These are two of the most popular smart home platforms in Europe, and they could not be more different in philosophy. Homey gives you a polished, app-driven experience where everything just works out of the box. Home Assistant gives you an open, endlessly customizable platform where you control everything. Here is an honest comparison to help you decide.
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The quick overview before we go category by category.
| Category | Home Assistant | Homey |
|---|---|---|
| Device Support | 2,800+ integrations | 1,000+ Homey apps |
| Built-in Radios | None (external dongles) | Zigbee, Z-Wave, BLE, IR, 433/868MHz, Wi-Fi, Thread |
| Automations | Extremely powerful, unlimited | Flows (visual, intuitive) |
| Dashboards | Highly customizable, HACS cards | App-only, limited customization |
| Privacy | Fully local, you own your data | Local processing, cloud app layer |
| Mobile App | Companion App (good, not primary UI) | Excellent app (primary interface) |
| Price | Free software + hardware (~$50 to $150) | Homey Pro ~$400 |
| Open Source | Yes, fully open | No, proprietary |
| Ease of Setup | Moderate (weekend project) | Very easy (30 minutes) |
| Community | Massive (largest in smart home) | Active, especially in Europe |
This is where the two platforms differ most fundamentally.
Home Assistant supports over 2,800 integrations. That is not a typo. From Philips Hue to obscure Chinese temperature sensors, from your Roomba to your car, from Plex to your washing machine. If a device has an API, someone has probably built an integration. The community-driven HACS store adds thousands more.
The downside: you need to buy separate USB dongles for Zigbee and Z-Wave. The SkyConnect dongle ($30) handles Zigbee, Thread, and Matter. For Z-Wave, you need a second stick. Small cost, but it is extra hardware on your desk.
Homey Pro is a beautiful orb that packs in every radio you could want: Zigbee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi, infrared, 433MHz, 868MHz, and Thread. That is seven wireless protocols in one device. Pair a device, and Homey figures out the rest.
The Homey App Store has over 1,000 apps (their term for integrations). Coverage is good for popular brands, but you will hit gaps with niche devices. If a manufacturer is not in the Homey App Store and nobody has written a community app, you are out of luck. Homey does not have an equivalent to HACS for extending support.
If you want maximum device compatibility and do not mind plugging in a USB dongle, Home Assistant wins. If you want clean hardware with every radio built in and good-enough compatibility, Homey Pro is excellent. Most mainstream brands (IKEA, Philips Hue, Aqara, Shelly, Sonos, Ring) work well on both.
Home Assistant automations can do practically anything. Trigger on state changes, time, sun position, device attributes, templates, webhooks, MQTT messages, calendar events, zones, and more. Chain conditions with AND/OR/NOT logic. Run sequences with delays, choices, parallel actions, and repeats.
You can build automations through the visual editor (no code needed for 90% of use cases), write them in YAML for full control, or go wild with Node-RED for visual flow programming. Blueprints let you import community automations with one click.
Homey uses "Flows" with a simple three-column layout: When (trigger), And (conditions), Then (actions). It is genuinely intuitive. You can build useful automations within minutes of setting up Homey. Advanced Flows add branching and delays for more complex scenarios.
The limitation: complex logic gets messy. If you want an automation that checks three conditions, waits for a response, branches based on the result, and runs different actions on different days... Homey Flows start to feel cramped. Home Assistant handles that kind of complexity naturally.
For simple to moderate automations (lights at sunset, heating schedule, motion-triggered alerts), both platforms are great. For complex, multi-device, multi-condition automations with templating and branching logic, Home Assistant is in a different league.
Home Assistant dashboards are where the platform truly shines. You get a web-based interface accessible from any browser, plus a companion app for iOS and Android. With HACS custom cards (Mushroom, Bubble, Mini Graph, and hundreds more), people build dashboards that look like professional control panels.
