Alexa Plus costs $20/month. Ring Protect is extra. Guard Plus is extra. Amazon keeps charging more while listening to your conversations and showing ads on your Echo Show. If you're done being the product, this guide walks you through moving everything to Home Assistant. Your devices, your routines, your data. Most people finish in a weekend.
Amazon turned your smart home into a revenue stream. Here's what's driving people away.
Alexa Plus costs $19.99/month for "smarter" AI. Ring Protect starts at $3.99/month per camera. Guard Plus is $4.99/month. A household with 3 Ring cameras and Alexa Plus pays over $380/year just for features that used to be free or never existed.
Echo devices record and send voice clips to Amazon's cloud. Employees review recordings. Alexa data gets used for ad targeting. Amazon even shares Ring footage with law enforcement without your consent in some cases. Your home shouldn't be a surveillance product.
Ask for the weather, get a product suggestion. Flash Briefing comes with promotions. Echo Show displays shopping recommendations. Amazon treats every interaction as a sales opportunity. You paid for the hardware, and you're still the product.
When Amazon's servers go down (and they do, multiple times a year), your entire smart home stops working. Lights won't turn on. Routines don't fire. Thermostats ignore schedules. A smart home that depends on a company's uptime isn't very smart.
Amazon designs Alexa to keep you buying Amazon products. Ring cameras only save to Ring's cloud. Echo speakers are less useful outside the Alexa ecosystem. The more you invest, the harder it is to leave. That's by design.
Alexa Routines look simple, but they're frustratingly limited. No conditional logic. No "if temperature is below X AND it's dark outside." No device state triggers beyond basic sensors. Home Assistant automations are in a completely different league.
| Cost | Amazon Alexa (per year) | Home Assistant (per year) |
|---|---|---|
| AI assistant | $240 (Alexa Plus) | Free (Assist, local LLMs) |
| Camera recording (3 cameras) | $144 (Ring Protect Plus) | Free (Frigate NVR) |
| Security monitoring | $60 (Guard Plus) | Free (Alarmo add-on) |
| Smart home platform | Free (but requires cloud) | Free (runs locally) |
| Hardware | Already purchased | ~€100-150 one-time |
| Year 1 total | $444+ | ~€100-150 (then €0/year) |
| Year 2 total | $888+ | ~€100-150 (still €0/year) |
Home Assistant pays for itself before you finish setting it up.
Good news: most of the smart devices you bought for Alexa already work with Home Assistant. You're mainly ditching the Amazon layer, not your hardware.
| Device | Status | What happens in Home Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Echo speakers (Dot, Studio, Pop) | Keep or replace | Alexa Media Player integration lets you use them for TTS, announcements, and media playback from HA. For fully local voice, add ESP32 satellites ($10-15 each). |
| Echo Show (5, 8, 10, 15) | Keep or replace | Still works as a speaker via Alexa Media Player. For a local dashboard, replace with a cheap Android tablet running the HA Companion App. |
| Fire TV Stick / Fire TV Cube | Works great | Android TV integration gives full media control, app launching, and state tracking. Can also display HA dashboards via the browser. |
| Echo Sub / Echo Link | Limited | Audio playback works through Alexa Media Player. No direct local integration for the Sub's audio processing. |
| Device | Status | What happens in Home Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Ring Video Doorbell | Works, still needs cloud | Ring integration shows motion events and snapshots. Live view works but requires Ring cloud. For fully local: switch to a Reolink doorbell (€60-80). |
| Ring Stick Up / Spotlight / Floodlight Cam | Works, still needs cloud | Motion events, snapshots, and siren control work. Video storage still requires Ring Protect. Local alternative: Reolink or Amcrest + Frigate NVR. |
| Ring Alarm | Replace recommended | ring-mqtt HACS add-on gives basic arming/disarming. For a proper local alarm, use Zigbee contact/motion sensors + Alarmo add-on. More reliable, no monthly fee. |
