The Raspberry Pi is how most people start their Home Assistant journey, and for good reason. It is cheap, small enough to hide behind a cabinet, sips electricity, and runs a full smart home with dozens of devices without breaking a sweat. This guide covers which Pi to buy, what hardware you need alongside it, how to install Home Assistant, and how to keep things running fast as your setup grows.
There are plenty of ways to run Home Assistant: mini PCs, old laptops, NAS boxes, virtual machines, Docker containers on a server. But the Raspberry Pi keeps winning for beginners, and it is not just about price.
A Pi 5 starter kit runs about 80 to 100 euros. If you decide home automation is not for you, you have a capable little Linux computer for other projects. Compare that to dropping 200 euros on a mini PC that collects dust.
Your Pi runs 24/7 for about 10 to 15 euros per year in electricity. A mini PC uses 10 to 25 watts. An old laptop uses 30 or more. Over a few years that adds up, especially with rising energy prices.
The Pi is credit-card sized. Stick it behind your router, in a network cabinet, or on a DIN rail in your fuse box. No fan noise (especially the Pi 4), no visible box cluttering your shelf.
Need to plug in a Zigbee coordinator, a Z-Wave stick, or a Coral TPU for AI? The Pi has USB ports and GPIO pins that make hardware expansion straightforward. Mini PCs can do USB too, but GPIO is unique to the Pi.
The Pi is the most popular Home Assistant platform by a wide margin. Every tutorial, every forum thread, every YouTube video assumes you might be running on a Pi. If you hit a problem, someone has already solved it.
Running Home Assistant on a Pi teaches you real skills: Linux basics, networking, SSH, Docker concepts. These skills transfer directly if you ever move to a more powerful server.
Short answer: get the Pi 5 if you are buying new. Here is why.
| Spec | Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) | Raspberry Pi 5 (4GB) | Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Cortex-A72 (4 core, 1.8GHz) | Cortex-A76 (4 core, 2.4GHz) | Cortex-A76 (4 core, 2.4GHz) |
| Performance vs Pi 4 | Baseline | 2 to 3x faster | 2 to 3x faster |
| RAM | 4GB LPDDR4 | 4GB LPDDR4X | 8GB LPDDR4X |
| NVMe Support | No (USB SSD only) | Yes (M.2 HAT) | Yes (M.2 HAT) |
| PCIe | No | PCIe 2.0 x1 | PCIe 2.0 x1 |
| Power Draw (idle) | ~3W | ~4W | ~4W |
| Price (board only) | ~€45 | ~€65 | ~€85 |
| Active Cooling Needed? | No (passive OK) | Recommended | Recommended |
| Our Verdict | Good if you already own one | Best value pick | Future-proof pick |
Bottom line: The Pi 5 (4GB) is the sweet spot for Home Assistant. The 8GB model only makes sense if you plan to run many add-ons (Frigate, Node-RED, multiple databases) simultaneously. The Pi 4 is fine if it is already sitting in a drawer, but do not buy one new in 2026.
Here is everything you need to get started, broken into three tiers depending on how serious you want to get.
Budget Build
Get running with the basics
Good for: testing Home Assistant, basic automations, under 20 devices. Upgrade to SSD later when you commit.
⭐ Recommended Build
The smart setup most people should get
Good for: serious home automation, 20 to 80 devices, NVMe storage means no SD card failures.
Power User Build
Max out your Pi before going mini PC
Good for: 80+ devices, Frigate with 1 to 2 cameras, lots of add-ons, maximum Pi performance.
This is the single most important decision after choosing your Pi. SD cards are the number one cause of Home Assistant data loss and corruption. Here is why, and what to do about it.
Home Assistant writes to its database constantly. Every sensor update, every state change, every log entry. A typical setup generates thousands of writes per hour. SD cards use flash memory with a limited number of write cycles. Consumer SD cards in a Pi typically last 6 to 18 months before sectors start failing. When they fail, they often take your entire configuration and history with them.
The Pi 5 changed the game with its PCIe bus. Attach the official M.2 HAT+ (or a third-party base board like the Pimoroni NVMe Base) and plug in a standard NVMe SSD. You get:
The Pi 4 does not have PCIe, but you can boot from a USB 3.0 SSD. Get any cheap 2.5" SATA SSD with a USB-to-SATA adapter, or a USB flash drive style SSD (like the Samsung FIT Plus). It is not as fast as NVMe but still miles better than an SD card.
