The Home Assistant Green is the official entry-level hardware from Nabu Casa. Plug in Ethernet, plug in power, open your browser. That's the pitch. But is it actually enough for a real smart home? Here's everything you need to know: what it does well, where it falls short, and whether you should buy one or spend your money differently.
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Home Assistant Green is a tiny, purpose-built computer that runs Home Assistant OS right out of the box. Nabu Casa (the company behind Home Assistant) released it in late 2023 as the cheapest, simplest way to get started. No SD card flashing. No Linux terminal. No assembly. Just plug it in and go.
Think of it as the "Chromecast" of smart home hubs. It does one thing, and it does it without fuss. The Green ships with HAOS pre-installed on 32GB of eMMC storage, so it's ready to go the moment you connect power and Ethernet.
HAOS comes pre-installed. Connect Ethernet, connect power, wait two minutes, open your browser. No image flashing, no SSH, no command line needed at any point during setup.
32GB of eMMC soldered to the board. Way more reliable than an SD card (the Pi's biggest weakness). No random corruption, no write-wear failures after a few months. Your database stays intact.
The most affordable official Home Assistant hardware. Everything included: board, case, power adapter, Ethernet cable. No separate purchases needed to get started (except a Zigbee dongle if you want Zigbee devices).
Since it runs native HAOS, you get updates the moment they drop. One-click updates from the UI. Automatic backups. Add-on store access. The full Home Assistant experience, no workarounds.
Here's exactly what you get in the box and what's under the hood.
Processor
Rockchip RK3566 (quad-core Cortex-A55, 1.8 GHz)
RAM
4GB LPDDR4
Storage
32GB eMMC (soldered, not expandable)
Network
Gigabit Ethernet (no Wi-Fi)
USB Ports
2x USB 2.0 Type-A
Power
USB-C (5V/3A adapter included)
Wireless Radio
None (Zigbee/Z-Wave/Thread require USB dongle)
Dimensions
112 x 112 x 32 mm
OS
Home Assistant OS (pre-installed)
Price
~$99 / ~€99
Not included: Zigbee/Z-Wave dongle, HDMI cable (no display output), Wi-Fi adapter.
This is genuinely the easiest Home Assistant setup that exists. Five minutes from unboxing to your first dashboard.
Plug the included Ethernet cable from the Green into your router or network switch. The Green has no Wi-Fi, so a wired connection is required. This is actually a feature: wired connections are more stable for a device that controls your entire house.
Plug the USB-C power adapter into the Green. The LED on the front will light up. Wait about two minutes for the system to boot. On first boot, it does some initial setup, so give it a moment.
Navigate to homeassistant.local:8123 on any device connected to the same network. If that doesn't resolve, try your router's DHCP lease list to find the Green's IP address and go to http://[IP]:8123.
The onboarding wizard walks you through creating your user account, setting your location (for weather and sun-based automations), and choosing units. Takes about one minute.
Home Assistant will auto-discover devices on your network. Hue bridges, Sonos speakers, Chromecast devices, and more will pop up automatically. For Zigbee devices, you'll first need to plug in a USB dongle.
After initial setup, go to Settings → System → Backups and set up automatic backups right away. Then install the Companion App on your phone. These two things save you the most headaches later.
Let's be fair. For its price point and target audience, the Green nails several things.
No other Home Assistant setup method comes close. A Raspberry Pi requires flashing an SD card. Docker requires a terminal. The Green requires an Ethernet cable. That's a real difference for people who just want their smart home to work.
The 32GB eMMC is soldered onto the board and far more durable than an SD card. No more stories about corrupted databases at 3 AM. For a hub that writes to storage constantly (sensor data, logs, state changes), this matters a lot.
When things go wrong, "I'm running a Green" is a one-sentence support ticket. The HA team builds and tests on this hardware. Updates land first. If something breaks, it gets fixed fast because the developers use it themselves.
Completely fanless with no moving parts. Draws under 5 watts. Fits on a shelf next to your router and nobody will notice it. You can tuck it behind your TV stand and forget it exists.
Every add-on, every integration, every feature. You're not running a stripped-down version. Add-on store, HACS, automations, blueprints. Everything works.
Want to get a family member or friend into smart home automation? Hand them a Green. They won't need to flash firmware, read docs, or touch a terminal. It's the only HA hardware you can gift to a non-technical person with a straight face.
The Green has real limitations that you should understand before buying. This isn't a power user device, and pretending otherwise leads to disappointment.