| Ring sensors (contact, motion) | Replace recommended | Ring sensors only work through Ring's hub. Swap for Aqara or IKEA Zigbee sensors (€8-12 each). They're cheaper, faster, and work locally. |
| Device Type | Status | What happens in Home Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Zigbee (Philips Hue, IKEA, Aqara, Sonoff) | Works perfectly | Connect directly via a Zigbee coordinator (SkyConnect, Sonoff ZBDongle). No cloud needed. Actually faster and more reliable than through Alexa. |
| Wi-Fi plugs and switches (TP-Link Kasa, Meross, Shelly) | Works perfectly | Native integrations for most brands. Shelly and Kasa work 100% locally. Tuya devices can be flashed to Tasmota or ESPHome for local control. |
| Z-Wave devices (Aeotec, Zooz, Fibaro) | Works perfectly | Z-Wave JS integration. Add a Z-Wave stick and all your devices pair directly. Faster response than cloud-routed Alexa commands. |
| Matter/Thread devices | Works perfectly | Native Matter support in Home Assistant. Matter devices are designed to work across platforms, making them ideal for migration. |
| Smart thermostats (Nest, ecobee, tado) | Works perfectly | All major thermostats have Home Assistant integrations. Most offer better climate automations through HA than through Alexa. |
| Robot vacuums (Roborock, Dreame, iRobot) | Works perfectly | Full control including room-specific cleaning, schedule management, and map display. Better than the Alexa "start cleaning" command. |
| Alexa Routines | Rebuild as automations | Recreate in Home Assistant's automation editor. Way more powerful: device state triggers, templates, conditions, scripts, and no cloud dependency. |
Three budget tiers to run Home Assistant. Pick based on your setup size and how much you plan to grow.
Good for: small to medium setups (up to ~50 devices). Easy to get started.
Pi setup guide →Good for: most households. Plug and play, official hardware, no tinkering required.
Green review →Good for: large setups, camera AI, running multiple services. Grows with you.
Mini PC guide →A practical step-by-step plan. Don't unplug Alexa yet. Run both systems in parallel during the transition.
Every Alexa Routine has a Home Assistant equivalent. Most are more powerful. Here's how your common routines translate.
| Alexa Routine | Home Assistant Automation | What's better |
|---|---|---|
| "Good morning" (lights + weather + news) | Time trigger + turn on lights + TTS weather via Companion App | Add sunrise-based brightness, skip on weekends, check calendar first |
| "Goodnight" (lock doors + lights off + thermostat) | Button press, voice command, or NFC tag trigger | Verify all doors are actually locked (sensors), set alarm, report status |
| "I'm leaving" (away mode) | Presence detection (phone GPS + Companion App) | Automatic, no voice command needed. Triggers when everyone actually leaves |
| "I'm home" (lights on + disarm) | Zone enter trigger via Companion App | Triggers before you walk in. Can check time of day, adjust lights to current brightness |
| Motion sensor lights | Device state trigger + conditions | Add illuminance check (only when dark), time conditions, adaptive brightness |
| Scheduled thermostat changes | Time + presence + temperature triggers | Real conditional logic: heat only when someone's home AND temp is below target |
| Ring doorbell announcement | Camera motion trigger + snapshot + notification | AI person detection, snapshot attached to notification, actionable buttons (unlock door) |
automation:
- alias: "Good Morning Routine"
trigger:
- platform: time
at: "07:00:00"
condition:
- condition: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.workday_sensor
state: "on"
- condition: state
entity_id: person.you
state: "home"
action:
- service: light.turn_on
target:
area_id: bedroom
data:
brightness_pct: 30
color_temp_kelvin: 2700
- delay: "00:05:00"
- service: light.turn_on
target:
area_id: bedroom
data:
brightness_pct: 80
color_temp_kelvin: 4000
- service: climate.set_temperature
target:
entity_id: climate.thermostat
data:
temperature: 21This routine only fires on workdays when you're actually home, starts with warm dim light, gradually increases brightness over 5 minutes, and sets the thermostat. Try doing that with an Alexa Routine.