Real talk: If you are starting fresh on a Pi 5, skip the SD card entirely. The M.2 HAT+ costs about €15 and a 256GB NVMe SSD costs about €25. That €40 investment saves you from the most common "my Home Assistant died" disaster.
There are a few ways to run Home Assistant on a Pi. Here is which one to pick.
⭐ Recommended for most people
A complete operating system built specifically for Home Assistant. It manages the OS, updates, add-ons, backups, and networking for you. Flash it to your SSD or SD card with the Raspberry Pi Imager, boot it up, and you are running in under 10 minutes.
Pros: Easiest setup, built-in add-on store, automatic updates, built-in backup system.
Cons: You do not have full Linux control. Cannot easily install other software alongside HA.
For Docker users
Install Raspberry Pi OS first, then run Home Assistant in a Docker container. You get full control over the underlying Linux system and can run other containers alongside HA.
Pros: Full Linux access, run other services, more control.
Cons: No built-in add-on store, manual update management, need Docker knowledge.
Best of both worlds (advanced)
Run the full HA Supervisor (with add-ons and backups) on top of your own Debian Linux install. You get the add-on store AND full OS access. But the setup is more involved and not officially supported on Pi.
Pros: Add-ons plus full OS control.
Cons: Complex setup, can break on OS updates, not officially supported on Pi.
sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a and reboot. Then set the boot order to NVMe first in sudo raspi-config under Advanced Options.http://homeassistant.local:8123. Create your account, name your home, set your location, and you are in.For a full walkthrough with screenshots and troubleshooting, see our complete installation guide.
Home Assistant is running. Now what? Here is a quick checklist to get you from blank slate to a working smart home in your first session.
A well-tuned Pi 5 can handle a surprisingly large smart home. Here is how to get the most out of it.
The Pi 5 throttles at 85 degrees Celsius. Use the official active cooler or a case with a built-in fan. In a hot room without cooling, your Pi will slow down significantly under load. Thermal throttling shows up as sluggish dashboards and slow automation triggers.
By default, HA stores 10 days of history for every entity. That database grows fast. Set purge_keep_days: 5 in your recorder config and exclude noisy entities (like Wi-Fi signal strength sensors) that you do not need history for.
Your smart home hub should be wired. Wi-Fi adds latency, can drop connections, and uses more CPU. The Pi has gigabit Ethernet. Use it. A 10 meter Ethernet cable costs less than a coffee.
Each add-on runs as a Docker container using RAM and CPU. If you installed something to try it and forgot about it, uninstall it. Common resource hogs: Visual Studio Code (50 to 100MB RAM), InfluxDB, Grafana, and especially Frigate.
If you are running both a Zigbee coordinator and other USB devices, use a short USB extension cable (15 to 30cm) for the Zigbee stick. This moves it away from the Pi's USB 3.0 port interference, which can cause Zigbee dropouts on 2.4GHz.
The Pi 5 needs a 5V/5A (27W) USB-C power supply. Using a phone charger or laptop charger can cause undervoltage, which triggers the lightning bolt icon and throttles performance. Always use the official PSU or a verified 27W supply.
The Pi is not the only option. Here is how it stacks up against the competition.
| Platform | Cost | Power | Setup | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi 5 | €80 to €170 | 3 to 5W | Easy | Most homes, beginners |
| HA Green | ~€100 | 3 to 4W | Easiest | Zero-config plug-and-play |
| HA Yellow | €130 to €200 | 4 to 6W | Easy | Built-in Zigbee/Thread radio |
| Intel N100 Mini PC | €150 to €250 | 10 to 25W | Medium | Power users, Frigate, VMs |
| Old Laptop/Desktop | Free (already own it) | 30 to 100W | Medium | Testing, if you already have one |
| NAS (Synology/QNAP) | €300+ (multiuse) | 15 to 40W | Medium | If you already have a NAS |
For more on hub options, see our best smart home hub comparison and mini PC guide.
The Pi is great, but it does have limits. Here are the signs it is time to move up.
Check in Settings, System, Hardware. If your Pi 5 is consistently running hot and CPU is pegged, you are asking too much of it. Common culprits: Frigate with multiple camera streams, large Node-RED flows, or InfluxDB with heavy queries.
Home Assistant itself uses about 500MB to 1GB. Add-ons pile on. If your 4GB Pi is constantly swapping to disk, everything slows down. Either trim add-ons or upgrade to 8GB. If 8GB is not enough, you need a mini PC.
