Installation Methods and First Boot
Choosing Your Hardware
Home Assistant runs on a wide range of hardware, from a $15 Raspberry Pi to a dedicated mini PC. Your choice depends on your budget, how many devices you plan to manage, and whether you want to use features like camera recording that demand more processing power.
Home Assistant Green is the official hardware from Nabu Casa, the company behind Home Assistant. It is a small, purpose-built box that costs around $99 and comes pre-installed with Home Assistant. Plug it into your router, power it on, and you are up and running. This is the easiest option if you want to avoid any setup complexity. It has enough power for a moderate smart home with a few dozen devices.
Home Assistant Yellow is the premium official option at around $150 to $200 (depending on configuration). It includes a built-in Zigbee and Thread radio, an M.2 SSD slot for faster storage, and a more powerful processor. If you plan to run a large smart home or want built-in radio support without USB dongles, this is an excellent choice.
Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 is the classic DIY option. A Pi 4 with 4GB of RAM is sufficient for most installations. A Pi 5 is more powerful and recommended if available. You will need to flash the Home Assistant OS image to a microSD card (or preferably an SSD via USB for better performance and reliability). Total cost with a case, power supply, and SD card is around $70 to $100.
Mini PC or old laptop is the powerhouse option. An Intel NUC, Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny, or similar mini PC running Home Assistant OS provides the most headroom. If you plan to run camera recording (with Frigate), a large number of integrations, or resource-intensive add-ons, a mini PC with 8GB or more of RAM and an SSD is the way to go. You can often find used mini PCs for $100 to $150.
Installation Methods Explained
Home Assistant can be installed in several ways, and choosing the right one matters:
Home Assistant Operating System (HAOS) is the recommended method for most people. It installs a complete operating system purpose-built for Home Assistant, including a supervisor that manages updates, add-ons, backups, and system health. You get the full Home Assistant experience with the least hassle. Install it on a Raspberry Pi, mini PC, or in a virtual machine.
Home Assistant Container runs Home Assistant as a Docker container on an existing Linux system. You get the core Home Assistant experience but without the Supervisor, which means no built-in add-on store and no graphical backup management. This is for people who already run Docker and want to manage everything themselves.
Home Assistant Core is a manual Python installation. It provides the Home Assistant application only, with no Supervisor and no Docker. This is for developers and advanced users who want complete control over every aspect of the installation. Not recommended for beginners.
For this course, we will assume you are using HAOS, as it provides the smoothest experience and access to all features.
Step-by-Step: First Boot
Once you have flashed HAOS to your hardware (following the instructions at home-assistant.io for your specific device), here is what to expect:
- Connect and power on. Connect your device to your router via Ethernet (strongly recommended over Wi-Fi for the server). Plug in the power supply. Wait about 5 to 10 minutes for the initial boot and setup. The first boot takes longer because HAOS needs to resize partitions and configure itself.
- Access the web interface. Open a browser on any computer or phone connected to the same network and navigate to http://homeassistant.local:8123. If that does not work, try http://homeassistant:8123 or find your device's IP address in your router's admin panel and use that instead.
- Create your account. You will be prompted to create the owner account. This is the admin account for your Home Assistant installation. Choose a strong, unique password. This account has full access to everything, so treat it like you would any sensitive credential.
- Set your location. Home Assistant will ask for your home's location. This is used for sun-based automations (sunrise/sunset times), weather forecasts, and time zone settings. The location is stored locally and not shared with any external service.
- Review discovered devices. Home Assistant will automatically scan your network and present any devices it discovers. You might see your smart TV, Chromecast, Sonos speakers, Philips Hue bridge, or other discoverable devices. You can set these up now or skip and do it later.
- Complete the onboarding. After the initial wizard, you will land on the Home Assistant dashboard, which shows a default overview of any devices you configured during setup.
Essential First Steps After Installation
Before you start adding devices, take care of a few housekeeping items:
Enable automatic backups. Go to Settings, then System, then Backups. Configure automatic daily backups. By default, Home Assistant keeps a week's worth. If something goes wrong with an update or configuration change, you can restore a backup and be back to normal in minutes.
Set up remote access (optional). If you want to control your home from outside your network, the easiest option is the Nabu Casa subscription, which provides secure remote access without any network configuration. Alternatively, you can set up a reverse proxy with your own domain, but this requires more networking knowledge.
Install the mobile app. The Home Assistant Companion app for iOS and Android provides push notifications, location tracking for presence detection, and quick access to your dashboard. It also exposes your phone's sensors (battery level, steps, Wi-Fi connection) as entities in Home Assistant, which you can use in automations.
Familiarize yourself with the interface. Spend 10 minutes clicking through the sidebar. Settings is where you configure devices and automations. Developer Tools is where you can test services and inspect entity states. The overview dashboard is what you will use day-to-day.