Installation
The first step is to install Home Assistant. We recommend a dedicated system to run Home Assistant. If you are unsure of what to choose, follow the Raspberry Pi guide to install Home Assistant Operating System.
Home Assistant offers four different installation methods. We recommend using one of the following two methods:
- Home Assistant Operating System: Minimal Operating System optimized to power Home Assistant. It comes with Supervisor to manage Home Assistant Core and Add-ons. Recommended installation method.
- Home Assistant Container: Standalone container-based installation of Home Assistant Core (e.g. Docker).
There are two alternative installation methods available for experienced users:
- Home Assistant Supervised: Manual installation of the Supervisor.
- Home Assistant Core: Manual installation using Python virtual environment.
The list below shows the installation method available based on the device and platform being used.
If you are using the Home Assistant Blue, the Home Assistant Operating System is already installed. Continue to onboarding.
Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi
- Home Assistant Operating System
- Home Assistant Container
- Home Assistant Core
ODROID
ODROID
- Home Assistant Operating System
- Home Assistant Container
- Home Assistant Core
ASUS Tinkerboard
ASUS Tinkerboard
- Home Assistant Operating System
- Home Assistant Container
- Home Assistant Core
Generic x86-64
Generic x86-64 (e.g. Intel NUC)
- Home Assistant Operating System
- Home Assistant Container
- Home Assistant Core
Windows
Windows
- Home Assistant Operating System (VM)
- Home Assistant Core
macOS
macOS
- Home Assistant Operating System (VM)
- Home Assistant Core
Linux
Linux
- Home Assistant Operating System (VM)
- Home Assistant Container
- Home Assistant Core
- Home Assistant Supervised
Alternative
Alternative
VM's not covered by other categories, NAS installations and community guides
Compare Installation Methods
| OS | Container | Core | Supervised | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automations | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Dashboards | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Integrations | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Blueprints | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Uses container | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Supervisor | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Add-ons | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Backups | ✅ | ✅1 | ✅1 | ✅ |
| Managed OS | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
backup integration.
onboarding