Frigate with a Coral USB TPU can handle 1 to 2 camera streams on a Pi 5. Beyond that, you need more CPU for decoding video streams. An Intel N100 with a Coral TPU can handle 6 or more cameras. See our Frigate guide.
Running 100+ Zigbee devices, a few dozen automations, dashboards on tablets, presence detection, energy monitoring, notifications, scenes, scripts, and most add-ons. The Pi 5 handles all of this without breaking a sweat.
Migration is painless: When you do upgrade, just take a full backup on your Pi and restore it on your new hardware. Home Assistant makes this a one-click operation. All your devices, automations, history, and settings transfer. You do not start over.
We covered this above, but it bears repeating. SD cards will fail. It is not a question of if, but when. Move to an SSD as soon as possible, or start with one from day one.
The Pi 5 needs 5V at 5A (27W). Most phone chargers output 5V at 2 or 3A. Under load, this causes undervoltage warnings, random reboots, and corrupted storage. Use the official power supply. It costs €12 and saves you hours of debugging.
USB 3.0 ports generate radio interference on the 2.4GHz band, which is exactly where Zigbee operates. This causes device dropouts and pairing failures. Use a short USB extension cable (15 to 30cm) to move the Zigbee stick away from the Pi. This one tip solves 90% of Zigbee reliability issues.
Your Pi could lose power during a write, or a bad update could brick your install. Without a recent backup, you are rebuilding from scratch. Set up automatic daily backups from day one. The Google Drive add-on or a Samba share to your computer takes 5 minutes to configure. Full backup guide.
Your smart home hub should have the most reliable network connection in your house. Wi-Fi drops, reconnects, and adds latency. A €5 Ethernet cable gives you a rock-solid connection. If your Pi is far from the router, use a powerline adapter or run a long cable. Do not rely on Wi-Fi for your home automation brain.
Take our free smart home scan to find out which of your existing devices work with Home Assistant, and get a personalized migration roadmap.
Yes. A Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) or Pi 5 handles Home Assistant perfectly for most homes. A typical setup with 30 to 50 devices, a Zigbee coordinator, a few automations, and a dashboard runs smoothly. You only start hitting limits if you add resource-heavy add-ons like Frigate NVR with AI object detection, large databases, or dozens of cameras.
The Raspberry Pi 5 (4GB or 8GB) is the best choice in 2026. It is roughly 2 to 3 times faster than the Pi 4, has a proper PCIe bus for NVMe storage, and runs Home Assistant OS with full add-on support. The Pi 4 (4GB) still works fine for basic setups, but the Pi 5 price to performance ratio makes it the obvious pick for new builds.
You can use one, but you should not. SD cards wear out from constant database writes and eventually corrupt. On the Pi 5, use an NVMe SSD via the official M.2 HAT. On the Pi 4, boot from a USB SSD. A 128GB or 256GB SSD costs around 15 to 25 euros and will last years without issues.
The Home Assistant Green is a plug-and-play appliance with zero assembly. But it uses an older processor that is slower than a Pi 5, has no GPIO pins, and cannot be expanded with NVMe or a Coral TPU easily. The Pi 5 is faster, more flexible, and cheaper if you already have peripherals. The Green is better if you want zero setup hassle.
Consider upgrading when: you run Frigate with more than 2 cameras and AI detection, your database exceeds 5GB, you want to run multiple Docker containers alongside HA, or your CPU is regularly above 80%. An Intel N100 mini PC gives you 5 to 10 times the headroom for around 150 to 200 euros.
Technically yes, but it is not recommended in 2026. The Pi 3 only has 1GB of RAM and a much slower CPU. Home Assistant itself will run, but add-ons will struggle, dashboards will load slowly, and updates may eventually drop support. If you have a Pi 3 in a drawer, test it, but plan to upgrade quickly.
A Pi 5 running Home Assistant uses about 3 to 5 watts at idle and 7 to 12 watts under load. That is roughly 35 to 45 kWh per year, which costs about 10 to 15 euros in electricity depending on your rate. A Pi 4 uses slightly less at 2 to 4 watts idle.
If you use Home Assistant OS, you can install the Pi-hole add-on (or the AdGuard Home add-on, which is more popular in the HA community). Both run alongside Home Assistant without issues on a Pi 4 or Pi 5. If you use HA Container, you can run both as separate Docker containers.