Ring is the hardest part of leaving Alexa. Here are your options.
The Home Assistant Ring integration gives you motion events, snapshots, siren control, and alarm arming. Live video works but still routes through Amazon's cloud. You'll still need Ring Protect for video history.
Best for: people who want a gradual transition. Keep Ring cameras working while you evaluate alternatives.
Ring integration guide →Switch to Reolink or Amcrest cameras (€40-80 each) and run Frigate NVR. You get AI-powered person/car/pet detection, 24/7 recording to local storage, and zero monthly fees. Most people say the detection is better than Ring's.
Best for: people ready to fully cut Amazon. One-time cost, no subscriptions ever.
Camera guide →The Alarmo add-on turns Home Assistant into a proper security system. Use Zigbee door/window sensors (€8-12 each), motion sensors, and sirens. Features Ring Alarm doesn't have: per-sensor arming, custom delays per zone, and integration with everything else in your smart home. Total cost for a 3-door, 2-motion sensor setup: about €60 once. Ring Alarm's monitoring costs more than that per year.
You don't have to give up voice commands. You have options, from running both in parallel to going fully local.
Keep your Echo speakers and add the Alexa integration. Home Assistant exposes entities to Alexa, so you still say "Alexa, turn on the lights" but Home Assistant does the actual work. Best of both worlds during transition.
Home Assistant's built-in voice assistant runs entirely on your hardware. Uses Whisper for speech-to-text and Piper for text-to-speech. Add ESP32-S3-BOX or ATOM Echo satellites around your home (€10-15 each). No cloud, no recordings, no subscriptions.
Voice control guide →The Companion App gives you full control from your phone. Wall-mounted tablets with dashboards replace Echo Shows with something way more customizable. Siri Shortcuts and Google Assistant can also trigger HA automations.
| Feature | Alexa | Home Assistant Assist |
|---|---|---|
| Smart home control | Good | Good (improving fast) |
| General knowledge | Good (with Alexa Plus) | Limited (can add LLMs) |
| Privacy | Cloud-processed, data collected | 100% local, nothing leaves your home |
| Monthly cost | $0-20 (Plus for AI) | $0 |
| Works offline | No | Yes |
| Custom wake words | Limited (Alexa, Echo, Computer) | Fully customizable |
| Response speed | 1-3 seconds (cloud roundtrip) | Under 1 second (local) |
Run both systems in parallel. Let Alexa handle voice while Home Assistant takes over automations and device control. Phase Alexa out gradually as you get comfortable.
What frustrates you most about Alexa? Slow routines? Limited conditions? That's your first Home Assistant project. Early wins keep you motivated.
Zigbee devices are the sweet spot for Home Assistant: cheap, reliable, local, and battery-efficient. A SkyConnect stick (€30) gives you access to the entire ecosystem. You'll want it eventually.
Nothing kills migration motivation like losing your setup to a corrupt SD card. Set up automated backups on day one. It takes 5 minutes and saves hours of pain.
Don't build everything from scratch. The Blueprint Exchange has hundreds of pre-built automations. Motion lights, climate schedules, notification patterns. Import, configure, done.
If you have cheap Wi-Fi devices that work through the Tuya/Smart Life app, many can be flashed with Tasmota or ESPHome for fully local control. Check before you buy replacements.
The Home Assistant community on Reddit (/r/homeassistant), Discord, and the official forums is genuinely helpful. Someone has already solved whatever problem you're hitting. Search before you post.
No voice recordings sent to Amazon. No data mining. No employees listening. Everything processes on your own hardware in your own home.
Home Assistant is free forever. Frigate replaces Ring Protect. Alarmo replaces Guard Plus. Your Year 1 hardware cost is less than 3 months of Alexa Plus.