This is the big one. Most smart home devices use Zigbee (IKEA, Aqara, Hue sensors) or Z-Wave. The Green can't talk to any of them without a USB dongle. Budget an extra $30 for a SkyConnect or Sonoff Zigbee dongle. The discontinued Yellow had this built in.
32GB is soldered on. No NVMe slot, no SD card reader, no upgrade path. For a basic smart home (under 100 devices, no long-term energy data hoarding), 32GB works fine. But if you run a recorder with months of history, or store Frigate NVR recordings, you'll hit the wall.
The Rockchip RK3566 is fine for basic Home Assistant use, but it's noticeably slower than a Raspberry Pi 5 or an Intel N100. Loading large dashboards, compiling ESPHome firmware, or running multiple heavy add-ons (Node-RED + Frigate + Grafana) will make it chug. Don't expect it to multitask like a mini PC.
Ethernet only. If your router is in a different room and you can't run a cable, you'll need a powerline adapter or a Wi-Fi bridge. Most smart home folks consider wired connections better anyway, but it's a limitation if your setup requires wireless.
Both USB ports are USB 2.0. That's fine for Zigbee dongles, but limits transfer speeds if you plug in an external SSD for extra storage. Not a dealbreaker for most people, but worth knowing.
Here's how the Green stacks up against the most common alternatives. This should make your decision easier.
| Feature | Green | Raspberry Pi 5 | Intel N100 Mini PC | Yellow (Used) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (total cost) | ~$99 | ~$120-150* | ~$130-180 | ~$100-150 |
| Setup Difficulty | ⭐ Easiest | Easy (flash SD/NVMe) | Moderate (BIOS + install) | Easy (pre-installed) |
| CPU Performance | Basic | Good | ⭐ Excellent | Basic |
| RAM | 4GB | 4-8GB | 8-16GB | 2-4GB |
| Storage | 32GB eMMC (fixed) | NVMe or SD | ⭐ NVMe SSD | NVMe SSD |
| Zigbee/Thread Built-in | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Wi-Fi | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Power Consumption | ⭐ ~3-5W | ~5-8W | ~10-15W | ~3-5W |
| Best For | Beginners, small homes | Tinkerers, DIY fans | Power users, Frigate | Lucky finds, all-in-one |
* Pi 5 total cost includes board + case + power supply + NVMe HAT + SSD. The board alone is ~$80.
The Pi 5 is more powerful, more flexible, and supports NVMe storage. But it requires assembly, SD card flashing (or NVMe boot setup), and sourcing separate parts. If you want zero hassle, pick the Green. If you want room to grow, pick the Raspberry Pi 5.
An Intel N100 mini PC blows the Green out of the water on performance. 4x the CPU, 2-4x the RAM, NVMe storage, runs Frigate without breaking a sweat. Costs $30-80 more. If you plan to run cameras, Frigate, or Proxmox, skip the Green entirely.
The Yellow is discontinued but still excellent hardware if you find one secondhand. It has NVMe storage and a built-in Zigbee/Thread radio that the Green lacks. Similar CPU performance. If you can find a Yellow under $130, it's the better deal.
Here's the honest breakdown. No hedging.
Here's the good news: if you start with a Green and outgrow it, migrating is painless. Create a full backup in Home Assistant, install HAOS on your new hardware, restore the backup. All your devices, automations, history, and settings come along. You're never locked in. Many people start with a Green and upgrade to a mini PC within a year.
The Green gets you started, but you'll probably want at least one or two of these to get the full experience.
This tiny USB stick adds Zigbee and Thread/Matter support to your Green. Without it, you can't use IKEA, Aqara, Hue sensors, or any other Zigbee device directly. The ZBT-1 is the newer revision with the same chip. Alternative: Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 Dongle Plus (~$20) if you want to save a few dollars.
Always use a short USB extension cable between your Zigbee dongle and the Green. USB 3.0 ports (and even nearby electronics) create radio interference at 2.4GHz that kills your Zigbee range. A 1m extension cable moves the dongle away from interference. This is community-tested advice, not optional.
Gets you remote access without any port forwarding or VPN setup, plus Google Assistant and Alexa voice integration. Also supports Home Assistant development. Free alternatives exist (Tailscale, Cloudflare Tunnel), but Nabu Casa is the easiest by far.
Check our starter kit guide for the best first purchases. Short version: a couple of smart plugs with energy monitoring, a Shelly relay behind a light switch, and a temperature/humidity sensor will give you enough to build your first real automations.
The Green's hardware is modest, so a few tweaks help it run smoothly for years.