Wall-mounted tablets, room-specific views, floorplan interfaces, Grafana charts for data nerds. The possibilities are endless. But "endless possibilities" also means you can spend hours tweaking your dashboard instead of just living in your smart home.
Homey's interface is primarily the smartphone app. And it is a really well-designed app. Clean, fast, and consistent. Devices are organized logically, and you can control everything from your phone. The app also shows energy usage, device status, and flow execution.
The limitation: the app is basically all you get. There is no web dashboard (Homey has a basic web view, but it is not a real dashboard). No wall-mounted tablet interface. No custom cards. No floorplan views. If you want a tablet on the wall controlling your home, Homey is not the right choice.
If you primarily control your home from your phone and want a polished app experience, Homey is great. If you want wall tablets, web dashboards, custom visualizations, or control from any browser, Home Assistant is the only real option.
Home Assistant is local-first by design. Your automations run on your hardware. Your sensor data stays on your network. Your device list never leaves your home. Even voice control can run fully local with Assist, Whisper, and Piper.
The optional Nabu Casa subscription adds cloud features (remote access, Google/Alexa integration), but the core system works perfectly without any cloud connection.
Homey Pro processes automations locally, which is good. Your flows keep running if the internet goes down (for local devices). But the Homey platform requires an Athom account, and the app communicates through their cloud servers. Device telemetry, flow configurations, and usage data pass through Athom's infrastructure.
You cannot use Homey without an internet connection for initial setup, and you lose the app interface (your primary control method) when offline. That is a meaningful difference.
If privacy matters to you, Home Assistant is the clear winner. It is open source, runs entirely locally, and you control every byte of data. Homey is better than most cloud platforms, but it still depends on Athom's servers for key functionality.
| Item | Home Assistant | Homey Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | $50 (Pi) to $150 (mini PC) | ~$400 |
| Zigbee/Z-Wave dongles | $30 to $60 | Included |
| Software | Free (open source) | Free with Pro hardware |
| Subscription | Optional: $6.50/mo (Nabu Casa) | None for Pro |
| Total Year 1 | $80 to $210 | ~$400 |
Home Assistant is significantly cheaper to get started with. Even a Home Assistant Green ($100) plus a SkyConnect dongle ($30) comes in at less than a third of Homey Pro's price. A Raspberry Pi setup can cost as little as $80 total.
Homey Pro's price includes all radios and a polished hardware design. You are paying for convenience and the "it just works" factor. Whether that premium is worth it depends on how much you value your setup time versus your money.
Homey is designed as a consumer product. Plug it in, download the app, create an account, and start pairing devices. The onboarding is smooth, and the app guides you through everything. Most people have their first automation running within 30 minutes.
Non-technical family members can use the Homey app without any training. That matters when your partner just wants to turn off the lights without opening a web browser and navigating to an IP address.
Home Assistant takes more effort to get started. You need to flash an SD card (or set up Docker), connect to a web interface, add integrations, and configure your dashboard. The initial setup takes an hour or two, and getting everything "just right" is a weekend project.
But it has gotten much easier. The onboarding wizard, auto-discovery, and visual editors mean you rarely need to touch YAML anymore. And the Companion App gives family members a clean mobile interface once you have set things up.
For pure ease of use, Homey wins. It is designed for people who do not want to tinker. If you are technical and enjoy customizing things (or plan to), Home Assistant's learning curve pays dividends quickly. The real question is: do you want an appliance or a platform?
Home Assistant has the largest smart home community in the world. The forum has millions of posts. The Discord and Reddit are active around the clock. YouTube is packed with tutorials. When you hit a problem, someone has already solved it and posted the solution.
Monthly updates bring new features, integrations, and improvements. The HACS community store has thousands of custom integrations and dashboard cards built by the community. The project is backed by Nabu Casa (the company behind Home Assistant) and has hundreds of code contributors.
