Both of these hubs keep your smart home running locally. No cloud dependency, no monthly fees, no worrying about a company pulling the plug on your setup. But they take very different approaches to getting there. Home Assistant is the open, endlessly customizable powerhouse. Hubitat is the plug-and-play workhorse that just runs. Here is an honest, detailed comparison.
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The quick overview before we break down each category.
| Category | Home Assistant | Hubitat |
|---|---|---|
| Device Support | 2,800+ integrations | ~200 built-in + community drivers |
| Protocols | Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, BLE, Matter, Thread | Zigbee, Z-Wave (built-in), Matter, Wi-Fi |
| Automations | Extremely powerful, unlimited | Rule Machine (capable but quirky) |
| Dashboards | Beautiful, highly customizable | Functional, basic styling |
| Setup Difficulty | Moderate learning curve | Easier out of the box |
| Hardware | BYO (Pi, mini PC, NAS) or Green ($99) | Dedicated hub ($130 to $150) |
| Subscription | None required ($6.50/mo optional) | None required |
| Reliability | Great (monthly updates can disrupt) | Rock solid, rarely needs restarts |
| Community Size | Massive (forums, Reddit, Discord) | Smaller but dedicated |
| Future-Proofing | Growing fast, Matter day-one support | Stable, slower adoption of new standards |
This is where the gap is most obvious. Home Assistant supports over 2,800 integrations covering everything from Zigbee bulbs to solar inverters to robot vacuums. If a device talks to a network, someone has probably built a Home Assistant integration for it.
Hubitat has solid built-in support for Z-Wave and Zigbee devices, plus community-written Groovy drivers that extend compatibility. But the total catalog is a fraction of what Home Assistant offers. Wi-Fi devices, cloud-connected gadgets, and newer protocols like Thread are more limited on Hubitat.
The bottom line: if you only use Zigbee and Z-Wave devices, Hubitat covers you well. If you want to integrate anything beyond those two protocols, Home Assistant is the clear winner.
Both hubs can handle the basics: turn on lights at sunset, lock the door when everyone leaves, send a notification when a sensor triggers. The difference is what happens when you want something more complex.
Home Assistant gives you a visual automation editor, YAML for power users, Node-RED for visual flow programming, Blueprints for sharing automations, and Jinja2 templates for dynamic content. You can trigger automations based on virtually anything: time, state changes, GPS location, sun position, weather forecasts, energy prices, even webhook calls from external services.
Hubitat offers Simple Automation Rules for basic triggers (easy to set up, limited flexibility) and Rule Machine for complex logic. Rule Machine is powerful on paper, but the interface is confusing. Nesting conditions, handling multiple triggers, and debugging failures can be frustrating. There is no visual flow editor like Node-RED, and sharing automations between users is not straightforward.
Check out our 30 best Home Assistant automations to see what's possible.
If you care about how your smart home looks on a wall-mounted tablet or your phone, this is not a close comparison.
Home Assistant dashboards are genuinely beautiful. The default Lovelace UI is solid, and with custom cards from HACS (Mushroom cards, Bubble Card, Mini Graph), you can build magazine-worthy control panels. Wall tablets running Fully Kiosk Browser are a popular Home Assistant project. The dashboard gallery speaks for itself.
Hubitat dashboards are functional. You can control your devices, see status, and create basic layouts. But the styling options are limited, the look is dated, and customization requires CSS hacking. Third-party tools like SharpTools add better visuals, but at an extra cost ($30/year) and setup complexity.
Here is where Hubitat genuinely shines. The hub is a closed, purpose-built device that does one thing well. Many Hubitat users report uptimes measured in months. The Z-Wave and Zigbee radios are fast and responsive. You plug it in, set it up, and forget about it.
Home Assistant is also reliable, but it updates monthly, and updates occasionally break things. If you run custom integrations from HACS, a Home Assistant update can cause compatibility issues. The solution is simple: don't update unless you need new features, and always make backups first. But it does require more attention than Hubitat.
