Home Assistant supports over 2,700 integrations. Most of them are fine. Some are incredible. A few will waste your afternoon. Here are the ones worth your time, organized by what they do, with honest notes about what works and what doesn't.
Integrations are the bridges between Home Assistant and your devices, services, and protocols. Some run entirely on your local network (faster, more reliable, works offline). Others connect to cloud APIs (easier to set up, but dependent on someone else's servers).
Communicate directly with devices on your network. Fast response times, works during internet outages, no dependency on external servers. Examples: Zigbee, Z-Wave, ESPHome, Shelly, MQTT.
Connect through the manufacturer's servers. Easier initial setup, but slower and stops working if the API changes or the company shuts down. Examples: Google Home, Alexa, Spotify, Tuya.
Our recommendation: Build your core automations on local integrations. Use cloud integrations for nice-to-haves like music or weather. That way your lights still work when your ISP has a bad day.
These are the foundation. Pick your protocol, plug in a coordinator, and you can talk to hundreds of devices from dozens of brands.
The built-in Zigbee integration. Plug in a Zigbee coordinator (SkyConnect, Sonoff ZBDongle-P, ConBee II) and pair devices directly. No extra software needed. Supports 400+ device types from IKEA, Aqara, Sonoff, Philips, and more.
Best for: People who want the simplest Zigbee setup. Full Zigbee guide →
The universal translator. MQTT is a lightweight messaging protocol that connects Zigbee2MQTT, Tasmota devices, ESPHome, Frigate, OwnTracks, and dozens of other services to HA. If something speaks MQTT, HA can listen.
Best for: Power users running multiple services. MQTT setup guide →
The go-to for Z-Wave devices. Uses the Z-Wave JS driver for fast, reliable communication. Z-Wave devices tend to be pricier than Zigbee but are known for rock-solid reliability. Great for locks, sensors, and switches.
Best for: Reliability-focused setups. Z-Wave guide →
Build your own sensors and controllers with cheap ESP32/ESP8266 boards. Write simple YAML configs instead of Arduino code. Perfect for DIY presence sensors, air quality monitors, LED controllers, and anything you can't buy off the shelf.
Best for: DIY enthusiasts. ESPHome guide →
The new universal standard backed by Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung. Matter devices work across ecosystems without cloud dependencies. HA can act as both a Matter controller and a Matter bridge (exposing your HA devices to other Matter controllers).
Best for: Future-proofing. Still early days, but growing fast.
HA's Bluetooth support has improved massively. Picks up Xiaomi/Govee sensors, Switchbot devices, and iBeacons for presence detection. Range is limited, but you can extend it with ESPHome Bluetooth proxies placed around your home.
Best for: Cheap temperature sensors and presence detection. Presence detection guide →
Lighting is usually the first thing people automate. These integrations cover the most popular brands and approaches.
The native Hue integration talks directly to the Hue Bridge on your network. Full control over lights, scenes, and motion sensors. Push updates via the V2 API mean near-instant state changes. Arguably the most polished lighting integration in HA.
Pro tip: You can also pair Hue bulbs directly to a Zigbee coordinator, bypassing the Hue Bridge entirely. Lighting guide →
Flash WLED onto a cheap ESP32, connect addressable LED strips, and you get individually controllable LEDs with 100+ effects. Auto-discovered by HA. Perfect for ambient lighting, under-cabinet strips, or going all-out with holiday decorations.
Pro tip: Combine with automations for reactive lighting based on media playback or time of day.
Automatically adjusts color temperature and brightness throughout the day. Warm and dim in the evening, bright and cool in the morning. Works with any dimmable light in HA. Once you set it up, you forget about it. Your lights just always feel right.
Pro tip: Enable the "sleep mode" feature for ultra-warm, dim lights after bedtime.
Control your heating, monitor your energy usage, and stop paying for electricity you're wasting.
Both the Nest and tado integrations work well for reading temperatures and setting target temps. The Nest integration went through a rough patch but the Google Device Access API is stable now. tado's integration is excellent, especially with TRVs for room-by-room control.
Better alternative: Shelly TRVs with local control. Thermostat guide →
Shelly devices are the Swiss Army knife of smart home hardware. Relay switches, energy monitors, TRVs, door sensors, motion sensors. All local by default, no cloud needed. The HA integration auto-discovers them and supports everything from the tiny Shelly 1 Mini to the Shelly Pro 4PM.
Best for: People who want reliable, local devices without Zigbee. Energy monitoring guide →
SolarEdge, Enphase, Fronius, SMA, Huawei, GoodWe. Most major inverter brands have HA integrations. Track your solar production, battery state of charge, grid import/export, and self-consumption in real time. The HA Energy dashboard turns all this data into beautiful visualizations.
Pro tip: Combine with smart plugs to auto-run high-draw appliances when solar production is high.
The built-in Met.no integration is free and surprisingly good for most of Europe. For more detail, Open-Meteo (HACS) gives you hourly forecasts with solar radiation data. AccuWeather and OpenWeatherMap work too but need API keys. Use weather data to trigger automations: close blinds before a storm, adjust irrigation, or warn about frost.
