Does Home Assistant cost anything?

No! Home Assistant is 100% free and open source. There is an optional cloud service (Nabu Casa) for remote access at about $6.50/month, but it is not required.

Can I control my devices when I'm away from home?

Yes, but it takes some extra setup. You can use Nabu Casa (easiest, about $6.50/month), a VPN to your home network, or a Cloudflare Tunnel (free, requires configuration).

Will my IKEA/Philips/Sonos devices work?

Yes! Home Assistant has over 2,000 integrations. Most popular smart home devices are supported directly.

Do I need to know how to code?

No! Most things can be done through the user interface. YAML is used for advanced configuration, but it is easy to learn.

Can I switch platforms later?

Yes! Home Assistant has backup and restore built in. You can easily move from a Raspberry Pi to Proxmox, or the other way around, by restoring a backup.

Getting Started with Home Assistant

Beginner 15 min read

Home Assistant is one of the most widely used open source platforms for home automation. This guide gives you a complete overview of what Home Assistant is and how to get started.

🤔 What is Home Assistant?

Home Assistant overview

Home Assistant is free software that brings all your smart home devices together in one app. Think of it as the “brain” of your smart home.

What can it do?

🔌 Connect over 2,000 integrations - IKEA, Philips Hue, Sonos, and many more
🤖 Build automations - “Turn on the lights at sunset”
📊 Visualize data - Graphs of power consumption, temperature, and more
🔒 Keep your data local - No cloud, no tracking

Architecture overview

Home Assistant architecture

💻 What do you need?

Home Assistant can run in many different ways. Here are the three most popular:

Platform	Approx. price	Difficulty	Best for
Raspberry Pi	~$100	Easy	Beginners
Proxmox VM	Free*	Medium	Existing servers
Docker	Free*	Advanced	Experienced users

*Requires existing hardware

🚀 Choose your installation method

1. Raspberry Pi (recommended for beginners)

What: Home Assistant OS on a dedicated Raspberry Pi.

Pros	Cons
✅ Everything works out of the box	❌ Needs dedicated hardware
✅ One-click updates	❌ Less powerful than a PC
✅ Full add-on support	❌ SD cards wear out
✅ Low power draw (~5W)

Hardware you will need:

Part	Approx. price
Raspberry Pi 4/5 (4GB)	$70
Official power supply	$15
32GB+ SD card or SSD	$15
Total	~$100

🍓 Install on Raspberry Pi

The classic route - perfect for beginners.

Follow the Raspberry Pi guide →

2. Proxmox VM (recommended for home servers)

What: Home Assistant OS in a virtual machine on Proxmox VE.

Pros	Cons
✅ Snapshots - roll back with one click	❌ Requires Proxmox experience
✅ Full add-on support	❌ USB passthrough can be tricky
✅ Run other VMs/containers alongside it
✅ Enterprise-grade backup and restore
✅ Easy resource scaling

Requirements:

Proxmox VE 8.x+ installed
2+ spare CPU cores
4+ GB free RAM
32+ GB storage

🖥️ Install on Proxmox

Perfect if you already run a home server with Proxmox.

Follow the Proxmox guide →

3. Docker Container (for experienced users)

What: Home Assistant Container on an existing Linux server or NAS.

Pros	Cons
✅ Runs alongside your other software	❌ No Supervisor/add-ons
✅ Full control over the system	❌ Requires Docker experience
✅ Low resource usage	❌ Manual setup of MQTT and similar services
✅ Great for a NAS (Synology, QNAP)

🐳 Install with Docker

For those who already run Docker.

Follow the Docker guide →

📊 Comparing the installation methods

Feature	Raspberry Pi	Proxmox VM	Docker
Difficulty	⭐ Easy	⭐⭐ Medium	⭐⭐⭐ Advanced
Supervisor/add-ons	✅ Full	✅ Full	❌ No
Snapshots	❌ No	✅ Yes	❌ No
Resource usage	Low	Medium	Low
Updates	Auto	Auto	Manual
Backup	Via HA	Via Proxmox	Manual
Other services	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
USB devices	✅ Direct	⚠️ Passthrough	⚠️ Mount

🎯 Next steps

🍓 Raspberry Pi

The classic route for beginners.

Raspberry Pi guide →

🖥️ Proxmox VM

For existing home servers.

Proxmox guide →

🐳 Docker

For experienced users running Docker.

Docker guide →

❓ FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Home Assistant cost anything?: No! Home Assistant is 100% free and open source. There is an optional cloud service (Nabu Casa) for remote access at about $6.50/month, but it is not required.
Can I control my devices when I'm away from home?: Yes, but it takes some extra setup. You can use Nabu Casa (easiest, about $6.50/month), a VPN to your home network, or a Cloudflare Tunnel (free, requires configuration).
Will my IKEA/Philips/Sonos devices work?: Yes! Home Assistant has over 2,000 integrations. Most popular smart home devices are supported directly.
Do I need to know how to code?: No! Most things can be done through the user interface. YAML is used for advanced configuration, but it is easy to learn.
Can I switch platforms later?: Yes! Home Assistant has backup and restore built in. You can easily move from a Raspberry Pi to Proxmox, or the other way around, by restoring a backup.