Every guide on SimplyHA.
Plain-English Home Assistant tutorials, from “what is this” to “it just works.”
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Home Assistant Presence Detection That Actually Works
You set up the automation. When everyone leaves home, turn off the lights and lower the thermostat. For three days it works.…
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Best Zigbee Devices for Beginners (2026 Edition)
You picked Zigbee. Smart move. You’ve got the coordinator picked out (SONOFF Plus, SkyConnect, or whatever you settled on after the protocols…
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Nabu Casa: Is It Actually Worth $6.50 a Month?
You finished your Home Assistant install. You’re proud. You open the getting-started guide and see a cheerful link: “Sign up for Home…
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Replace Your Ring Subscription with Home Assistant (The Honest Guide)
Three years ago you bought a Ring doorbell for $100. Felt like a deal. Then Ring Basic was $3 a month. Then…
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Home Assistant vs. Alexa vs. Google Home: Which One Do You Actually Need?
You’ve spent an hour on Reddit. Alexa people are defending Alexa. Google people are defending Google. Home Assistant people are telling everyone…
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Zigbee vs. Z-Wave vs. Matter vs. Wi-Fi: What Should You Actually Buy?
You’re standing in the smart bulb aisle at Home Depot holding two boxes that look almost identical. One says “Works with Alexa.”…
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Building a Home Assistant Dashboard You’ll Actually Look At
Your house is running Home Assistant now. A handful of automations are firing. A few integrations are talking. You open the app…
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What Integrations Should You Add First? (A Beginner’s Shortlist)
You click Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration, and Home Assistant shows you a search box above what it cheerfully…
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Your First 5 Automations (And Why “Routine” Doesn’t Cut It)
You’ve installed Home Assistant. You’ve clicked through the onboarding wizard. You opened the Automations tab and found a mostly empty screen with…
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How to Install Home Assistant Without Losing Your Mind
So you’ve decided on your hardware. Now it’s time to actually install Home Assistant. This is the part that scares most beginners…
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Raspberry Pi vs. Home Assistant Green vs. Mini PC: Which Should You Buy?
You’ve decided Home Assistant is the move. Great. Now you need a small computer to run it on. Ask Reddit and within…
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What is Home Assistant? (And do you actually need it?)
You bought a smart bulb at Target because it was $12. Then a smart plug, because the Christmas tree extension cord situation…