Homey has an active community, especially in the Netherlands, Germany, and Scandinavia. The Homey Community Forum is helpful, and Athom (the Dutch company behind Homey) is responsive to user feedback. The Homey App Store relies heavily on community developers who build and maintain device apps.
The community is smaller than Home Assistant's, which means fewer tutorials, fewer custom apps, and longer waits for new device support. When you hit an edge case, you might be the first person to encounter it.
Home Assistant's community is unmatched. For troubleshooting, inspiration, and extending your system, the ecosystem is massive. Homey's community is good and growing, but it is a fraction of the size.
Yes, and some people do. Here are the main approaches:
Use Homey Pro as your Zigbee/Z-Wave/IR radio while running automations in Home Assistant. A HACS integration connects them. You get Homey's built-in radios with Home Assistant's powerful automation engine.
Run both during a transition period. Keep your Homey running for daily use while you set up Home Assistant and move devices over one by one. No downtime, no family complaints.
Use MQTT to share specific devices between both platforms. This works well if you want to keep Homey for family members while using Home Assistant for advanced automations.
For most tinkerers and power users, Home Assistant is the better long-term choice. For non-technical users who want simplicity above all else, Homey delivers a polished experience.
Already have a smart home and thinking about switching?
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If you have decided to make the switch, here is a practical approach:
Use our free device scan to see which of your current devices work with Home Assistant. Most Zigbee and Z-Wave devices work on both platforms.
Install Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi, mini PC, or Home Assistant Green. Keep Homey running during the transition.
Start with a low-stakes room (office, garage). Unpair Zigbee/Z-Wave devices from Homey and pair them with Home Assistant. Wi-Fi devices often work on both simultaneously.
Homey Flows translate well to Home Assistant automations. The When/And/Then structure maps directly to Trigger/Condition/Action. Check our automation guide for examples.
Once all devices and automations are moved, you can sell your Homey Pro. They hold their value well on the secondhand market.
Homey is easier to set up and use right away. The app walks you through everything, and most devices pair in seconds. Home Assistant has a steeper learning curve, but the UI has improved enormously. Most people get comfortable within a weekend. If you just want things to work with minimal tinkering, Homey wins. If you want full control and plan to grow your system, Home Assistant is worth the initial effort.
Yes. There is a community HACS integration that connects Homey to Home Assistant. Some people use Homey as a Zigbee and Z-Wave radio while running their automations in Home Assistant. You can also use both independently and bridge specific devices via MQTT.
Homey Pro works fully without a subscription. Homey Cloud (the app-only version) requires Homey Premium at around 3 euros per month for advanced features. Home Assistant is completely free and open source, with an optional Nabu Casa subscription at $6.50/month for remote access and voice assistant integration.
Both handle Zigbee and Z-Wave well. Homey Pro has built-in radios for both protocols, plus Bluetooth, infrared, 433MHz, and 868MHz. Home Assistant uses external dongles but supports far more device types through ZHA, Zigbee2MQTT, and Z-Wave JS. For raw protocol variety out of the box, Homey Pro wins. For total device compatibility, Home Assistant wins.
At around 400 euros, Homey Pro costs significantly more than a Home Assistant setup. You pay for built-in radios, polished hardware, and a great app. If you value simplicity and do not want to tinker, it can be worth it. If you are comfortable with some setup, Home Assistant gives you more power for less money.
Home Assistant. It runs entirely locally and you control all your data. Homey Pro processes flows locally, but the app communicates through Athom's cloud servers. If privacy is a priority, Home Assistant is the clear choice.
Consider switching if you want more integrations, better dashboards, energy monitoring, AI cameras (Frigate), or a larger community. Many Homey users switch when they hit Homey's limits. You can run both during the transition. Scan your devices to see what works with Home Assistant before you commit.
Partially. Homey Pro runs local flows and controls local devices offline. But you lose the app interface, cloud backups, new device pairing, and cloud integrations. Home Assistant works fully offline, including the web interface, automations, and device control.