My Synology NAS has done basically just one thing for years. It sits on my desk, spins drives, backs up files, and makes sure that all of these files are safely available whenever I need them. Yes, it predominantly serves as a backup destination, and it's great at that, but for the most part, it's really just sitting idle.

So, a few weeks back, I gave it a second job, and that job was running Home Assistant inside a Docker container. It's completely changed how my home works.

Now, this wasn't my first foray with Home Assistant. I have smart lights, thermostats, cameras, door sensors, and many other smart accessories from a variety of brands. I've tried running Home Assistant to tie this all together, but perhaps it was the less-than-stellar Raspberry Pi I tried it out on that made sure it didn't stick. That said, I was tired of jumping between multiple apps, and I needed a single brain to put all of this together. My NAS, which already runs round the clock, was the perfect candidate to run Home Assistant and do this task for me.

Why a NAS is the ideal Home Assistant host

More powerful than a Raspberry Pi, just as efficient

For most people, the first time they dabble in something like Home Assistant, reaching for a Raspberry Pi is the obvious solution. I did too, but the NAS is already on, is designed to be reliable, and is connected to my network. My Synology DS925+ has powerful hardware that can easily run multiple Docker containers. It's an order of magnitude more powerful than a Raspberry Pi. It takes only a few minutes to configure the Home Assistant container and get it up and running. As far as compact, low-power home servers go, a NAS, if you already have one, makes perfect sense.

And then there is Home Assistant. If you are reading about smart home automation, you probably already know about it, but for the uninitiated, this open-source, self-hosted tool brings all your IoT devices together in one place, regardless of the app they use. There is no cloud subscription, and by and large, everything runs locally rather than relying on cloud servers. Running this on your NAS means you can automatically back it up with a tool like Hyper Backup, along with all your regular files. All your configuration files, automations, and history are just another folder on your hard drives, and you can include it in your standard backup process.

As I mentioned earlier, a NAS consumes less power dramatically compared to most high-powered servers, and a NAS is also designed to be always on. It solves the uptime problem that kills most Pi-based setups. Your home automations and server controls need to be always available, or it's just a neat trick. Since a NAS is built for continuous operation in a way that a single-board computer like a Raspberry Pi isn't, it makes the perfect host for Home Assistant.

Home Assistant turns disconnected gadgets into a cohesive smart home

Automations are where the magic happens

Home Assistant acts as a translation layer between all the smart devices I own. With an integration library of over 3,000 possibilities, in practice, this means that you can likely connect any smart plug, smart strip, smart light strip, or even your car to it, and it'll just work.

Of course, the real value comes from the automation engine. You can have rules that dim the lights when a movie starts on Plex, or another that locks the front door and switches off certain lights if no motion has been detected for, let's say, 20 minutes. I even have an automation that alerts me when the washing machine is done. Guess what? It's not because the washing machine is smart; a smart plug tracks its power draw and sends that notification through Home Assistant when consumption drops to near zero. Home Assistant is the thread that connects all of these dots.

Those advantages compound when you pair the system with a single dashboard and cards that give you one-tap access to your home. In my case, I have a tablet mounted in my living room that connects to Home Assistant running on my NAS. It shows me cards with all essential controls, and displays my security cameras. From one tap to trigger a security automation that switches off the air conditioning, locks doors, and activates presence-detection-based music playback, there's incredible versatility here, and the best part is that it all runs on your NAS.

My old Raspberry Pi could handle some of these automations, but the NAS's performance overhead makes all the difference when dealing with hundreds of entities.

Why my Synology NAS became the heart of my smart home

Getting this entire setup up and running took me less than an afternoon of tinkering, most of which was figuring out how to connect all my devices to Home Assistant. Between Container Manager and Portainer on the Synology NAS, getting Home Assistant up and running was a breeze, and my smart home has never felt more cohesive before.

I didn't buy a Synology to power my smart home, but giving it this task was a no-brainer. Yes, it's still a NAS, of course. But if it's already on, it might as well power my entire smart home, while saving me on energy bills and ensuring that the Docker setup is fully backed up using the robust backup tools it already offers.