buy another device. A rule that must run while the internet is down has to live on hardware in the house, and the opener has to accept a local command. A feature that opens the door because the car arrived may already live in the car, on a radio link or on a cloud account. Those are different purchases.

What Hubitat says the hub does

Hubitat's hubs page says the hub can run automations entirely locally, and it names faster response, privacy, and reliability as the reasons. The same page says a subscription is not required for ongoing use of the hub. That line includes local access, and it includes remote access to devices with the mobile app, Hubitat Dashboard, or compatible third-party services. The optional subscription named on the page is an extended warranty with secure cloud backup, or remote access to the hub's administrative interface.

The mobile app's device controls are inside the no-subscription sentence. Changing rules and device settings from another city is the part the page ties to Remote Admin. Read that split on the hubs page before treating a travel button and a travel rule editor as the same feature.

Hubitat's page is here: Hubitat hubs.

What Tesla's Model Y page separates

Tesla's Model Y service page describes two garage features, and they are not the same path.

myQ, if the car is equipped, is a smart-garage account. The page says the garage must be myQ compatible, the garage must be on Wi-Fi, the myQ app is required, and myQ requires a paid subscription bought in the app. The car also needs current software and Wi-Fi or LTE. The page's warning is specific. Do not use myQ with a device that does not have safety stop and reverse features. Using a device without those features increases the risk of property damage, injury, or death.

HomeLink, on the same page, is programmed from the car to the opener or other device in front of the bumper. The car offers Standard, D-Mode, and UR-Mode. The page warns that the device might move during programming, so the opening has to be clear of people and objects first. That is a radio session between the car and the receiver. It is not a hub rule, and it is not the myQ account.

The page is here: Tesla, programming smart garage doors. Use Tesla's page for the programming steps. This page does not include a HomeLink price.

A dry contact is another button

Many openers already have two screw terminals for a wall button. A relay that closes those terminals asks the opener to move. The opener is still the machine that has to stop and reverse. Adding a relay does not add that protection, and it does not remove the need for it.

Zooz's specification page for the ZEN17 lists normally open relays at 20 A and normally closed relays at 10 A. Power for the relay itself is 12 to 24 V or USB-C. The operating range on that page is 32 to 104 F, which Zooz also states as 0 to 40 C. The same page says installation and use are indoor only.

Zooz's product page describes the outputs as dry contacts, and it states a load up to 20 A, 1/2 hp, on the normally open side and up to 10 A, 1/4 hp, on the normally closed side. Dry contact means the relay joins or splits a circuit. It does not feed that circuit from the relay's own supply.

One bullet on the Amazon listing says the relay suits a pool pump and outdoor lighting. A specification table on that same listing prints a 10 A current rating and a 24 V maximum switching voltage. Those cells disagree with the listing's own normally open 20 A bullet. This site uses the Zooz specification page for the ratings. That page says indoor only. Do not put this relay in the weather because a marketplace bullet was broader than that page.

When both systems try to own the door

A car that opens the door on arrival, and a hub that closes the door at a set time, can issue opposite commands. The opener will do whichever request it accepts. Before you add a second path, write down who is allowed to open the door and who is allowed to close it. If the car already does the arrival trip, a hub rule for that same trip may be the wrong project.

If the job is a night close that still runs when the internet service is down, the command has to be local, and the opener's stop-and-reverse behavior has to stay intact. Cloud convenience does not replace that hardware.

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