That said, Home Assistant's stability has improved dramatically in recent years. Running it on proper hardware (a mini PC or Proxmox VM) instead of an SD card makes a big difference.
| Item | Home Assistant | Hubitat |
|---|---|---|
| Hub/Hardware | Green $99 / Pi $60 / mini PC $120+ | Elevation C-8 Pro ~$150 |
| Zigbee/Z-Wave | External dongle $25 to $35 | Built-in (included) |
| Software | Free, open source | Free (included with hub) |
| Remote Access | Free (DIY) or $6.50/mo (Nabu Casa) | Free (included) |
| Subscription | None required | None required |
Hubitat's all-in-one box is simpler to buy: one purchase, everything included. Home Assistant requires separate hardware plus a Zigbee or Z-Wave dongle. But the software is free forever, and you can run it on hardware you already own. Over 2+ years, Home Assistant typically costs less, especially if you skip the Nabu Casa subscription and use free remote access methods like Tailscale or WireGuard.
Home Assistant has one of the largest smart home communities online. The official forum, Reddit (r/homeassistant has 500,000+ members), Discord, YouTube tutorials, and blog posts create an enormous knowledge base. Whatever question you have, someone has asked it before.
The HACS community store adds thousands of custom integrations and dashboard cards. Monthly releases bring new features. The Year of the Voice initiative is building local voice assistants. The project moves fast and gets better every month.
Hubitat's community is smaller but genuinely helpful. The official forum is active, and experienced users are generous with their time. But the ecosystem of third-party tools, tutorials, and custom add-ons is significantly smaller. If you hit an obscure issue, you might need to figure it out yourself.
Yes, and it is a surprisingly good setup for certain use cases. Some people run Hubitat as a dedicated Zigbee and Z-Wave radio, then connect it to Home Assistant through the Hubitat Maker API integration. This gives you:
This hybrid approach works best for people with large Z-Wave networks (50+ devices) who want the best of both worlds. For most people starting fresh, picking one platform is simpler.
For most people in 2026, Home Assistant is the better long-term investment. The ecosystem is growing faster, Matter support is more complete, the community is orders of magnitude larger, and the gap in ease-of-use has narrowed considerably. Hubitat is a solid choice if simplicity and Z-Wave reliability are your top priorities, but many Hubitat users eventually outgrow it and switch to Home Assistant. Starting with Home Assistant saves you that second migration.
Not sure which of your current devices work with Home Assistant? Our free scan checks your setup and tells you exactly what's compatible, what needs replacing, and what your migration looks like.
Start Free ScanHubitat is easier to get started with. You plug in the hub, pair your Zigbee or Z-Wave devices, and create rules through the web UI. Home Assistant has a steeper learning curve, especially if you want to customize dashboards or write YAML automations. However, the Home Assistant UI has improved enormously, and most people get comfortable within a weekend. If you plan to grow your smart home beyond basic automations, the time you invest in learning Home Assistant pays off quickly.
Yes. Some people run Hubitat as a dedicated Zigbee and Z-Wave radio, then connect it to Home Assistant through the Hubitat integration (via Maker API). This gives you Hubitat's solid radio reliability with Home Assistant's powerful automations and dashboards. It is a niche setup, but it works well for people with large Z-Wave networks who want the best of both worlds.
Hubitat has traditionally been praised for its rock-solid Z-Wave support with the built-in radio. Home Assistant uses Z-Wave JS, which has improved significantly and now supports S2 security, Long Range, and SmartStart. Both platforms handle Z-Wave well in 2026. Hubitat still has a slight edge for complex Z-Wave networks with many older devices, but the gap has narrowed considerably.
No. Hubitat works fully without any subscription. Remote access, cloud backup, and dashboards are all included with the hub purchase. Home Assistant is also free and open source, though it offers an optional Nabu Casa subscription at $6.50 per month for easy remote access, voice assistants, and cloud backups. You can set up remote access on Home Assistant for free using Tailscale, WireGuard, or Cloudflare Tunnel.
Hubitat tends to be more stable out of the box because it is a closed system with fewer moving parts. Home Assistant updates monthly and occasionally introduces breaking changes, though the update process has become much smoother. If you disable automatic updates on Home Assistant and only update when you need new features, both platforms are very reliable for daily use.
Consider switching if you want better dashboards, more integrations, energy monitoring, AI-powered cameras with Frigate, or a larger community for support. Many people who start with Hubitat eventually move to Home Assistant as their needs grow. You can also run both side by side during the transition. If Hubitat does everything you need and you are happy with it, there is no urgent reason to switch.