Home Assistant is already powerful out of the box. But HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) takes it to another level. Custom dashboard cards that look incredible. Integrations for devices that official HA does not support yet. Themes that make your setup actually look good. This guide covers everything: installation, the best picks, and how to use HACS like a pro.
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HACS stands for Home Assistant Community Store. It is a custom integration that adds a store interface directly into your Home Assistant sidebar. From there, you can browse, install, and update community-created content without manually downloading files from GitHub.
Device support that has not made it into official HA yet. Think Roborock vacuums with full room control, Eufy cameras without cloud dependency, Garbage Collection schedules, and hundreds more. These install just like regular integrations.
The default Lovelace cards are fine, but HACS cards are next-level. Mushroom cards for a clean modern look. Bubble Card for mobile-friendly layouts. Mini Graph Card for beautiful sensor charts. These transform how your dashboard looks and feels.
Tired of the default blue and white? HACS themes let you completely restyle Home Assistant. Dark themes, material design themes, minimalist themes. Some themes pair perfectly with specific card sets for a cohesive look.
HACS vs Official Add-ons: Add-ons run as separate containers alongside Home Assistant (like Mosquitto or Node-RED). HACS integrations run inside Home Assistant itself. They are different things. You probably want both. Check our add-ons guide for the other half of the picture.
Installation takes about 10 minutes. You will need a GitHub account (free) since HACS uses the GitHub API to download repositories.
Open your Home Assistant instance and navigate to Settings > Add-ons > Add-on Store. Search for "Terminal & SSH" and install it. Open the terminal.
Run the HACS download script:
wget -O - https://get.hacs.xyz | bash -Restart Home Assistant. Go to Settings > Devices & Services > Add Integration and search for "HACS". Follow the prompts to link your GitHub account.
HACS now appears in your sidebar. You are ready to start installing community content.
Navigate to your Home Assistant config directory and create the custom_components folder if it does not exist:
cd /path/to/your/config
mkdir -p custom_componentsDownload and extract HACS:
wget -O - https://get.hacs.xyz | bash - If wget is not available in your container, download the latest release from GitHub, extract it, and copy the hacs folder into custom_components/.
Restart Home Assistant, then add the HACS integration through Settings > Devices & Services. Same GitHub linking process as above. For Docker-specific details, check our Docker guide.
There are over 1,500 custom integrations available through HACS. These are the ones that the community consistently recommends and that we have found genuinely useful.
Adds full local control for hundreds of Xiaomi/Mijia devices. Air purifiers, robot vacuums, humidifiers, air conditioners, fans, and more. Much better device support than the official Xiaomi integration.
Full local control for Dreame robot vacuums with room-specific cleaning, maps, and all the features the official app has. Pairs nicely with Valetudo if you want to fully de-cloud your vacuum.
Turns your Windows PC into a full Home Assistant entity. Monitor CPU, RAM, disk usage, active apps, and webcam. Send notifications to your desktop. Control media playback. Like the Companion App, but for Windows.
The HACS Frigate integration connects your Frigate NVR to Home Assistant with event notifications, camera entities, and object detection sensors. If you are running Frigate (and you should be for cameras), this integration is mandatory. See our camera guide.
Full control over LG ThinQ appliances: washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, air conditioners, and refrigerators. Get notifications when your laundry is done. Monitor energy usage per cycle.
Tracks your waste collection schedule and creates sensors showing which bin goes out next. Supports weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and custom schedules. Perfect for dashboard display and reminder automations.
Turns each browser into a controllable entity. Pop up dialogs, navigate to specific views, control the sidebar, play audio, and detect which user is using which device. Essential for wall-mounted tablets.
Scans your configuration and finds references to entities that no longer exist. When you remove a device but forget to update your automations, Watchman catches it. Saves hours of debugging "entity not available" errors.
Automatically adjusts your lights throughout the day. Warm and dim in the evening, bright and cool during work hours. Mimics natural daylight patterns. Works with any dimmable, color-temperature-capable light in HA. Check our lighting guide for more.
Adds new services, repairs, and entity features that do not exist in core HA. Disable or enable entities in automations, get random numbers, delete orphaned devices. A grab bag of missing features that power users always wanted.
Dashboard cards are where HACS really shines. The default cards do the job, but these community cards make your dashboard look like it was designed by a professional. For dashboard layout ideas, check our dashboard examples guide.
The most popular HACS card set
Clean, modern, minimal design. Includes entity, chip, title, template, light, alarm, climate, cover, media, lock, and person cards. Most "beautiful dashboard" posts on Reddit use Mushroom. Pairs perfectly with the Minimalist theme.
Best for: anyone who wants a modern, clean look
Mobile-first dashboard framework
Designed for phones and tablets with a bottom navigation bar, pop-up panels, and smooth animations. If you access Home Assistant primarily from your phone, Bubble Card makes the experience feel like a native app.
Best for: phone-heavy users, wall tablets
Beautiful sensor history charts
Compact, customizable charts for temperature, humidity, power usage, or any numerical sensor. Line graphs, bar charts, and area charts with multiple entities on one card. Way better than the built-in history graph card.