No cloud roundtrips. Lights respond in milliseconds. Automations fire even when your internet is down. Your smart home finally feels smart.
2,800+ integrations. Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Matter, Thread, Bluetooth. Mix and match from any manufacturer. No ecosystem tax.
Conditions, templates, device triggers, sun position, presence, weather data. Build automations Alexa Routines can't even dream of.
Open source, community-driven, no shareholders demanding growth. Home Assistant gets better because contributors care, not because a company needs your data.
If you're leaving one cloud platform, switching to another one just delays the same problems.
Google is shutting down Google Assistant in March 2026. Their smart home division has been chaotic for years. Nest products keep losing features. Moving from one dying ecosystem to another doesn't make sense.
Full comparison →HomeKit works well but only with Apple devices. Limited device support (compared to HA's 2,800+ integrations). Basic automations. Expensive ecosystem. If you have non-Apple users in your household, it's a non-starter.
Full comparison →Open source. Runs locally. Works with everything. Free forever. No company can shut it down, change the terms, or start charging subscriptions. You own it. That's the point.
Get started →Run a free scan to see exactly which of your devices migrate to Home Assistant, what needs replacing, and what it will cost. Takes 2 minutes.
Free scan takes 2 minutes. Full migration reports from €19.
Yes. The Alexa Media Player HACS integration lets you use Echo speakers for announcements, TTS, and media playback from Home Assistant. You can keep Alexa for voice commands while Home Assistant handles the actual automations and device control. Many people run both in parallel permanently. For fully local voice control, add ESP32-based satellites running Home Assistant Assist.
No. Most smart devices that work with Alexa also work with Home Assistant. Zigbee devices (Philips Hue, IKEA, Aqara), Wi-Fi devices (TP-Link Kasa, Shelly, Meross), Z-Wave devices, and Matter devices all connect directly. The only things you might replace are Ring products (if you want fully local cameras/security) and Echo speakers (if you want local voice control).
Most people complete the core migration in a single weekend. Saturday for setting up Home Assistant and connecting devices. Sunday for rebuilding routines as automations. Complex setups with Ring cameras, multiple Echos, and many routines might take a few extra evenings. You can also run both systems in parallel during a longer, more gradual transition.
Alexa Plus costs $19.99/month ($240/year) for AI-powered conversations and smarter routines. Home Assistant offers powerful automations, local voice control, and AI integrations (including local LLMs) for free. The one-time hardware cost of Home Assistant (€80-150) pays for itself in the first month or two compared to Alexa Plus alone. And unlike Alexa Plus, your Home Assistant doesn't get worse if Amazon has a bad quarter.
Initial setup takes more effort than plugging in an Echo. But daily use is actually easier. Automations are more reliable (local, no cloud delays). The companion app gives you full control from your phone. Dashboards show exactly what you need. The learning curve is steepest in the first week. Most people find it more intuitive than the Alexa app within a month.
The most popular options: Raspberry Pi 5 (~€80 with case and PSU), Home Assistant Green (€99, plug and play), or a mini PC (~€120, best performance). Add a Zigbee coordinator like the SkyConnect (€30) if you have Zigbee devices. Total: €80-150, less than one year of Alexa Plus.
Absolutely, and this is the recommended approach. Keep your Echo speakers for voice while Home Assistant handles automations and device control. The Alexa integration lets you expose HA entities to Alexa. Say "Alexa, turn on the lights" and Home Assistant executes the command locally. Over time, phase out Alexa as you get comfortable with Home Assistant Assist.
The Ring integration gives you motion alerts, snapshots, and alarm control. But video still routes through Amazon's cloud and needs Ring Protect for history. For fully local cameras with no subscriptions, switch to Reolink/Amcrest + Frigate NVR. A Reolink camera (€40-80) + Frigate gives you AI detection, 24/7 recording, and zero monthly fees. Better detection than Ring.