The Internet of Things (IoT) is as popular among tech enthusiasts as Home Assistant is, for a reason. It’s impossible to ignore Home Assistant as the solution to modern smart home and IoT problems. The platform is a free and open-source smart home system that offers local control, extra privacy, and granular automation building.
Home Assistant continues to grow, but I’m on the outside looking in at the boom. In fact, while many are leaving the Apple Home, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and Amazon Alexa ecosystems, I’m doubling down on them. I keep buying pricey smart home hardware, like displays, cameras, and lights, and continue paying for monthly subscriptions. Here’s why Home Assistant’s accessibility, localization, and customization aren’t enough to push me to leave Apple HomeKit and Google Home—and why I probably never will.
Home Assistant’s perks don’t sway me
I’ll DIY a lot, but my smart home is too important
The same aspects of Home Assistant that make it an incredible platform also make it a complete dealbreaker for my smart home. It’s a platform that runs locally on your home network, making it more private and secure than cloud-connected ecosystems. Local network control means that if the internet is down or a major server outage occurs—Cloudflare, I’m looking at you—your smart home won’t be affected. The idea is that Home Assistant’s local control also improves speed and reliability.
In fact, I’m about to tell you that, although some of my concerns about Google Home relate to privacy, I still won’t use Home Assistant. What’s the catch? Home Assistant is only as helpful as you make it, because you’ll need to build the entire thing yourself. There’s a major learning curve in the beginning, and regular updates could break things that previously worked.
Home Assistant has a large, active community with guides that help you fix common problems, but you should expect troubleshooting to be a part of the experience. That’s especially true at the beginning of Home Assistant setup. While that isn’t a problem for some, I’ve decided that DIY-ing my smart home is too big a risk. I love tinkering and troubleshooting, and I enjoy upgrading old tech and tinkering with my audio setup.
Here’s the thing—if I break my old iPod or my home audio system, I’ll be without physical media for a few days, at worst. I’ll still be able to stream music and go on with my life. Now, if I’m tinkering with Home Assistant and make a mistake, or a sudden update bricks my gear? I could be without a reliable Wi-Fi network, security camera recording, or remote alarm notifications.
Those are mission-critical elements of my smart home that I don’t trust Home Assistant—or, more specifically, a Home Assistant system I built and maintain—to keep running 24/7.
Google Home offers almost everything I need
I must admit, it’s pretty reliable for Wi-Fi, cameras, and more
It helps my choice that, albeit expensive, Google Home covers almost all my smart home needs. Even the pricing isn’t too much of an issue anymore, because the Google Home Premium subscription is now included with the Google One AI Pro plan I already pay for. I’ve heard Google Home has become massively unreliable in recent years, and I’ve experienced a few issues myself. Gemini replacing Google Assistant fixed most of my qualms instantly, and it’ll only get better.
There are a few Google Nest hardware products I absolutely love, including the Nest Hub, Nest Hub Max, Nest Wi-Fi Pro, and Nest Doorbell Battery, plus a few Nest Cams I’m about to add. It’s true that all of these products support Home Assistant—some better than others, but nothing beats the stock Google Home experience for me. I can trust Google Home to provide consistent video event recording, a stable Wi-Fi network, extensive remote management features, and excellent voice-enabled help on powerful smart displays.
Apple Home’s secure video is a game-changer
Simple, easy-to-use, and end-to-end encrypted video? Say less!
It’s 2025, and by this point, I despise Siri as a virtual assistant. It wasn’t good enough a decade ago, and it’s definitely not good enough in the age of Gemini. There’s just one thing I need Apple Home for—HomeKit Secure Video. Notably, Google Nest video recording is encrypted, but not end-to-end encrypted. For places in my home where privacy is paramount, I’ll only use HomeKit Secure Video cameras for cloud-based end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) video.
I get unlimited HomeKit Secure Video recording with my Apple One subscription, and HomeKit-compatible video cameras are cheap and easy to find. Having an E2EE home security camera that I can securely view from anywhere completes my smart home, using only the Apple and Google ecosystems.
Sometimes, simplicity beats customization
I respect Home Assistant, but it’s not for me
I wouldn’t be surprised if I eventually dabbled in Home Assistant. There are parts of the platform that intrigue me, like the ability to build custom smart hardware—such as hand-built salinity sensors or smart home dashboards. However, I’d never explore using Home Assistant for products I’d consider essential. My Wi-Fi network, security cameras, and motion sensors are too important to risk them falling short if there’s a Home Assistant issue, even if it’s my fault.
Meanwhile, I can’t help but view mainline, cloud-based smart home ecosystems as being on the upswing as well. Home Assistant is surging, but so is Matter, the interconnected smart home standard supported by Apple, Google, and other brands. Just this month, Matter 1.5 was released, potentially allowing Matter-supported smart home cameras to join any smart home platform of your choice. I’ve been following Matter for years, and although it’ll never be as free and open-source as Home Assistant, I’m hopeful it’ll realize the interoperability dream.
For now, the simplicity and reliability of Apple and Google Home make them irreplaceable in my smart home setup. I’m glad Home Assistant exists, but I’m sticking with the big brands.