Go to configuration.yaml and set purge_keep_days: 5 in your recorder config. The default is 10 days. On 32GB of storage, keeping too much history fills the database and slows everything down. Five days is plenty for most automations.
Some integrations create dozens of entities that update every few seconds (like router device trackers or weather forecasts). Exclude them from the recorder to save storage and improve performance. The Companion App alone can generate 50+ sensor updates per minute.
With 4GB RAM, you can comfortably run Home Assistant itself plus 3-4 add-ons. A typical good setup: Mosquitto MQTT, File Editor, and Samba share. Adding Node-RED is fine. Adding Node-RED + ESPHome + Grafana + InfluxDB is asking for trouble.
With no storage expansion, a corrupted database means starting over. Set up the Google Drive backup add-on or use Samba to back up to a NAS on your network. Do this on day one. See our backup guide for the full setup.
Since the Green requires Ethernet, put it next to your router or a network switch. If you're using a Zigbee dongle, a central location in your home improves mesh coverage. USB extension cable + central shelf = best Zigbee range.
Save yourself some forum posts. Here are the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them.
USB port interference kills Zigbee range. Always use a USB extension cable. Even a cheap 50cm cable makes a huge difference. People spend hours debugging "weak Zigbee mesh" when the fix costs $3.
Pairing 30 Zigbee devices takes time. If something goes wrong and you haven't backed up, you're re-pairing everything from scratch. Set up automatic backups before you add a single device.
The RK3566 does not have the CPU or the storage bandwidth for real-time video AI. If cameras are part of your plan, start with a mini PC or run Frigate on a separate machine. The Green handles the automation, the mini PC handles the video.
If you own a Raspberry Pi 4/5 sitting in a drawer, or a Synology NAS running 24/7, just install Home Assistant on that. The Green's entire value proposition is zero-effort setup. If you already have hardware, you're paying $99 for convenience you might not need.
If your storage fills up, HA slows down or stops recording history. The fix is usually trimming the recorder database, not buying new hardware. Set purge_keep_days low, exclude chatty entities, and check storage usage in Settings → System → Storage monthly.
The Green is available from several official retailers. Prices are generally consistent at around $99/€99.
Direct from the maker. Ships worldwide.
Manufacturing partner. Good availability.
Prime shipping in US/EU. Check seller reputation.
US/EU stock. Bundles with SkyConnect available.
Pro tip: Look for bundles that include a SkyConnect dongle. Some retailers sell a "Green + SkyConnect" package for $120-130, saving you $5-10 compared to buying separately. Since you almost certainly need a Zigbee dongle, the bundle is the better deal.
For beginners who want the simplest possible start, yes. At $99, it runs HAOS natively, gets automatic updates, and works out of the box. Power users or anyone planning heavy workloads (Frigate, large databases, many add-ons) should spend a bit more on a mini PC or Raspberry Pi 5.
No. The Green has no built-in wireless radio. You need a separate USB dongle like the SkyConnect ($30) or Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 dongle for Zigbee devices. Z-Wave requires a dedicated Z-Wave stick. Wi-Fi and Matter-over-Wi-Fi devices work without extra hardware.
The Yellow (discontinued) had a built-in Zigbee/Thread radio, NVMe SSD slot, and Power over Ethernet. The Green is cheaper and simpler: no radio, no NVMe, no PoE. Different processors (CM4 vs RK3566), similar real-world performance for basic HA tasks.
Not internally. The 32GB eMMC is soldered. You can attach external USB storage for media files, but the system runs from eMMC. For most smart homes under 100 devices, 32GB is fine if you limit recorder history.
The Green wins on simplicity and reliability (eMMC vs SD card). The Raspberry Pi 5 wins on performance, expandability, and flexibility. If you just want it to work, Green. If you want room to grow and don't mind 15 minutes of setup, Pi 5.
No. Ethernet only. You must connect it to your router or switch with a cable. If you can't run a cable, use a powerline Ethernet adapter or a Wi-Fi bridge. Wired is better for a 24/7 hub anyway.
Comfortably: 50-100 devices with basic automations. It can technically handle more, but dashboard loading times and automation execution slow down as you scale. Users with 200+ devices and dozens of automations consistently report better experiences on more powerful hardware.
Yes, and it's easy. Create a full backup in HA, install HAOS on your new device (Pi 5, mini PC, whatever), restore the backup. All devices, automations, history, and settings come with you. Takes about 15 minutes total.
Whether you go with a Green, a Pi, or a mini PC, take our free device scan first. We'll check what you already own and tell you exactly what's compatible with Home Assistant.