Hey! Laura from Nabucasa here! I’m working with the Product team that helps maintain and improve the core structure of Home Assistant in the Open Home Foundation.
I’m here because I want to learn how you pick the right device, to be sure we are exposing the right info and helping you get the right one too, so getting what you need is simpler but always 100% your choice (everyone makes decisions based on their own needs differently). The purpose being learning if we can figure out ways to support you better in those choices. Posted also on Discord but wanted to have your inputs too.
I do have my own personal experience with HA and I read the forums, reddit and discord as much as I can, but I thought it makes more sense to just ask you directly and get your feelings from small polls or comments. All help is welcome!
When you want to find the right device, what is the very first thing you start looking for?
Everyone looks for something different,some things I could think of as possibilities:
The end purpose I need, in case it exists - Plant controller, air conditioning controller, car door controller…
The device type - plug, temperature sensor, movement sensor… regardless of the purpose
The brand, in case a brand I like has a device I could use
A rough description of the goal, in hopes to get a forum response etc.
High up on my list of things I look for is: is there a good integration with Home Assistant for any candidate device. If I can’t interact with it through HA then it won’t make the cut.
That being said, obviously other considerations are:
Will it actually do what I need from a functionality perspective?
Is it at a sensible price?
Has it had good reviews?
Is it wi-fi, zigbee, zwave or something else? I try to avoid wi-fi unless the data volumes make it necessary. I don’t want a wi-fi light bulb.
How is it powered?
What does it look like? Is it asthetically displeasing?
Seems super sensible. I appreciate the looking into the connectivity landscape it would land, I always look at that too - I had wi-fi lights upstairs before and everytime the wifi failed it was like living in a haunted house.
Out of curiosity, when talking “good reviews”, what is the kind of info that makes you trust it? volume of overall positives or comments with comprehensive feedback?
It is not like there is a priority list for a selection of a device.
There is a set of requirements that needs to be fulfilled and some of them can be fulfilled in different ways.
Of course it is a requirement that it can be controlled by HA, but I also have local-only control as a requirement.
Connectivity can be Matter, Zigbee and WiFi for me, but I prefer Matter and WiFi is generally a warning flag for me, since WiFi is just a transport protocol and not a communication protocol. The communication protocol can be an open API, but also a semi-closed one, like Tuya.
It is however a good research of the connectivity that makes me choose it and Matter is no guarantee. I have burned my fingers on Onvis Matter smart plugs that was labeled as compatible with many products, but when it came to updating the smart plug, then only an Apple Matter hub could be used, so it is in fact a Apple-only Matter product.
I prefer mains powered devices, so whenever that is an option I choose it, but I might also mains power a device with an USB charger and a little buck converter.
I evaluate each product in order to predict future support needs. Matter devices might need firmware updates, so 1-week Chinese lifetime vendors are ignored.
A brand is a plus and an old brand is a bigger plus and a brand that publicly support HA is the biggest plus.
Google searches and knowledge from the forum here is generally used to form a first product line up.
The line up is then researched on the vendors product pages and then reviews are read and watched to either move the product up or down/out of the list.
There was a move to create a review format (using the “user experience” tag). Some of the threads got quite a few replies, but it never really caught on.
The main things I look for in a device is if it requires a cloud connection to work or if I can use it fully local only as well as what it exposes in HA for control and how easy it is to setup (can I do this out of the box or do I need to some complex flashing just to have it fully local) then restore. i.e if its tuya wifi then I delete the listing from existence in my mind and move on to ones that are zigbee or matter wifi based instead.
I also dislike it when apps force you to use specific DNS ip’s as in the case for my air purifier app that forces me to use only google DNS in order to even work through it and its not listed anywhere about this so I had to waste the money on the product to find out and use it until l can afford a version that is fully local only.
After that do I actually need this device now or can it wait.
Looking at brand is moot in some cases since there are generic ones that are flyby night that just rotate through on listings and all have the same model when purchased as the official ones when added to HA… as long as the device is not made so poorly that it fails to work from the start or has issues overall or even starts fires and is a hazard then I can ignore the brand until it becomes an issue where I need to post up to give a warning.
Total cost is then the next factor due to being in australia not all things are available to us unless specificity listed on those shops and I have to account for shipping and if I need to invest in a battery eliminator for it later or do I leave it on batteries based on where and how I will be using it if its not already powered via USB or mains directly.
Required
Does it have a native integration with Home Assistant? Or, does it have a community integration that’s fairly well maintained (via HACS, etc)?
