Why Home Assistant is the perfect smart home system can be summed up in these 7 reasons.
1 Low costs to start
While other systems require you to buy an expensive server first or you can’t do the initial configuration yourself, Home Assistant is fantastically affordable. There are of course different configurations and those who already have a NAS or a small server in operation can also use it. I bought the following two hardware components and paid +/- CHF/EUR 150:
- Raspberry Pi 4 as server
- Conbee II Stick as Zigbee controller
With this I can already address other components in the WLAN or integrate existing Zigbee components.
2 Simple setup
If the hardware has been purchased or is sitting at home, you are ready to go within 30 minutes. It takes 25min to complete the installation on the Raspberry. After that, the most important settings can be made with a wizard and Home Assistant is ready.
3 Compatibility
Home Assistant is a platform that is basically a central mediator between all components and must therefore be able to cover as many providers as possible, and Home Assistant does this to perfection. Under this link you will find about 2’000 integrations: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/
4 Access to low-cost components
When I first started looking into the topic of smart homes, I was very surprised by the prices for standard components from well-known suppliers. 80 USD or more for a motion detector or a window sensor. If you extrapolate this to a larger area of a single-family home and the number of windows and doors, it adds up to a really big amount. And let’s be honest: Protecting only every 2nd window is then also no solution. Now, for example, I use Xiaomi Aqara motion detectors, which are available for under 10 EUR/CHF and I haven’t noticed any disadvantages yet.
5 No dependence on one manufacturer
There are definitely advantages to sourcing all the components and the server from one manufacturer, but let’s be honest: do I want that?
Even if the solution works stably today and the company is an established player in the market, things may look very different in five years. If then suddenly no support, no updates or replacement components are available, then I can possibly become the whole installation in the bucket.
6 Constant development
The development of Home Assistant is very broadly positioned, since the entire source code is open source and can therefore also be further developed by any developer. This is also done briskly. About two updates are released monthly and ensure that the software is always up to date. Any security gaps will also be closed quickly.
Home Assistant is one of the largest GitHub projects in the world and is developed using a future-proof programming language (Python).
7 Huge community
In addition to the large number of people who contribute to the further development of Home Assistat, the community and the willingness to help with problems is also an important factor. There is hardly a problem or challenge that someone else hasn’t already had. In the forums or via Google search you can find a good answer to almost everything! The best thing about it: A nice thank you is already enough.
I hope you like my 7 reasons why Home Assistant is the perfect smart home system. Feel free to add more reasons in the comments! What do you like very much about Home Assistant?
