My reason for full stop with OpenHAB was exactly as you described - confused from the UI selection, missing items, then VERY complicated adding of new devices... Ended up with NodeRed and happy ever since.
Interesting perspective! As a beginner, I agree with almost all of your points except the communities - I get better answers from the OpenHAB community. So, there may be more churn in posts in HA, but I feel the quality is better on the OpenHAB side. I had Openhab for 2 years, then switched to Home Assistant for 6 months and ended back on OpenHAB. What drove me away was 2 issues: 1. A weekly issue with Z-wave devices dropping out of the network where the community only offered "wait until the next release". 2. I prefer Java over YAML (and I deal with YAML often at work) For beginners, the OpenHAB interfaces may be confusing, but the result is a much more customizable system as you settle in. - In Habpanel I could have a strict tablet interface for my wall-mounted devices, each having their own layout depending on the room they're in. - In Paper UI I have a basic interface for setting up new devices and checking on various devices that I don't have a panel for (like battery voltages of Z-wave sensors). - In Habmin I have a powerful nuts-and-bolts interface that makes it easier to identify and troubleshoot issues. One last point - Unless I completely missed it, Home Assistant doesn't have a service like myopenhab.org. myopenhab.org is far more secure than opening up ports on my router to the world and is a big bonus many people miss.
Thanks for the feedback, that's really useful! The whole UI thing is really frustrating to me, but I'm glad that you like it, at the end of the day a lot of these things are down to preference. I did see about the remote access version, but I would prefer to actually dive into the security of both before making comment about it so decided to leave it out. Thanks again!
@@EverythingSmartHome It is a great thing that we have choices of such quality open source (and closed source) systems. Thanks a bunch for doing this video!
Michael, Home Assistant also has a service to make your store available remotely without opening ports. It also hooks into Alexa + Google Assistant. They do charge $5 per month for those services. But with that money the original developer can more work full time on Home Assistant, and he has hired 3-4 other developers to join him. I don’t need the remote access, but I feel it is $5 well spent! :) The pace of improvements has improved incredibly as more developers get to spend more time on the project!
I use both. Where I find a weakness in one I allow the other to take over that function. All my Z-wave and Alexa control is run through OpenHAB and I use HA for my printer, Vizio TVs, weather and location information. I mostly use Node-Red for automating both systems (it is odd having 2 Node-Red systems). The HABpanel interface with the HABpanel viewer app makes great for all my wall mounted tablets. I actually run a lovelace dashboard in HABpanel as well.
I think for a new user in 2020 this is a good comparison I started using openhab in 2017 and home assistant was Far and Away behind the capabilities of openhab at that time. it looks like home assistant has definitely caught up. There's definitely a learning curve to openhab not going to argue that it is definitely true. I will say I typically interact with openhab only through the cli and do not have the UI issues that you were experiencing. But again this goes back to the high learning curve that a new user may find difficult. I really liked the idea of having actionable push notifications in home assistant I hope openhab had this functionality soon. When I was evaluating these two platforms a few years ago home assistant didn't have any mobile apps now it seems like there's is a superior mobile app. The openhab cloud connector is also a big advantage in my opinion over openhab as far as remote connectivity to your home automation system. I do find the split between the UI and the CLI in openhab be a challenge for someone who is not used to how the system works.
Thanks for explaining and the feedback, really useful! I think that's what a lot of people are finding is how far Home Assistant has come in a short time, it's really amazing! Thanks again, really good insight!
A nice overview. But I found it very strange when you say "well I can not judge that on the OpenHAB side, so I give the point to HA" that kind of ruined the comparison for me.
Thanks! I said I was disgregarding the stability aspect for both platforms but I was still taking into consideration community and update cycle for which I gave the point to HA. Sorry if that wasn't clear, I'll try to improve! Thanks for the feedback!
I don't take videos like this as a contest to see how many points each one gets. I use these kind of videos to figure our the trade-offs and which things are important for me. So the video is very useful to me :)
Hi, I was a Openhab for several years and found it to be very clunky for new users, trying to run a security camera long term was impossible to do in habpanel or paper ui, it would quit after about 2 hrs and had to restart openhab to get it to work again, also presence detection was hard to implement and spotty at best making it hard to do automations based on who was home, I have moved to Homeassistant about a week ago and have set up my system better and faster then Openhab, so all in all an very accurate assessment of the 2 systems!
I found Home Assistant incredibly frustrating as a new user. The UI was non-obvious, there was no official documentation on how to use it, and instructions on the web described a wide variety of versions of the user interface, none of which looked like what I installed. Entities are poorly documented, the UI is confusing, I couldn’t remove devices that were added as I was trying to figure things out.