Nice to have
Can I do everything from Home Assistant / the API, or are some functions limited to the manufacturer’s app only? (Looking at you, Govee. )
Required unless there are no other options on the market
Does the device have LAN/local/offline control?
Nice to have / weighed against other factors
Is the price fair for the value received? Are other smart devices that are not HA-compatible significantly cheaper?
Required
Is the manufacturer well established, and do they have a trustworthy reputation? (A history of data breaches or selling information is usually a deal breaker.)
Nice to have
Is there readily available stock of the device, e.g. on popular online retailers? (I don’t want to buy a device, like it, and then go to buy 3 more only for them to be out of stock or discontinued.)
Required
Does the device use established smart home radios or protocols, such as Matter or a documented REST API? (I have a Z-wave only home, so my order of preference is Z-wave, then LAN/Ethernet, then Wi-Fi. I do not have support for Zigbee or Bluetooth, personally, at this time.)
Nice to have
Is the device hardwired or battery-powered? Proprietary connector, barrel jack, or USB? Are the batteries rechargeable or disposable?
Here’s my thought process when choosing a device for Home Assistant:
Integration support – The first thing I check is whether the device has native support in Home Assistant or at least a working integration via HACS (Google, Reddit or here). If it doesn’t, I move on.
Local vs. Cloud – I strongly prefer devices that work with a local API and don’t require cloud access to function.
Communication protocol – My preference is for wired solutions whenever possible, as they tend to be more reliable and don’t depend on wireless signal stability.
Availability – I check whether the device is easily accessible in my country.
Additionally, I tend to favor products made in the EU—let’s just say the color orange has some influence on that.
Overall, I follow the “Buy once, cry once” philosophy, meaning I prioritize quality and longevity over cost.
First and foremost I start looking at connectivity, and whether control is fully local and well-supported by HA. I don’t consider Tuya either of these, for example, but if it can be flashed to esphome I’ll consider it. Z-wave almost always just works, but selection is often limited, so I spend a lot of time researching internal WiFi modules.
Concurrently I look at functional requirements, usually analyzing specifications like voltage in/out, power limits, or specific wiring needs like three-way switching or dry contacts. Details matter.
Finally, if it’s a user interactive device (like a wall switch) then I care deeply about design and UX. It has to look good and be easy to use at the same time. I try to minimize the number of user interfaces on my walls that people have to learn, because even though the home is “smart” it must still function like it’s not.
Device websites rarely have any information about this sort of thing. In any case, it will depend on the integration. As someone else pointed out, different integrations may expose different entities.
One notable exception is Frient. They actually have a ZHA/Z2M compatibility table for their Zigbee devices.
protocol - zwave, zigbee, ble and wifi only if it can be supported via ESPHome (or Shelly since those devices seem to just work). That also means that by definition all of those devices will be local only so that concern becomes instantly moot.
price
availability
is it compatible with HA. That’s really only a concern for some zigbee devices and for BT devices.
as far as the priority of those items above it’s pretty much impossible to prioritize as each case has many factors to consider.
if a device is only available in zwave and I really need it then price isn’t a consideration as it’s the only option.
if it’s available in both zwave or zigbee then price can be a consideration as influenced by reliability of the devices. But typically I’ll go for zigbee over zwave due to price.
if it’s a BT device but not integrated into HA then I have to decide how bad I need it.
And again I generally stay away from wifi devices unless they are ESPHome or Shelly.
Thanks for reaching out! It’s always good to see the Nabu Casa staff on here.
But for this question, I think I totally missed the point. When you talked about improving the core structure of HA to expose the right information, my mind went to picking already-installed devices from a list. Apparently that’s not what you meant.
As for what device to buy, HA actually sets some of the restrictions. Like, it has to work with HA, have a well-supported integration, not depend on some manufacturer’s cloud solution, that sort of thing.
I’m curious to hear how the core structure of HA would help me with that decision. I can see that keeping ZHA in active development would keep my options open. Is that the sort of “structure” you’re asking about?
This is a very interesting point (sorry for replyig so late, personal stuff in the middle). I totally understand your point, and yes HA has a somehow restricted view on device picking depending on its own compatibility. As for the help itself, the I am not married to any solution at this point, I don’t feel I would have enough information to suggest any particular orientation. But I didn’t want to miss the chance to get a real insight on people’s mindset in the device picking process, regardless of me being able to help out or not. I am also an old HA user (since 2018, 280+ devices so far) and I don’t want to just project my personal experience.
I’m working with the Product team that helps maintain and improve the core structure of Home Assistant in the Open Home Foundation.
)
. I’m a sucker for that.