Home Assistant supports over 2,700 integrations. That's the good news. The confusing part? Not every device works equally well. Some connect locally with instant response times. Others need cloud accounts. And a few technically "work" but are such a pain to set up that you'll wish they didn't.
This guide cuts through the noise. We'll cover which devices work great with Home Assistant, which protocols to prioritize, and which brands to avoid if you want a smooth experience.
Understanding Protocols: Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, and Matter
Before picking specific devices, you need to understand how they talk to Home Assistant. The protocol matters more than the brand name. Here's why.
| Protocol | Local? | Range | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zigbee | Yes, fully local | Mesh (gets better with more devices) | Lights, sensors, switches, plugs |
| Z-Wave | Yes, fully local | Mesh, longer range per hop | Locks, thermostats, heavy-duty switches |
| Wi-Fi | Sometimes (depends on firmware) | Good, but can crowd your network | Cameras, plugs (if local firmware like Tasmota/ESPHome) |
| Matter | Yes, designed for local | Depends on transport (Thread, Wi-Fi) | Newer devices, cross-platform compatibility |
| Bluetooth | Yes | Short, no mesh | Temp sensors, plant monitors, presence |
The golden rule: local control is king. When your internet goes down, Zigbee and Z-Wave devices keep working. Cloud-dependent Wi-Fi devices become expensive paperweights.
What Hardware Do You Need?
For Zigbee, you need a coordinator (USB stick). The top picks:
- SkyConnect (made by the Home Assistant team): supports Zigbee and Thread/Matter. Around $30. This is the default recommendation.
- Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus (CC2652P): proven, well-supported, around $15-20.
- SMLIGHT SLZB-06: Ethernet-based coordinator. Great if your HA box is far from your devices.
For Z-Wave, the Zooz ZST39 LR or Aeotec Z-Stick 7 are solid choices. You can run Zigbee and Z-Wave simultaneously with two sticks.
Smart Lights
Lights are the easiest category. Almost everything works. The question is how well.
Best picks:
- Philips Hue (Zigbee): The most popular smart lights in the world, and they work beautifully with Home Assistant. You can use them through the Hue Bridge (easiest) or pair directly to your Zigbee coordinator (full local control, no bridge needed). Both methods work great.
- IKEA TRADFRI (Zigbee): Cheap, reliable, and they pair directly with any Zigbee coordinator. The color accuracy isn't Hue-level, but at half the price? Hard to complain.
- Innr (Zigbee): Great Hue alternative. Same Zigbee protocol, similar quality, lower price. Works with the Hue bridge too.
- WLED (Wi-Fi, ESPHome): For LED strips, WLED firmware on ESP32 boards is the gold standard. Fully local, amazing effects, very active community.
Also works well:
- Sengled (Zigbee): Budget-friendly, no repeater function (which can be a pro or a con).
- LIFX (Wi-Fi): Gorgeous color quality. Local API available, no hub needed. Pricey.
Avoid for HA:
- Wyze bulbs: Cloud-only, slow to respond, limited integration.
- Cheap Tuya bulbs without flashing: Work through cloud, but you can flash many with custom firmware for local control.
Smart Locks
Locks are security-critical, so local control matters even more here. You really don't want your front door depending on a cloud server.
Best picks:
- Nuki Smart Lock (Bluetooth + Wi-Fi bridge): The best option for European doors. Local API, great Home Assistant integration, works with existing cylinder locks. The Nuki 4.0 also supports Matter.
- August/Yale (Z-Wave or Wi-Fi): The Z-Wave version works great with Home Assistant locally. The Wi-Fi version needs cloud, so pick Z-Wave if you can.
- Schlage Encode Plus (Wi-Fi + Matter): One of the first Matter-compatible locks. Works with Home Assistant through the Matter integration. Popular in the US.
Also works:
- Kwikset 916 (Z-Wave): Solid Z-Wave lock. Reliable local control.
- Danalock (Z-Wave/Bluetooth): European option, smaller community but works well.
Sensors and Contact Switches
Sensors are the backbone of any smart home. They make automations possible: lights that turn on when you walk in, alerts when a door opens, heating that adjusts to temperature changes.
Best picks:
- Aqara sensors (Zigbee): The community favorite. Motion sensors, door/window contacts, temperature/humidity, vibration, water leak. Dirt cheap (usually $10-15 each), reliable, tiny batteries that last 1-2 years. They come in Zigbee 1.2 (older) and Zigbee 3.0 (newer, more reliable). Go for the Zigbee 3.0 versions.
