Installation

The first step to getting started with Home Assistant is to install it on a device. There are many ways to run it for all kinds of scenarios and all kinds of skill levels.

Easiest

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 already installed.

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 platforms for running Home Assistant. If you want to learn how to DIY, this is a good way 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 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

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, 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

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 recommend using Home Assistant Operating System. Other methods are available for experienced users for their specific needs, for example, running Home Assistant in a virtualized environment (e.g. Proxmox), or on top of an existing operating system (e.g. Windows, macOS, Linux):

  • Home Assistant Container: Standalone container-based installation of Home Assistant Core (e.g. Docker).
  • Home Assistant Supervised: Manual installation of the Supervisor.
  • Home Assistant Core: Manual installation using Python virtual environment.

Note that while these installation methods may provide some features 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
Add-ons
Blueprints
One-click updates 2
Backups 3 3
1: Names are abbreviated. The full names of the installation methods are:
  • Home Assistant Operating System
  • Home Assistant Container
  • Home Assistant Core
  • Home Assistant Supervised

2: Home Assistant Supervised requires users to maintain their own operating system.

3: Home Assistant Core and Home Assistant Container can create backups via the user interface but they need to be manually restored.

3: Backups for Home Assistant Core and Home Assistant Container are either a tool to migrate to HAOS or a completely manual restore of the backup.

Install Home Assistant variants 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
  • Advanced knowledge of Linux
  • Using Linux command line
TOOLS REQUIRED
  • Raspberry Pi 3, 4 or 5 with power supply
  • MicroSD card
  • Ethernet connection

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)