Google Home used to be the easy choice. Plug in a speaker, link some devices, say "Hey Google" and you're done. But things have changed. Google has been quietly gutting smart home features since 2024, killing off integrations, and shifting focus to Gemini AI. Meanwhile, Home Assistant has grown into the most capable smart home platform on the planet. Here's how they really compare in 2026, and what it means for your home.
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If you just want to set timers and play music, Google Home still works fine. For everything else, Home Assistant wins. It supports more devices, runs locally, offers infinitely more powerful automations, respects your privacy, and nobody can shut it down on you. The gap has only gotten wider as Google pulls back from smart home features.
Let's break down the comparison across the ten areas that actually affect your daily smart home experience.
Home Assistant: 2,000+ integrations. If a device has any kind of API, local or cloud, someone has probably built a Home Assistant integration for it. Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Matter, Thread, MQTT, ESPHome, custom serial protocols. The list is enormous and growing every month.
Google Home: ~200 certified brands. Google uses the "Works with Google Home" certification program. Devices must be cloud-connected and meet Google's requirements. This means popular brands like Philips Hue and TP-Link work fine, but niche devices, DIY hardware, or anything that prefers local control is out. Google also killed the Works with Nest program, removing several previously supported devices.
Winner: Home Assistant, by a mile.
Home Assistant: Triggers on state changes, time, sun position, templates, webhooks, MQTT messages, device attributes, zones, calendar events, and more. Conditions can stack and nest. Actions can call any service, send notifications, run scripts, evaluate templates, and branch with if/then logic. You can also use Node-RED for visual flow-based automations, or write Python scripts for truly custom logic.
Google Home: Routines let you chain a few actions together, triggered by time or a voice command. "Household routines" added some scheduling options in 2024, but the logic is still basic: if X, then do A, B, C. No conditions, no branching, no template logic. You cannot trigger automations based on device states (like "when the door opens" or "when humidity rises above 60%").
Winner: Home Assistant. It's not even close.
Home Assistant: Runs on your own hardware in your house. Your data never leaves your network unless you explicitly set up remote access. No telemetry, no analytics, no advertising profiles. The code is open source, so anyone can audit what it does.
Google Home: Every voice command goes to Google's servers. Device usage data feeds into your Google profile. Google's business model is advertising, and your smart home data is part of the picture. The Nest cameras and doorbell footage is stored on Google's cloud. Google has faced multiple privacy controversies, including employees listening to voice recordings.
Winner: Home Assistant. Privacy is its core promise.
Google Home: This is where Google still has an edge. Google Assistant understands natural language extremely well. "Hey Google, turn the living room lights to 40% and set them warm white" just works. It handles follow-up questions, music requests, general knowledge, and multi-step commands naturally.
Home Assistant: The built-in Assist voice assistant handles smart home commands well ("turn off the kitchen lights," "set the thermostat to 21 degrees"). It runs completely locally using Whisper for speech recognition and Piper for text-to-speech. But it cannot answer general knowledge questions, play music on demand, or handle complex conversational requests. It is improving rapidly, especially with local LLM integration, but it is not at Google's level yet for general use.
Winner: Google Home for general voice, but Home Assistant is closing the gap for smart home specific commands.
Home Assistant: When your devices communicate locally (Zigbee, Z-Wave, local Wi-Fi), commands execute in milliseconds and work even when your internet is down. Your automations run on your hardware. No server outage on the other side of the world can break your lights.
Google Home: Everything routes through Google's cloud. When Google's servers go down (and they do, several times a year), your smart home stops responding. Even basic commands like turning off a light in the same room need to travel to Google's servers and back. Internet outage? Your "smart" home becomes dumb.
Winner: Home Assistant. Local control means real reliability.
Home Assistant: The software is free. You need hardware to run it: a Raspberry Pi 4 ($55), a Home Assistant Green ($99), or a mini PC ($100-200). Optional Nabu Casa subscription ($6.50/month) for easy remote access and voice assistant cloud processing. Total year one: $100-250.
Google Home: You need at least one Google speaker or display ($30-100 each). Most people buy 2-4 for different rooms ($100-400). Nest Aware subscription ($8/month) for camera features. Many "Works with Google Home" devices are more expensive than their open-protocol alternatives. Total year one: $150-500+.
Winner: Roughly even, but Home Assistant gives you more for the money.
Google Home: Download the app. Plug in a speaker. Add devices. Done. Google Home is designed for people who do not want to think about their smart home. It works out of the box, and the app is polished.
Home Assistant: Getting started is straightforward (flash an SD card, plug in, open the web UI), but the learning curve kicks in when you start building automations, adding Zigbee coordinators, or configuring YAML. The community is incredibly helpful, and the documentation is good, but there is no denying that Home Assistant requires more upfront investment in learning.
Winner: Google Home for pure simplicity. But Home Assistant's UI has improved dramatically.
Home Assistant: Monthly releases with new features, integrations, and improvements. The project is backed by Nabu Casa (a company founded by the creator), has thousands of contributors, and a massive community. New protocols like Matter and Thread get first-class support. The roadmap is public and community-influenced.
