Home Assistant Connects Locally

Home Assistant was started by Paulus Schoutsen as a Python application in September 2013 and was publicly available on GitHub by November of that year. In July 2017, Hass.io, a managed operating system, was introduced to simplify Home Assistant use on single-board computers like Raspberry Pi, and was later renamed "Home Assistant Operating System". Home Assistant emphasizes local control and privacy, operating independently of specific IoT ecosystems and avoiding reliance on cloud services. Its architecture consists of a central hub, a user interface, automation capabilities, and components for communication with smart home devices. The core is comprised of an event bus, state machine, service registry, and timer. Nabu Casa, Inc. was founded in September 2018 to manage the "Home Assistant Cloud" subscription service, which funds the project's infrastructure and full-time employees. This service provides secured remote access and links to third-party cloud services like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Home Assistant's Energy Dashboard allows users to monitor household utilities like electricity, gas, and water. It tracks electricity usage, sources, and individual device consumption, with a new energy flow graph introduced in August 2025. The dashboard requires devices like Shelly EM to monitor total electricity usage. Alternatives to Home Assistant include openHAB, Apple Home, and IFTTT. openHAB is a Java-based open-source platform, while Apple Home offers an intuitive interface and integration with Apple products. IFTTT is known for its user-friendly interface and ability to create conditional statements. Home Assistant offers tools to calculate power consumption for devices without built-in monitoring. Users can create sensors to track energy usage and utilize the energy flow feature to visualize consumption patterns. This can be achieved using smart plugs or by calculating consumption based on device characteristics. Home Assistant is integrated with the Open Home Foundation, alongside ESPHome, with Nabu Casa acting as a commercial partner. The platform provides a history panel accessible from the sidebar, allowing users to export data in CSV format. By default, sensor data is stored for 10 days, with older data automatically purged.