- Sonoff SNZB series (Zigbee 3.0): Even cheaper than Aqara. The SNZB-02D temperature sensor and SNZB-06P presence sensor are particularly good.
- Hue motion sensors (Zigbee): More expensive, but rock-solid. Include temperature and light level alongside motion.
For presence detection:
- Aqara FP2 (Wi-Fi, mmWave): Detects whether someone is sitting still in a room, not just moving. Zone-based detection means one sensor can cover multiple areas. Works locally with Home Assistant.
- Everything Presence One/Lite (ESPHome): Open-source mmWave presence sensor. Fully local, very customizable.
Budget option:
- ESP32 + BME280 (DIY, ESPHome): Build your own temperature/humidity/pressure sensor for under $5. ESPHome makes the firmware dead simple.
Cameras and Doorbells
Cameras are the trickiest category for Home Assistant. Most consumer cameras are cloud-first, which means latency, subscriptions, and privacy concerns. The best approach: buy cameras that support RTSP or ONVIF streams.
Best picks:
- Reolink (Wi-Fi or PoE): The top recommendation for Home Assistant. Most models support RTSP streams out of the box, and there's a dedicated Reolink integration. The PoE models are rock-solid. No subscription needed for local recording.
- UniFi Protect cameras: If you're already in the UniFi ecosystem, these work well with HA through the UniFi Protect integration. Excellent build quality. Pricey.
- Any ONVIF camera: ONVIF is a standard protocol. If a camera supports it, Home Assistant can probably use it. Check before buying.
For doorbells:
- Reolink Doorbell (PoE or Wi-Fi): Same great Reolink integration. No subscription. Local processing possible with Frigate.
- Amcrest AD410: RTSP support, works with Frigate for AI detection. Solid budget option.
Pro tip: Frigate NVR
Pair any RTSP camera with Frigate, a local AI-powered NVR that runs alongside Home Assistant. It does object detection (person, car, dog) on your own hardware. No cloud. No subscription. This is how the smart home people do cameras.
Avoid for HA:
- Ring: Cloud-only, Amazon ecosystem. Limited HA integration, high latency.
- Nest Cam: Cloud polling only. No local stream access. Slow and unreliable in HA.
- Blink: Very limited integration. Cloud-dependent.
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Thermostats and Climate Control
Climate control is where Home Assistant really shines. Combine a thermostat with room sensors and you can build heating schedules that are way smarter than anything the thermostat manufacturer offers.
Best picks:
- Ecobee (Wi-Fi): Has a local HomeKit integration path, plus cloud API. The included room sensors are a big plus. Popular in North America.
- Tado (Wi-Fi): The European favorite. Works through cloud API in Home Assistant. Great multi-room support with TRVs (thermostatic radiator valves).
- Shelly TRV (Wi-Fi): Fully local control. European radiator valve. Affordable. Works directly with HA over the local network.
Also works:
- Nest Thermostat: Works through cloud integration. Functional but not local. Consider it if you already own one, but don't buy new for an HA setup.
- Honeywell T6 (Z-Wave): Fully local Z-Wave thermostat. Reliable, no cloud needed.
- Bosch/Nefit (via integration): If you have a Bosch or Nefit boiler, the dedicated integration works well.
The HA advantage:
Once your thermostat is in Home Assistant, you can do things like: heat only rooms you're in (using presence sensors), lower the heat when windows are open (using contact sensors), or adjust based on weather forecasts. That's the real power of a connected system.
Smart Plugs and Switches
Best picks:
- Shelly (Wi-Fi, local API): The king of smart relays. Shelly 1, Shelly Plus, Shelly Pro series. All work locally over your network with no cloud required. Tiny enough to fit behind existing switches. The energy monitoring models (Shelly PM) are great for tracking power usage. This is the most recommended brand in the HA community, full stop.
- Sonoff (Wi-Fi, flashable): Cheap smart plugs and switches. Flash with Tasmota or ESPHome for local control. The Sonoff S31 with energy monitoring is a popular choice.
- IKEA TRADFRI plugs (Zigbee): Simple, cheap, works as a Zigbee repeater too. Win-win.
For in-wall switches:
- Shelly Plus 1/2PM: Fits behind your existing switch plate. Turns any "dumb" switch into a smart switch without changing the look of your home.
- Inovelli (Zigbee or Z-Wave): US-style smart switches with LED notification bars. Very popular in the HA community.
