I wish to install HA on a clean/empty rPi4. Can I install and operate HA without having to purcase a Cloud subscription? I only wish to operate home devices on my local home network for the time being. Remote operation/monitoring is a future consideration. I can’t find any reference to this on the net.
yes you can install ha without a subscription. it is not required at all.
the subscription just gives you easy/secure remote access (but it isn’t required if you setup your own remote access).
even if you don’t need or want remote access, it does helps support HA and it’s ecosystems, so it is something to consider if you like and use ha a lot.
I think it’s one of those things that is so basic and core to Home Assistant that you might not find an answer in a search. Home Assistant can be run fully locally with no internet connection at all (except to download the install image).
You would need an internet connection to:
- update Home Assistant to a newer version
- use an integration that requires a connection to some cloud service (these are noted as requiring internet).
There is a paid cloud service through Nabu Casa that lets you access your Home Assistant instance from the internet, but that is completely optional. And if you understand networking and network security, you can do remote access without the Nabu Casa offering.
I did exactly that one month ago, on an rPi4 (4GB ram) so I think I should comment.
In my opinion the rPi 4 is sufficient. You should not need the cloud subscription as of December 2025. For my first few weeks I was hindered by trying to use the Home Assistant (“HA”) web interface at http://homeassistant.local:8123/ from a ten year old rPi2 with 1GB of ram; raaathuuur slooowwww. Moving to any better computer for 2026 web browsing including the cheapest Android14 tablet or an rPi5 was much better.
So, given a rPi4 with >=2GB of RAM, you probably have a suitable box to make into a home assistant. My HA reuses a 32GB micro-sd which had booted that same rPi4 previously and presently occupies about 6.5GB of it. To write from that rPi4 running raspbian on a second micro-sd, to a micro-sd on a usb micro-sd adapter, I’d used Raspberry Pi Imager from the usual raspbian desktop.
I’m doing things slowly and thoroughly - a wifi smart plug has kept me busy so I cannot comment on sd storage usage for bigger tasks. By default, a couple of hundred entities retain a data point at noticeable changes to their number or state, with programming effort on the part of HA having tried to evade too many writes to the database. It is storing less MB than I’d expected and retaining histories for almost two weeks, it would seem.
To get started at all, you could ssh and nano instead, or possibly samba and geanny, or installing the HA Add-On “File editor” is what I did. You’ll need at least one of those, I think.
I created automations to schedule an ordinary fan heater on the smart plug to run at times of lower electricity price. Attached is an example page from my electricity bill.
That chart by Octopus energy shows one day of “Agile” variable-price (pink), with DCC smart metering by halfhour intervals as dark bars. Taller bars were HA controlled activations of the fan heater.
As for remote, by default, my HA serves a local-only web interface which was immediately able to make my smartphone work as a remote controller while at home, and not accessible from away. Connecting a wifi smart plug to HA required some messing with the smartphone app of the supplier of the plug, giving it my wifi password, and that supplier app did successfully switch my smart plug from a smartphone whilst away from home. I think that their older-type-wifi device is accessible through Their cloud, and not visible to Home Assistant until it was sorted out with the supplier app.
To be able to see and install most of the HA features which everyone needs, seems to require installing “HACS” and emailing GitHub. For example that is a requirement before you get the “Apex Charts” card which is one of many possible starting points for ordinary charts on your user-editable Dashboard. Good luck, and never throw away a raspberry pi.