Home Assistant runs on your own hardware, so your smart home keeps working even when the internet is down and your data stays at home with you. The easiest way to get started is with Home Assistant Green, a plug-and-play hub that is ready to use in about 15 minutes. If you would rather use hardware you already own, Home Assistant runs on a Raspberry Pi, a mini PC, a server, or in a virtual machine. Pick the option below that fits you best.
Plug and play with Home Assistant Green
The affordable Home Assistant Green is the easiest way to start using Home Assistant. It's plug-and-play and comes with Home Assistant Operating System already installed.
Home Assistant Green
The easiest way to get started with Home Assistant
- Interest in setting up a smart home
- Ethernet connection
Install on a Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi, a small and affordable computer, is one of the most popular platforms for running Home Assistant. If you already have one or want to put one to use, this is a great option to get started.
Install Home Assistant on Raspberry Pi
A great option if you already have a Raspberry Pi or want to put one to use.
- Assembling a Raspberry Pi setup
- Flashing a Raspberry Pi
- Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 with power supply (minimum 2 GB RAM)
- microSD memory card
- Ethernet connection
About installation types
Home Assistant offers two different installation types. Home Assistant Operating System is the recommended installation type.
- Home Assistant Operating System: An embedded, minimalistic operating system designed to run the Home Assistant ecosystem on single board computers (like the Home Assistant Green or a Raspberry Pi) or Virtual Machines. It is the most convenient option in terms of installation and maintenance and it supports appsApps are additional standalone third-party software packages that can be installed on Home Assistant OS. [Learn more]. Home Assistant Operating System is the recommended installation type for most users.
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Home Assistant Container: Container-based installation of Home Assistant. You need to bring your own system (such as Linux) with container orchestration (like Docker), and manually handle updates. Home Assistant Container installations donβt have access to appsApps are additional standalone third-party software packages that can be installed on Home Assistant OS. [Learn more].
- Note: Some integrations, such as Thread and Z-Wave, are controlled by appsApps are additional standalone third-party software packages that can be installed on Home Assistant OS. [Learn more]. There is no out-of-the-box support for these on Container installations.
| HA OS1 | Container1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Automations | ||
| Dashboards | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Apps | ||
| Blueprints | ||
| One-click updates | ||
| Backups |
- Home Assistant Operating System
- Home Assistant Container
Extend with Home Assistant Yellow
The extensible Home Assistant Yellow comes with all the ingredients you need to help you build a robust smart home. All you need to do is to bring your own Raspberry Pi Compute Module.
Home Assistant Yellow
The powerful way to run Home Assistant
- You're comfortable following instructions on:
- Installing a compute module and a heat sink
- Flashing a Raspberry Pi
- Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4
- Ethernet connection
- USB storage drive
- Screwdriver
Install on other hardware
Home Assistant can be repurposed and installed on various hardware, such as an Odroid or a generic x86-64 machine. The Home Assistant Operating System allows you to install Home Assistant on these devices even if you have little to no Linux experience.
Install Home Assistant on Odroid devices
A more powerful alternative to Raspberry Pi
- You're comfortable following instructions on:
- Writing boot images
- Installing an SD card or eMMC
- An Odroid device
- microSD memory card or eMMC
- Ethernet connection
Install Home Assistant on x86-64 machines
Repurpose workstation hardware to run Home Assistant
- You can use a command line and install a boot medium on your hardware
- You're comfortable configuring the BIOS based on instructions.
- An x86-64 machine
- Storage hard drive
- USB stick
- Ethernet connection
Install Home Assistant Container on Raspberry Pi
A low-cost DIY solution to get started with Home Assistant
- Assembling a Raspberry Pi setup
- Flashing a Raspberry Pi
- Working with a headless system
- Using Docker
- Using Linux command line
- Raspberry Pi 3, 4, or 5 with power supply
- microSD memory card
- Ethernet connection
Install Home Assistant on Linux
Use Home Assistant OS, Container
- Using Linux
- Using Linux command line
- Using Docker Compose (for HA Container)
- Machine with Linux installed
Install Home Assistant on macOS
Use Home Assistant OS on a VM
- Using macOS
- Using macOS command line
- Machine with macOS installed
Install Home Assistant on Windows
Use Home Assistant OS on a VM
- Using Windows
- Using Windows command line
- Machine with Windows installed
- VirtualBox (for VM)
Install Home Assistant on other systems
Use Home Assistant on virtual machines, NAS, and more
- Know how to find an IP address on your router
- Using Windows
- Using Linux command line
- Machine with Windows installed
- VirtualBox (for VM)