Best for: Automation triggers and dashboard widgets.
Build a proper security system without monthly fees. Cameras, locks, alarms, all managed locally.
The best NVR for Home Assistant, period. Runs object detection (person, car, dog, cat) on your RTSP camera feeds using a Google Coral TPU. Only records when something interesting happens. Sends snapshots to your phone with actionable notifications. All local, no cloud.
Z-Wave locks (Yale, Schlage) are the most reliable because they communicate locally. Nuki has an excellent official integration with local API support. August works but leans on cloud. Auto-lock when everyone leaves, unlock when you arrive, send alerts for unexpected entries.
Turn any combination of HA sensors into a proper alarm system. Arm/disarm modes, entry/exit delays, notification actions, per-area zones. Works with door sensors, motion sensors, cameras. A beautiful alarm panel card comes included.
Control your speakers, TVs, and media players. Play music when you get home, pause the TV when someone rings the doorbell.
Control playback, switch between speakers, start playlists from automations. The integration uses Spotify Connect, so your music plays directly on the target device. Great for "play my morning playlist on the kitchen speaker when I walk in" automations.
Auto-discovered on your network. Control Chromecast, Google Home speakers, Nest Hub displays, and any Cast-enabled TV. Display camera feeds on your Nest Hub, play TTS announcements on all speakers, or dim the lights when you start watching Netflix.
Sonos integration is one of HA's best: full multi-room control, grouping, volume per speaker, TTS announcements without interrupting what's playing. Plex gives you media-aware automations (lights dim when a movie starts). Apple TV works via pyatv for playback control and as a remote.
See exactly where your electricity goes. Smart meters, CT clamps, and smart plugs all feed into HA's Energy dashboard.
If you're in the Netherlands or Belgium, your smart meter has a P1 port. Plug in a cheap P1 cable or wireless reader (like the SlimmeLezer) and get real-time electricity and gas readings directly in HA. Updates every second. No cloud, no subscription.
Shelly Plug S, Sonoff S31, or Zigbee plugs with energy monitoring (like the Nous A1Z). Plug one into any appliance and track exactly how much power it uses. Great for identifying energy vampires and automating high-draw devices to run during cheap/solar hours.
Talk to your home. Whether you prefer local-only privacy or cloud convenience, HA connects to all of them.
Home Assistant's own voice assistant. Runs entirely on your hardware using Whisper for speech-to-text and Piper for text-to-speech. No data leaves your network. Still catching up to Alexa/Google in natural language understanding, but perfectly capable for controlling devices and triggering automations.
Expose your HA entities to Alexa or Google Home so you can control them by voice through existing speakers. Requires Nabu Casa (easiest) or a manual Lambda/Smart Home Action setup. Useful if your household is already invested in these ecosystems and you want HA as the brain behind the scenes.
Note: Google Home integration may change significantly with Google Assistant's 2026 sunset. What's happening with Google Home →
HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) is where the community's best work lives. These are the integrations worth installing from there.
The most popular frontend cards in the community. Clean, modern, customizable. Chips, entity cards, template cards, cover cards. If you want your dashboard to look like it was designed by an actual designer, start here.
Turns any browser displaying HA into a controllable device. Pop up cards, navigate dashboards remotely, send browser notifications, use as a media player. Essential for wall-mounted tablets running your dashboard.
Control Tuya/Smart Life devices locally without their cloud. Once set up, your devices respond faster and work during internet outages. Takes some initial effort to get the local keys, but worth it if you have a lot of cheap Tuya devices.
Device tracking for presence automations. OwnTracks uses MQTT (fully local, self-hosted). The HA Companion app also does GPS tracking. iCloud integration tracks Apple devices. Use any of these to trigger "welcome home" or "goodbye" automations.
Control your "dumb" IR devices (AC units, TVs, fans) through a Broadlink or Tuya IR blaster. Comes with a database of thousands of devices. If you have a non-smart air conditioner, this is often the cheapest way to automate it.
Integrates with hundreds of municipal waste collection services (especially popular in the Netherlands and Germany). Shows you what bin to put out, sends reminders the night before. Surprisingly one of the most-requested features by people new to HA.
Many integrations are auto-discovered. You'll see a notification when HA finds a compatible device on your network.
Don't install everything at once. Build in layers, starting with what matters most to you.
Start with Zigbee (most popular, cheapest devices) or Z-Wave (most reliable). Get your coordinator, pair a few devices, learn the basics. Zigbee guide | Z-Wave guide
Add your existing smart lights and thermostat. Set up basic automations. This is where HA starts feeling magic. Lighting guide | Thermostat guide
Add energy monitoring, cameras, and media control. Now your home is genuinely smart, not just connected. Energy guide | Camera guide
ESPHome projects, wall-mounted dashboards, local voice control. This is where HA becomes a hobby you actually enjoy. ESPHome guide | Dashboard guide
Tell us what devices you already own and we'll show you exactly which integrations to set up first, what protocols you need, and how to connect everything.
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