Projects / Home Assistant

Home Assistant

Home & Everyday Life

Connect smart-home devices on your own hardware and organize dashboards and automations.

Use with conditions
Last updatedRelease 2026-09-27
Open source licenseApache-2.0
PlatformsHome Assistant Green · Raspberry Pi · x86-64 host · Web · Android / iOS companion applications
DeploymentDedicated hardware / self-hosted

About this project

Home Assistant runs on a user's own hardware and connects devices and services from different brands. It provides a common place to inspect device states, control home equipment, and configure automation. Its documentation says most routine tasks can be performed through the interface. Available devices and actions depend on the integrations configured in the installation.

Automations combine triggers, conditions, and actions. Scenes set several device states together, while blueprints provide reusable automation structures. Dashboards organize controls into views and cards, and areas, floors, and labels help structure devices. Energy management is another documented function, using the relevant connected data sources to represent household energy usage rather than supplying those measurements independently.

The recommended Home Assistant OS has installation routes for supported hardware and preinstalled devices. The Container option instead requires management of the operating system, Docker, and updates. It does not provide the OS installation's app management. Features whose setup depends on those apps, including some protocol configurations, therefore require a different approach in a container deployment.

Decision guide
01

Why it is worth a look

  • Smart-home device integration and local automation in one application
  • First-party usage or installation documentation is available
  • A verifiable formal release record is available
02

Before you use it

  • The lowest-friction path is Home Assistant Green with its preinstalled system; hardware must be purchased separately
  • Home Assistant OS is generally recommended for user-supplied hardware
  • Manually test automations involving locks, power, or other physical devices first
Manual setupModerate
With an AI agentModerate
DeploymentDedicated hardware / self-hosted
Additional requirements1 confirmed; others not verified

Choose Green or officially supported user-supplied hardware; Confirmed requirements: An always-on device or service; Some requirements have not been verified. Check the official setup instructions.

03

What it can do

  • Smart-home device integration
  • Local automation
  • Custom dashboards
  • Modular device integrations

Who it fits

Good for

People willing to unify home-device controls; Household users able to test each automation

Not a fit

Unwilling to maintain a self-hosted service and not considering hosting providers; Only accepting a workflow without checking permissions and data backups

Getting started

  1. Choose Green or officially supported user-supplied hardware
  2. Connect power and networking or install the official OS
  3. Complete the web onboarding and add a few devices
  4. Test each component before creating automations