Shelly + Home Assistant: The Complete 2026 Integration Guide

Shelly makes some of the best smart home hardware you can buy. Small relays that fit behind your light switches, energy monitors that track every watt, and sensors that actually work without a cloud subscription. And the best part? They play beautifully with Home Assistant.

This guide covers everything: which Shelly devices work with Home Assistant, how to set them up, and the automations that make them worth every penny.

Why Shelly devices are perfect for Home Assistant

Shelly is one of the few smart home brands that genuinely respects the DIY community. Here's why Home Assistant users love them:

• Local API out of the box. No cloud required. Every Shelly device has a local HTTP/CoAP/MQTT interface. Your lights keep working even if the internet goes down.
• No subscription fees. The Shelly Cloud app is free, and local control means you're never locked into paying for features.
• Tiny form factor. Most Shelly relays fit behind existing wall switches, so your home looks the same but works smarter.
• Built-in energy monitoring. Many Shelly devices track power consumption, feeding real data into Home Assistant's energy dashboard.
• Official Home Assistant integration. Auto-discovery means setup takes about 30 seconds.

The best Shelly devices for Home Assistant

Not sure which Shelly to start with? Here are the most popular options, ranked by how useful they are with Home Assistant.

How to add Shelly to Home Assistant

This is genuinely one of the easiest integrations in the entire Home Assistant ecosystem. Here's the process:

Step 1: Connect Shelly to your WiFi

1. Power on your Shelly device
2. Connect to the Shelly's WiFi hotspot (something like "ShellyPlus1-XXXX")
3. Open 192.168.33.1 in your browser
4. Enter your home WiFi credentials
5. The Shelly connects and gets an IP address on your network

Step 2: Home Assistant auto-discovery

This is the fun part. Open Home Assistant, go to Settings > Devices & Services. You should see a notification that a new Shelly device was discovered. Click Configure, and you're done.

Seriously. That's it. No YAML editing. No custom components. The official Shelly integration handles everything.

Step 3: (Optional) Enable MQTT for faster response

The default integration uses CoAP/HTTP, which works great. But if you want slightly faster response times and you already run an MQTT broker (like Mosquitto), you can enable MQTT in the Shelly's web interface. Home Assistant will auto-detect the change.

Local control vs cloud: what you need to know

One of Shelly's biggest selling points is full local control. Unlike Tuya devices that need cloud flashing or Philips Hue that phones home, Shelly works locally by default.

What this means in practice:

• Internet outage? Your lights still work. Automations still fire.
• Shelly's servers go down? You won't even notice.
• Faster response times. Commands travel across your LAN, not to a server and back.
• Privacy. Your usage data stays on your network.

You can even disable cloud connectivity entirely in the Shelly's settings if you want full isolation. This is something we strongly recommend for anyone who cares about privacy.

Shelly energy monitoring in Home Assistant

This is where Shelly really shines. Home Assistant has a built-in Energy Dashboard, and Shelly devices feed it perfectly.

Whole-home monitoring with the Pro 3EM

Install a Shelly Pro 3EM in your electrical panel, and Home Assistant shows you exactly how much power your home uses at any moment. If you have solar panels, it tracks production vs consumption. If you have a home battery, it tracks charge cycles.

Per-device monitoring with Plug S and 1PM

Put a Shelly Plug S on your washing machine, dryer, EV charger, or any other appliance. Home Assistant shows you exactly what each device costs per month. Most people are surprised by how much their tumble dryer actually costs.

Best Shelly + Home Assistant automations

Here are the automations that make Shelly devices worth their weight in gold:

Lights that actually make sense

• Motion-based lighting. Pair a Shelly 1PM behind your hallway switch with a motion sensor. Lights turn on when you walk in, off after 3 minutes of no motion.
• Sunset-aware. Lights turn on automatically at sunset, but only if someone is home (use your phone's GPS via the Home Assistant app).
• Night mode. After 11 PM, the bathroom light dims to 20% so you don't blind yourself at 3 AM.

Heating that saves money

• Per-room schedules. Use Shelly TRVs to heat only the rooms you're using. Bedroom at 18C during the day, 20C at bedtime. Living room the opposite.
• Window detection. If a window contact sensor triggers, automatically close that room's TRV. No point heating the outside.
• Away mode. When everyone leaves, drop all TRVs to 16C. When someone comes home, pre-heat.

Energy-aware automations

• Solar surplus. When your 3EM detects excess solar production, automatically start the dishwasher or washing machine (via a Shelly Plug S).
• High usage alerts. Get a notification if power consumption spikes above a threshold, catching things like a forgotten space heater.
• Appliance notifications. When the washing machine's power drops below 5W (cycle complete), send a notification to your phone.

Troubleshooting common issues

Shelly device not showing up in Home Assistant

• Make sure the Shelly is on the same VLAN/subnet as Home Assistant. If you have IoT devices on a separate VLAN, you need mDNS/CoAP forwarding.
• Check that auto-discovery is enabled in the Shelly's web interface (it usually is by default).
• Try restarting the Home Assistant Shelly integration under Settings > Devices & Services.

Slow response times

• Too many WiFi devices? If you have 30+ Shelly devices on WiFi, your router might struggle. Consider a dedicated access point or switching some devices to Shelly Plus models with BLE proxy support.
• Try MQTT. If CoAP feels sluggish, MQTT can be more responsive, especially with many devices.

Energy readings seem wrong

• For the Pro 3EM, make sure the CT clamps are oriented correctly (the arrow should point toward the load/consumer, away from the breaker).
• Calibration drift is rare but possible. Check against your utility meter once a month.

What about Zigbee vs WiFi?

Shelly devices use WiFi (and some support BLE). If you prefer Zigbee for its mesh networking and lower power use, check out our best Zigbee hub guide. But for most people, Shelly's WiFi approach is simpler: no hub required, just plug in and go.

Bottom line

Shelly devices are the best bang-for-your-buck hardware in the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're affordable, local-first, energy-aware, and absurdly easy to integrate. Starting with one smart plug? Wiring your entire house with relays? Shelly is a solid foundation for either approach.

If you're coming from Google Home or Alexa, Shelly devices work with those too. But you'll get the most out of them with Home Assistant's automations and energy dashboard. That's where the real magic happens.