The first step to getting started with Home Assistant is to install it on adevice. There are many ways to run it for all kinds of scenarios and allkinds of skill levels.
Easiest
Plug and play with Home Assistant Green
The affordable Home Assistant Green is the easiest way to start usingHome Assistant. It's plug-and-play and comes with Home Assistant alreadyinstalled.
Home Assistant Green
The easiest way to get started with Home Assistant
SKILLS REQUIRED
- Interest in setting up a smart home
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Ethernet connection
Easy
DIY with Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi, a mini low-cost computer, is one of the most popular platformsfor running Home Assistant. If you want to learn how to DIY, this is a goodway to start and gain experience.
Install Home Assistant on Raspberry Pi
A low-cost DIY solution to get started with Home Assistant
SKILLS REQUIRED
- Assembling a Raspberry Pi setup
- Flashing a Raspberry Pi
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Raspberry Pi 3, 4 or 5 with power supply
- MicroSD card
- Ethernet connection
Intermediate
Extend with Home Assistant Yellow
The extensible Home Assistant Yellow comes with all the ingredients you needto help you build a robust smart home. All you need to do is to bring yourown Raspberry Pi Compute Module.
Home Assistant Yellow
The powerful way to run Home Assistant
SKILLS REQUIRED
- You're comfortable following instructions on:
- Installing a compute module and a heat sink
- Flashing a Raspberry Pi
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4
- Ethernet connection
- USB storage drive
- Screwdriver
Hard
Install on other hardware
Home Assistant can be repurposed and installed on various hardware, suchas an Odroid or a generic x86-64 machine. The Home Assistant Operating Systemallows you to install Home Assistant on these devices even if you havelittle to no Linux experience.
Install Home Assistant on Odroid devices
A more powerful alternative to Raspberry Pi
SKILLS REQUIRED
- You're comfortable following instructions on:
- Writing boot images
- Installing an SD card or eMMC
TOOLS REQUIRED
- An Odroid device
- MicroSD card or eMMC
- Ethernet connection
Install Home Assistant on x86-64 machines
Repurpose workstation hardware to run Home Assistant
SKILLS REQUIRED
- You can use a command line and install a boot medium on your hardware
- You're comfortable configuring the BIOS based on instructions.
TOOLS REQUIRED
- An x86-64 machine
- Storage hard drive
- USB stick
- Ethernet connection
Expert
Advanced installation methods
Home Assistant offers four different installation methods. We recommendusing Home Assistant Operating System. Other methods are available forexperienced users for their specific needs, for example, running HomeAssistant in a virtualized environment (e.g. Proxmox), or on top of anexisting operating system (e.g. Windows, macOS, Linux):
- Home Assistant Container: Standalone container-based installationof Home Assistant Core (e.g. Docker).
- Home Assistant Supervised: Manual installation of the Supervisor.
- Home Assistant Core: Manual installation using Python virtualenvironment.
Note that while these installation methods may provide somefeatures for advanced users, they may also have some major limitations.For example, add-ons and other important Home Assistant features may not be available.
| HA OS1 | Container1 | Core1 | Supervised1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automations | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Dashboards | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Integrations | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Blueprints | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Uses container | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Supervisor | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Add-ons | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Backups | ✅ | ✅2 | ✅2 | ✅ |
| Managed Restore | ✅ | ❌3 | ❌3 | ✅ |
| Managed OS | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
1: Names are abbreviated. The full names of the installation methods are:
2: Backups for Home Assistant Core and Home Assistant Container is providedby thebackup integration.
3: Backups for Home Assistant Core and Home Assistant Container are eithera tool to migrate to HAOS or a completely manual restore of the backup.
Install Home Assistant on Linux
Use Home Assistant OS, Container, Supervised, or Core
SKILLS REQUIRED
- Advanced knowledge of Linux
- Using Linux command line
- Using Docker Compose (for HA Container)
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Machine with Linux installed
Install Home Assistant on macOS
Use Home Assistant OS on a VM, or install Core
SKILLS REQUIRED
- Advanced knowledge of macOS
- Using macOS command line
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Machine with macOS installed
Install Home Assistant on Windows
Use Home Assistant OS on a VM, or Core on WSL
SKILLS REQUIRED
- Know how to find an IP address on your router
- Advanced knowledge of Windows
- Using Linux command line
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Machine with Windows installed
- VirtualBox (for VM)
- Windows Subsystem for Linux (for Core)
Install Home Assistant on other systems
Use Home Assistant on virtual machines, NAS, and more
SKILLS REQUIRED
- Know how to find an IP address on your router
- Advanced knowledge of Windows
- Using Linux command line
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Machine with Windows installed
- VirtualBox (for VM)
- Windows Subsystem for Linux (for Core)
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