SmartThings has been around since 2014 and Samsung has poured resources into it. Home Assistant started as a hobby project and grew into the most popular open-source smart home platform on the planet. In 2026, after Samsung rebuilt SmartThings from scratch (killing Groovy, Edge drivers, new Routines) and Google shut down their Assistant hardware, this comparison matters more than ever. Here is an honest, detailed breakdown.
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The quick overview before we dig into each category.
| Category | Home Assistant | SmartThings |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | 100% local | Cloud-first, some local via Edge |
| Device Support | 2,800+ integrations | ~300 via Edge drivers + Matter |
| Protocols | Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, BLE, Matter, Thread | Zigbee, Z-Wave (built-in), Matter, Thread |
| Automations | Extremely powerful, unlimited | Routines (basic to moderate) |
| Dashboards | Highly customizable, beautiful | App-only, limited customization |
| Setup Difficulty | Moderate learning curve | Easy, plug and play |
| Hardware Cost | $60 (Pi) to $99 (Green) + dongles | ~$130 (hub with radios built in) |
| Subscription | None required ($6.50/mo optional) | None required |
| Privacy | All data stays local | Samsung account required, cloud processing |
| Community | Massive (forums, Reddit, Discord) | Active but smaller, Samsung forums |
| Future-Proofing | Open source, community-driven | Depends on Samsung's roadmap |
This is the biggest difference between these two platforms, and it affects everything else.
Home Assistant runs on hardware in your house. Your automations, device data, and history never leave your network. If your internet goes down, everything keeps working. No Samsung account, no telemetry, no dependency on anyone's servers. You own your data completely.
Want remote access? You choose how: Tailscale, Cloudflare Tunnel, WireGuard, or Nabu Casa. All on your terms.
SmartThings runs on Samsung's cloud servers. Your device commands, automations, and data flow through Samsung's infrastructure. The 2022 Edge driver migration moved some processing to the hub, but the app, Routines, and many integrations still need the cloud.
When Samsung's servers have outages (and they do), your smart home stops responding. In January 2024, a major SmartThings outage left users unable to control devices for hours.
Why this matters: Google killed Google Assistant hardware. Wemo exited smart home. Insteon died overnight and took everyone's setups with them. Cloud platforms only work as long as the company decides to keep them running. Local control means your smart home survives regardless of corporate decisions.
Home Assistant supports over 2,800 integrations, with thousands more available through HACS (Home Assistant Community Store). SmartThings supports around 300 devices via Edge drivers and a growing list of Matter devices.
Note: Since Samsung killed Groovy in 2022, many older community integrations stopped working. Edge drivers are rebuilding that ecosystem, but the catalog is still smaller.
SmartThings has a real advantage with Samsung appliances: washers, dryers, fridges, and TVs integrate natively. If you are deep in the Samsung ecosystem, that matters. For everything else, Home Assistant has dramatically broader support.
This is where the gap between the two platforms becomes really obvious.
Check out our 30 best automation ideas to see what is possible.
SmartThings Routines handle "if motion, turn on lights" beautifully. But something like "if it is a weekday, nobody is home, the washing machine power dropped below 5W for 3 minutes, and it is not a holiday, then announce on the kitchen speaker and send a push notification with the energy used" is where you hit the ceiling.
Real talk: If all you need is "lights on at sunset" and "lock the door at 11 PM," SmartThings handles that just fine. But once you start wanting your smart home to actually be smart (adaptive heating, presence-aware scenes, energy optimization), Home Assistant is in a completely different league.
Home Assistant and SmartThings take fundamentally different approaches to how you interact with your smart home.
Home Assistant gives you a full web-based UI that works on any browser, plus dedicated mobile apps for iOS and Android. The dashboards are deeply customizable: drag-and-drop card editors, custom themes, community cards via HACS (Mushroom, Bubble, Mini Graph), floorplan views, and wall-mounted tablet setups.
See our dashboard examples for inspiration.
SmartThings uses a mobile app as the primary interface. The app is clean and well-designed for basic control: rooms, devices, Routines, Scenes. But customization is limited. You cannot build custom views, add data visualizations, or create room-by-room control panels.
SharpTools (paid, third-party) adds better dashboards, but it is an additional cost and another cloud dependency.
Home Assistant runs locally, so internet outages do not affect it. Monthly updates occasionally introduce breaking changes, but you control when to update. The community catches issues fast, and patches usually ship within days.
Best practice: wait a day or two after each release before updating, and always keep backups.
SmartThings has had notable outages over the years. Cloud dependency means server issues = your automations stop. Edge drivers improved local reliability for basic device control, but Routines and the app still need the cloud.
Samsung also pushed a massive forced migration from Groovy to Edge in 2022-2023, breaking many setups. Users had to rebuild their automations and some lost devices that lacked Edge driver support.
| Item | Home Assistant | SmartThings |
|---|---|---|
| Hub / Hardware | $60 (Pi 4) to $99 (Green) | ~$130 (Aeotec hub) |
| Zigbee Coordinator | $25 to $35 (SkyConnect / Sonoff) | Built in |
| Z-Wave Stick | $35 to $45 (Aeotec / Zooz) | Built in |
| Software | Free (open source) | Free (included with hub) |
| Remote Access | Free (Tailscale/CF Tunnel) or $6.50/mo (Nabu Casa) | Free (built in via cloud) |
| Total Year 1 | $85 to $180 | ~$130 |
SmartThings wins on initial cost if you need both Zigbee and Z-Wave, since both radios are built into the hub. Home Assistant costs more upfront if you buy a dedicated box plus dongles. But Home Assistant has zero ongoing costs (unless you choose Nabu Casa), while SmartThings could have hidden costs if Samsung ever introduces a subscription or if you need SharpTools for better dashboards.
