07/07/2026
Had a great question from a newly qualified KNX partner this week.
"The wiring during KNX training looked really similar to Velbus — what are the pros and cons?"
It's a fair and smart question. The bus wiring topology IS similar. So is Rako's. And Lutron's. And several others.
Except that with Velbus® being CANbus, we really don't care about the topology.
Star, Tree or Strictly Bus, it'll all just work.
The real differences are in the software, the economics, and what happens when something goes wrong.
Here's my honest take.
KNX is genuinely brilliant for large commercial projects where you need granular data, complex energy management, and a protocol that can talk to almost any hardware. If that's your world, KNX is probably the right call.
But for residential, commercial or marine work — where the goal is a project that just works, adapts easily, and doesn't require a software licence to commission your 6th module — Velbus is a different conversation.
The commissioning software is free. Permanently. For any number of modules.
The hardware comes from one manufacturer. Which means when something needs resolving, there's one point of contact who can't point anywhere else.
And the integration story — OpenRemote, Home Assistant, openHAB, Node-RED, Control4 — is as straightforward as anything I've worked with.
There's also something coming later this year that I think will change quite a few minds about what "simple" actually means in this context. More on that in September. 👀
Happy to answer questions — this is a comparison I've been thinking about for a long time.