Google Home: Updates are sporadic and often remove features rather than add them. Google has a well-documented history of abandoning products (Stadia, Hangouts, Google+, Inbox, and many more). The shift from Google Assistant to Gemini AI has created uncertainty about the future of smart home voice control. Features that worked last year may not work next year.
Winner: Home Assistant. Open source does not get abandoned.
If you have been a Google Home user for a while, you have probably noticed things getting worse, not better. Here is the timeline of what has been going down:
2023
Google announces the end of "Works with Nest" integrations. Conversational Actions (third-party voice apps) get a shutdown date. Smart home developers start leaving the platform.
2024
Conversational Actions officially die in June 2023 (delayed to 2024 for some). Google starts migrating Nest accounts to Google accounts, breaking some integrations. Speaker groups become unreliable. "Continued Conversation" feature gets removed in some markets.
2025
Google pivots hard to Gemini AI, sidelining Google Assistant. Smart home routines get simplified (read: dumbed down). Several Assistant features stop working without explanation. Community forums fill with complaints about degraded performance and missing functionality.
2026
Google Assistant's future in smart home is increasingly uncertain. Gemini integration is focused on phones and search, not on controlling your lights. Users report slower response times and more "I can't do that" errors. The writing is on the wall.
The pattern is clear. Google treats smart home as a side project. They have a long history of killing products that do not hit their growth targets. Even if Google Home does not get officially shut down, the slow feature erosion makes it less useful every year. Building your smart home on a platform that is actively retreating is a risk.
For the vast majority of people who are actively building their smart home, Home Assistant is the better long-term bet. Google Home made sense in 2020. In 2026, it is a sinking ship for serious home automation.
You do not have to go cold turkey. Many people run Home Assistant as their automation brain while keeping Google speakers for voice control. Here is how that works:
All your devices connect to Home Assistant. It handles automations, data logging, dashboards, and device management. This is where the real smarts live.
Through the Google Assistant integration (via Nabu Casa), you expose selected Home Assistant devices to Google. You can still say "Hey Google, turn off the lights" and it works, but Home Assistant is managing the devices behind the scenes.
Over time, you can replace Google speakers with Home Assistant voice satellites. Start with one room and expand when you are comfortable. No rush, no big bang migration needed.
Moving from Google Home to Home Assistant does not have to be overwhelming. Here is a realistic weekend plan:
Run the free HomeShift scan to see which of your current devices work with Home Assistant. Most popular brands (Philips Hue, IKEA, Shelly, TP-Link) work perfectly.
A Home Assistant Green ($99) or a mini PC ($100-150) are the best starting points. Add a Zigbee coordinator ($25) if you plan to use Zigbee devices.
Follow the installation guide. Most devices are auto-discovered. The first setup takes 1-2 hours. Adding devices takes 5-10 minutes each.
Take your Google Home routines and rebuild them as Home Assistant automations. You will be amazed at how much more you can do. That "good morning" routine? Now it can check the weather, adjust blinds based on sunrise, and skip the alarm if your calendar says you are on vacation.
Add dashboards, set up remote access, build more automations. The beauty of Home Assistant is that you can keep growing. There is no ceiling.
Read up on specific topics that matter for your migration:
For most smart home enthusiasts, yes. Home Assistant supports over 2,000 integrations (compared to Google Home's ~200), runs locally without depending on cloud servers, gives you vastly more powerful automations, and respects your privacy. Google Home is simpler to set up, but its capabilities have been shrinking since 2024.
Yes. Home Assistant can expose devices to Google Home through the Google Assistant integration (via Nabu Casa or manual setup). This lets you keep using voice commands on Google speakers while Home Assistant handles the automation logic. Many people use this as a transition step.
Google Home is not officially shutting down, but Google has been steadily removing features. Google Assistant lost conversational actions and many third-party integrations in 2024-2025. The Works with Nest program ended. Routines have become more limited. Google is shifting focus to Gemini AI, and the classic smart home experience is clearly not a priority.
It depends on your devices. If you use Zigbee, Z-Wave, or Wi-Fi devices with open APIs (like Shelly, Philips Hue, or IKEA), the switch is straightforward. Cloud-only devices that only work through the Google Home app may need workarounds or replacement. Most people can migrate a typical home in a weekend.
Yes. Home Assistant Assist is a built-in voice assistant that runs entirely on your local network. You can use ESP32-based voice satellites placed around your home. The voice recognition uses Whisper and Piper, both running offline. It handles smart home commands well but is not as good as Google for general knowledge questions or music requests.
Most Nest devices work with Home Assistant through the Nest integration (cloud-based, requires Google Developer Console setup) or through local protocols. Nest thermostats, cameras, and doorbells can be added, though the setup is more involved than other brands. Some users prefer to replace Nest cameras with Reolink or Amcrest for full local control.
Not sure which of your Google Home devices will work with Home Assistant? Run the free HomeShift compatibility scan and get a personalized report in minutes.
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