To be fair: SmartThings is still actively developed and Samsung has invested in Matter. But the platform has asked users to rebuild their setups at least twice in its history.
The lesson from 2025: Google killed Google Assistant hardware. Insteon died and took everyone's setup with them. Wemo exited. Cloud platforms are only as durable as the company behind them. Home Assistant, being open source and community-driven, does not have that single point of failure.
Yes, and many people do during a transition period. There are two main approaches:
Home Assistant has an official SmartThings integration. It connects to your SmartThings hub via Samsung's cloud API, letting you control all your SmartThings devices from within Home Assistant. Great for a gradual migration: keep your devices on SmartThings while you build your Home Assistant automations, then move devices over one at a time.
Both platforms support Matter. You can expose devices from one platform to the other using Matter bridging. This is still maturing, but it works for basic devices like lights and sensors. As Matter support improves in both platforms, this becomes an increasingly viable way to run them side by side.
Ready to make the move? Here is what the migration looks like.
Get a Home Assistant Green, Raspberry Pi, or mini PC. Install HAOS. Add a Zigbee coordinator and Z-Wave stick if you use those protocols.
Use the Home Assistant SmartThings integration to bring all your devices into HA via the cloud API. This lets you start building automations in Home Assistant while your devices are still on SmartThings.
Start with one room. Factory reset each Zigbee/Z-Wave device (usually a long button press), then pair it directly with your Home Assistant coordinator. Most devices pair in under 30 seconds. Do one room at a time so your house stays functional.
Recreate your SmartThings Routines as Home Assistant automations. The visual editor handles most cases. You will probably find yourself building automations that were impossible on SmartThings. Check out Blueprints for ready-made automation recipes.
Once all devices are migrated and automations are working, remove the SmartThings integration and unplug the hub. Keep it in a drawer for a week just in case, then enjoy your fully local smart home.
Want to know exactly what is compatible? Our free scan checks your specific devices and maps out your migration path. It takes about 2 minutes.
Start Free Device ScanSmartThings is a solid product that works well for basic smart home setups. If you just want to turn lights on and off and lock your door at night, it does the job. But the smart home world has shifted. Google killed their hardware. Samsung has rebuilt SmartThings twice. Insteon vanished overnight. The trend is clear: cloud platforms carry risk.
Home Assistant gives you something SmartThings cannot: independence. Your smart home works regardless of what any company decides. It takes more effort upfront, but you get a system that is more powerful, more private, and more durable. For anyone who plans to invest seriously in their smart home, that tradeoff is worth it.
For most power users and privacy-conscious people, yes. Home Assistant runs locally, supports 2,800+ integrations, and offers far more powerful automations. SmartThings is easier to set up and has decent built-in Zigbee and Z-Wave support, but it depends on Samsung's cloud servers. If those servers go down or Samsung changes direction again, your automations stop.
Most SmartThings-compatible devices work with Home Assistant because they use standard protocols like Zigbee and Z-Wave. You will need a Zigbee coordinator and possibly a Z-Wave stick. The SmartThings hub itself is not needed. Your sensors, switches, bulbs, and locks pair directly with Home Assistant.
Partially. Samsung added Edge drivers that run some automations locally on the hub. But many features, the SmartThings app, cloud-connected devices, and complex Routines still need internet. If your connection drops, you will lose functionality. Home Assistant runs entirely on your local network.
Samsung has not announced discontinuation, but the platform has been through major upheaval. They killed the Groovy IDE and SmartApps in 2022, forced everyone to migrate to Edge drivers, and deprecated the classic app years before that. The hardware lineup has also been confusing, with Samsung selling hubs, then a dongle, then a Station with built-in hub features.
Plan for a weekend. Set up your Home Assistant hardware, install a Zigbee coordinator and Z-Wave stick, then re-pair devices one by one. Most devices reset easily by holding a button. The actual pairing takes about 30 seconds per device. Recreating automations is the bigger job, but Home Assistant's visual editor makes it straightforward. Read our full migration guide for step-by-step details.
Yes. Home Assistant has an official SmartThings integration that connects to your hub via Samsung's cloud API. This lets you control SmartThings devices from Home Assistant while you gradually migrate. You can also use Matter to bridge devices between the two platforms.
Yes, SmartThings has no subscription fees. You buy the hub (around $130) and the service is free. Home Assistant is also free and open source. The optional Nabu Casa subscription ($6.50/mo) adds easy remote access and voice assistants, but you can set up remote access for free using Tailscale or Cloudflare Tunnel.
Both support Matter well in 2026. SmartThings was an early adopter with Wi-Fi and Thread support. Home Assistant has been expanding rapidly. The key difference: Home Assistant also supports thousands of non-Matter devices through its integration library, while SmartThings Matter support gives you a cloud-free local path for compatible devices.
Tell us your current SmartThings devices and we will map out your path to Home Assistant. Free, takes 2 minutes, no account needed.
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