New Here - HassIO vs HassOS vs Home Assistant?

jal5376 · July 16, 2020, 1:47pm

I have seen a lot about Hassio vs hassos vs home assistant and was hoping to get clarification on installs since im just diving into Home Assistant. So far love it! I have installed this a few different ways over the last few days and it seems like there are different instances but what im not clear on is the question below…

Is there a difference between hassio, hassos, home assistant terminology or installs?

It seems like if i install via a Virtual Box for example there is a admin tab called supervisor? And if i install via Docker it does not have that option. Either way though it looks like the

Is that an issue or will i run into problems in the long run and can either/or be installed on any environment? I read some things on certain builds being depreciated so i just wanted to make sure i was on something that was going to be “supported” for the unforeseeable future.

Thanks in advance

tom_l · July 16, 2020, 1:50pm

Have a read of this for a summary of the different capabilities of each install method:

jal5376 · July 16, 2020, 2:38pm

Thanks that is really useful actually. SO are there any benefits from running as a fully supervised install to get the “full experience”? Addons i know are an option with it. Currently i am running in Docker as a container, just diving into that as well but i thought it may be the best case scenario if i want to try integrating smartthings devices with home assistant without using nabu casa at least from what i have read. The piece i may be missing or am confused on is Supervised VS Container installs. It looks like they both use Docker but one is supervised and one isn’t.

123 · July 16, 2020, 3:23pm

The installation methods shown in that table are ordered by, what I would characterize as, “management convenience”.

The first two installation methods include Supervisor which performs management tasks. For example, it makes it very easy to upgrade Home Assistant and to backup all configuration information. It also provides the Add-Ons ecosystem.

An Add-On is a curated companion application, distributed as a Docker container that has been customized to integrate with Home Assistant. You can browse the list of Add-Ons then select and configure a desired Add-On, even monitor the Add-On’s logs, all from the main UI. The first installation method (Home Assistant OS) extends this level of management convenience to the underlying operating system (so it too can be upgraded from the main UI).

You have used the Docker installation method which means you will need to manage software upgrades and install companion applications on your own. Naturally, you will also have to manage all operating system upgrades as well. Should you install Mosquitto MQTT Broker and wish to employ user accounts, these accounts are created and managed separately from Home Assistant.

In contrast, if you were to install the Mosquitto Add-On (when using either Home Assistant OS or Home Assistant Supervised), Mosquitto’s user accounts are the same as Home Assistant’s user accounts so they can be managed in Configuration > Users. That’s an example of the “management convenience” and “integration” I mentioned.