Best for: data lovers, energy monitoring
Interactive robot vacuum maps
Displays your robot vacuum's map directly on your dashboard. Tap rooms to start cleaning, draw zones, set no-go areas. Works with Valetudo, Xiaomi, Roborock, and Dreame vacuums. See our vacuum guide.
Best for: robot vacuum owners
The most customizable card
Fully customizable buttons with CSS styling, templates, animations, and conditional formatting. If you can imagine it, Button Card can probably build it. The learning curve is steep, but the results are stunning.
Best for: power users, custom designs
Advanced data visualization
When Mini Graph Card is not enough, ApexCharts steps in. Radial charts, donut charts, scatter plots, timeline charts, and more. Full ApexCharts.js library in a Lovelace card. Perfect for detailed energy or climate analysis.
Best for: data visualization nerds
Other cards worth checking: Frigate Card (camera views with events), Scheduler Card (visual automation timers), Swipe Card (swipeable card containers), Stack In Card (better card nesting), Decluttering Card (reusable card templates), and Vertical Stack In Card.
A good theme ties everything together. These are the most popular and well-maintained themes in HACS.
The companion theme for Mushroom Cards. Clean, minimal design with carefully chosen colors and spacing. The combination of Minimalist theme plus Mushroom Cards is probably the most popular look in the Home Assistant community right now.
A pastel dark theme ported from the popular Catppuccin color scheme. Four flavors: Latte (light), Frappe (medium), Macchiato (darker), and Mocha (darkest). If you use Catppuccin on your terminal or code editor, your HA dashboard can match.
A dark theme with excellent contrast and readability. Works well with both default cards and custom cards. A solid choice if you want a dark mode that does not strain your eyes during late-night dashboard checks.
Setting a default theme: Go to your configuration.yaml and add frontend: themes: !include_dir_merge_named themes. Then set your default under Profile > Theme in the HA sidebar. You can also set per-user and per-device themes.
HACS checks for updates automatically. When new versions are available, you will see a badge on the HACS sidebar icon. Click into any integration or card and hit "Update" to pull the latest version. Always restart Home Assistant after updating integrations.
Not everything is in the default HACS catalog. If you find a GitHub repository that has a HACS manifest, you can add it manually. Go to HACS > three-dot menu > Custom repositories. Paste the GitHub URL and select the category. The integration will now appear in your HACS store.
Click the integration or card in HACS, then select "Remove". HACS will delete the files. For integrations, restart Home Assistant and remove any leftover configuration entries from Settings > Devices & Services. Clean and simple.
Before updating HACS integrations (especially after a major Home Assistant version bump), create a full backup. HACS integrations can break when HA changes internal APIs. A backup lets you roll back in minutes. See our backup guide.
Before installing any HACS content, check its GitHub page. Look for: recent commits (active development), stars (popularity), open issues (known problems), and the last release date. An integration that has not been updated in over a year is a red flag.
It is tempting to install everything. Do not. Each custom integration adds startup time and memory usage. More importantly, each one is another thing that might break during HA updates. Install what you actually need. Remove what you stopped using.
After installing a HACS frontend card, you need to add its resource in Settings > Dashboards > Resources (or it is often done automatically). If a card does not show up after installing, this is usually why. Clear your browser cache too.
If an integration is working perfectly for you, there is no rush to update it. Read the changelog before updating. Some updates introduce breaking changes. If it is not broken, and the update is not a security fix, consider waiting a week to see if others report issues.
Just installed HACS and wondering where to start? Here is the combination that most experienced Home Assistant users recommend as a foundation.
Modern card set
Sensor charts
Pairs with Mushroom
Auto light warmth
Config health check
Browser control
HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) is a custom integration that adds a store interface to Home Assistant. It lets you browse, install, and update community-made integrations, dashboard cards, themes, and automations that are not included in the official release. Think of it as an app store built by the community.
HACS itself is widely trusted and used by hundreds of thousands of users. Repositories go through a review process before being listed as default. That said, community code is not officially tested by the HA team. Stick to popular, well-maintained repositories. Check GitHub stars, last update date, and open issues before installing.
Yes. HACS works with all installation methods: Docker (Container), Home Assistant OS, Supervised, and Core. For Docker, you download the HACS files manually into your custom_components folder. The rest of the setup is identical. See our Docker guide for details.
Open HACS in the sidebar. You will see update badges when newer versions are available. Click the item, then "Update". Restart Home Assistant after updating integrations (frontend cards usually work without restart). Read changelogs before updating to catch any breaking changes.
Official integrations ship with Home Assistant and are maintained by the core team. They go through strict review and testing. HACS integrations are community-maintained, which means faster development and more niche device support, but without the same testing. Many popular HACS integrations eventually become official after proving quality.
A broken HACS integration can prevent Home Assistant from starting. If that happens, remove the problematic folder from custom_components/ and restart. This is why backups before updates are important. HACS itself very rarely causes issues.
Not sure which devices and integrations you need? Our free scan analyzes your current setup and recommends the best path forward.