Nabu Casa Home Assistant, Green

After years of relying on Alexa for basic smart home control, I wanted something more capable - better integrations, real automation, and full control over my setup. Home Assistant delivers all of that and then some. It’s incredibly powerful (more than I expected), with a huge range of tools and customisation options - including raw configuration and advanced editors. I can see why some people say you need a degree to use it. I’m fairly technical, but still needed some help from ChatGPT to set up certain integrations and write custom configurations. Important: Make sure your Home Assistant Green is running Home Assistant OS, not Home Assistant Container. Mine arrived with Container, which is a stripped-back version intended for advanced users running Docker. It lacks add-on support and makes setup more complex. Home Assistant OS provides the full experience, including access to add-ons and much easier management. Since the Green is designed for HA OS, it’s a bit odd that mine came with Container. Fortunately, Home Assistant OS was very easy to install via a microSD card loaded with the correct package. The "Green" hardware itself is excellent - completely silent and runs very smoothly One of the biggest advantages is device integration and centralised management. I’ve been able to bring everything together in one place, including lighting, smart plugs, and even my Annke IP cameras (using Hikvision integration). Having everything unified in a single system makes automation far more useful than managing devices separately across different apps. The one integration I had some difficulty with was Eufy. I’m using the E340 video doorbell on battery power, which means you can’t leave the stream running continuously without draining it. To work around this, I manually call the camera.turn_on and camera.turn_off services so the camera only activates when needed. It works well once set up, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re using battery-powered devices. The only caveat is that remote access and voice assistant integration typically require a Home Assistant Cloud subscription. However, if you’re willing to invest some time, there are free alternatives. I set mine up using Cloudflare and a custom Alexa skill, so the only ongoing cost is a domain (around £8/year). I was initially planning to use Cloudflare Zero Trust option for additional protection, but it breaks too many Home Assistant integrations. Fortunately, Home Assistant has robust MFA built in. It’s been a learning curve, but absolutely worth it.

Absolute simplicity for a new starter with Home Assistant (as I am). Plug it in and connect the network cable. That's it no other connections required. Log into it from whatever you have handy and follow the prompts then away you go. No noisy fans. It runs cold. It just works. Happy days.

Great device for starters. Plug in and play once paired with dongle for zigbee/ matter etc

Works perfectly, easy setup. Running multiple products, vendors, ZigBee dongle

The item itself is excellent. Unfortunately, Home Assistant is too complex for my needs so I returned it. My fault for not understanding the requirements and functionality before buying!

Great product. Works as advertised straight out of the box. No surprises. Will do exactly what you paid for and do it well. It is a tad expensive here though and there are cheaper places to find it. Would have got 5 stars if the price was £30 less.

Too expensive for what it is.. You can get same functionality by buying a cheaper alternative on mini PC

Completely Useless In my Opinion It takes about 3 PHD Degrees to figure everything out. Looks great on YouTube videos but its taken me several hours just to turn a few lights on. and now i cant access it at all, I've had to reboot everything. I've only had it about 6 hours. I only use Tapo and Ring. and Alexa Devices and they all work fine together. If you cant access the home Assistant hub its about as useful as a tea coaster. And at £140 its going back first thing in the morning. Im not denying it cant do more functions but good luck figuring it out. Unless you have got experience in writing Code and you want it to specific things then its pretty pointless. even more so if it actually wont work when you need it to.