- Zooz (Z-Wave): Great US Z-Wave switches. The ZEN series is well-supported.
Energy monitoring:
If you want to track your home's energy use (and you should, it's fascinating), look for plugs with power monitoring. Shelly PM, Sonoff POW, and Zigbee plugs from Innr or BlitzWolf all report real-time wattage back to Home Assistant.
Speakers and Media
This category is changing fast. With Google Assistant shutting down, a lot of people need new voice control options.
For voice control with HA:
- Home Assistant Voice PE: The official voice hardware from the HA team, launching in 2025/2026. Designed specifically for local voice control. If you want voice commands without Google or Alexa, this is the path forward.
- ESP32-S3 Box (DIY voice satellite): Build your own voice satellite for ~$20. Runs ESPHome, connects to HA's voice pipeline. Works surprisingly well.
For media playback:
- Sonos: Full local control through the Sonos integration. Play TTS announcements, control music, group speakers.
- Google Home/Nest speakers: Still work for casting audio through HA. But with Assistant dying, they're becoming dumb Bluetooth speakers for voice purposes.
- Amazon Echo: Works as a media player in HA. Voice control stays in the Alexa ecosystem though.
- ChromeCast: Full control in HA. Great for casting dashboards to TVs.
Devices to Avoid (or Buy Carefully)
Some devices are technically "compatible" but cause more headaches than they're worth:
- Anything cloud-only with no local API: If the company goes bankrupt or changes their API, your device dies. This is exactly what's happening with Google Assistant.
- Tuya devices (without flashing): Tuya's cloud integration works, but it's slow and unreliable. The good news: many Tuya devices use ESP chips and can be flashed with Tasmota or ESPHome for full local control. Check if your specific model is flashable before buying.
- Proprietary hubs with no open API: If a device needs its own hub AND that hub doesn't have a local API, think twice.
- First-gen Matter devices: Matter is great in theory, but some early implementations are buggy. Check the Home Assistant forums for real user experiences before buying.
Smart Buying Strategy for Home Assistant
Here's the framework that'll save you money and frustration:
- Pick one or two protocols and stick with them. Zigbee + Wi-Fi (Shelly) is the most popular combo. Add Z-Wave if you need specific devices like locks.
- Check the Home Assistant integration page first. Before buying anything, search for it at home-assistant.io/integrations. Look for "local push" or "local polling" in the IoT class. Avoid "cloud polling" when possible.
- Read the community forums. The Home Assistant Community and r/homeassistant subreddit have real user experiences. Marketing pages won't tell you about the annoying bugs.
- Start small. Get a Zigbee coordinator, a few sensors, and some smart plugs. Build from there. You don't need to automate everything on day one.
- Budget for the coordinator. If you're going Zigbee, factor in the cost of a SkyConnect ($30) or Sonoff dongle ($15). It's a one-time cost that opens up hundreds of device options.
Quick Reference: Our Top Picks by Category
| Category | Top Pick | Protocol | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lights | Philips Hue | Zigbee | Best color, huge range, direct Zigbee pairing |
| Sensors | Aqara (Zigbee 3.0) | Zigbee | Cheap, reliable, tiny, long battery |
| Plugs/Switches | Shelly | Wi-Fi (local) | Local API, fits behind switches, energy monitoring |
| Cameras | Reolink | Wi-Fi/PoE | RTSP, no subscription, Frigate compatible |
| Locks | Nuki (EU) / Schlage (US) | BT+Wi-Fi / Matter | Local API, retrofit, Matter support |
| Climate | Shelly TRV (EU) / Ecobee (US) | Wi-Fi | Local control, multi-room capable |
| Presence | Aqara FP2 | Wi-Fi | mmWave, zone-based, local API |
Not sure if your devices are compatible?
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The Bottom Line
Home Assistant compatibility isn't binary. It's a spectrum from "works perfectly, fully local, instant response" to "technically works, needs cloud, breaks sometimes." The brands we've recommended above all land firmly on the "works great" end of that spectrum.
Things are moving fast. Google is pulling the plug on Assistant. Matter is maturing. Local control is becoming the norm rather than the exception. If you're building (or rebuilding) a smart home in 2026, you're actually in a great position. The ecosystem has never been more open.
Pick your protocol, start with a few devices, and build from there. And if you're migrating from Google Home or Alexa and want to know what's compatible before you start, that's exactly what our free scan tool is for.