That's interesting you had that experience, I guess it just goes to show we are all different and think differently! What did you end up going with in the end?
Just a note.... As of version 2020.5 of the Home Assistant iOS app (released on August 11th) NFC tags are now supported. That being said, since the Android app is developed separately, I can’t speak to the features it supports.
I started on Home Assistant but ended up dropping it for openHAB after a few hours when I started trying to group light bulbs together but immediately had to drop into YAML files to do that. I'm no stranger to YAML, but so many devices in my home (like ceiling lights) have multiple bulbs that it was just shocking that there wasn't a user interface option to group them onto the same control. It gave me the impression that a lot of my fundamental configuration was going to end up spread across modifications to files, and that a year from now I wouldn't remember what I modified and where. I would say the initial learning curve to openHAB was steeper with bindings, things, channels, items, and item types like group or dimmer, and it was missing unusual things like being able to set a group item to the "color" type, but it felt more complete once I understood the vocabulary and how grouping worked (mirroring commands to all child items--so like, don't have two unlike points that both can accept the same command under the same group if you don't want both points to do something when you send a command to the group... or, in English, don't stick your light dimmer points in the same group as your color temperature points because sending "35" to the group is going to dim your lights to 35 and also adjust their color temperature at the same time). It really sold it to me that the idea of groups was just part of the system, and not something you had to manually tack on in a YAML file every time you needed one. I'm curious what all I could have done if I went deeper into Home Assistant, because my openHAB card setup was also quite the experience and I ended up programming my own custom control cards for most of my devices. I love the result, but it took a lot of reading and tinkering to get right, and I'm not sure I could have made things like cards controlling entire rooms' color, color temp, dimming, etc. for different devices if I wasn't a programmer to begin with. Maybe that's easier in HA, or maybe not.
The thing is, depending on what you're running HA on (most likely Linux), you can write a program yourself that'll edit the yaml files themselves based on values of other file (use python). You can even use Blynk app to do it. I'd simply make a virtual single bulb called kitchen, & when value was edited into that file, a python script will trigger detecting the change n then set the real bulb values of kitchen at that value. And by that script, even a year later I'll remember what I did if I just took a look at the script (and you can comment too)
Recently setup Home Assistant (specifically for access to ESPHome) after having heard about it for quite a while now. Before this video I wasn't even aware there were other projects similar to home assistant
Thank you for your well structured and informative video.✌🏽 The conditions settings missing a "and" function on the UI of openHAB was the most relevant for my interests. Home assistant supporting such a feature was the deciding factor in top of everything else. Thanks again!
Interesting video. On Ease of Use, I found HomeAssistant (which I tried before switching over to OpenHab) to be very confusing. OpenHAB isn't super straighforward as you discussed. However, to me, what I didn't like about HomeAssistant was the lack of documentation. This was a couple of years ago though, so hopefully they've improved in that area.
Any automation system should be chosen based on a set of requirements. My requirements are not extensive nor complex. I played with both openHAB and HomeAssistant on a Raspberry PI. I was able to learn the basics of both and your video did a good job explaining some differences between the two. After those trials I chose Hubitat. I've been completely satisfied. I won't say it's better than openHAB or HomeAssistant. I just feel it suits my requirements better. An investment in home automation is way more about the devices than the hub. I can always switch hubs and retain my device investment. Of course I would lose the time I invested in learning and implementing my hub but in my case that hasn't been significant and I doubt it ever will be. Thank you for your comparison.
Try using Home Assistant as a front end for Hubitat Elevation. The mobile app is much better. Currently I use HE for Zigbee, Zwave and TP-Link Wi-Fi and HA for a few devices that are not compatible with HE. Being able to control everything from one mobile app (and Alexa, of course) makes everything work seamlessly as if it were a single system.
This came up on my Recommended list so I thought I would have a quick look. I have to say, not detracting from this video, you have come a long way in 2 years. Seriously, keep up the amazing work. Would it be worth doing another HA vs OpenHab now?
I skipped over this video when I saw it before and regret that now. Struggled with openHAB for hours (the new v3) and got nowhere with it before giving up. But before going with HA, watched this excellent review. Thanks!🙏
Shame you did not wait until after Openhab V3.0 is released in one months time. Most of your complaints on the user interfaces is solved in the massive update soon to be released. Thanks for creating the video, always love seeing more content produced on home automation so keep them coming.
To be fair you have to run with what's available at the time, had he waited the month and started making the video he may have been 90% done and then home assistant could drop an announcement saying major upgrades coming next month, so you could potentially be months down the line with no video uploads depending on update frequency.
Wow, the newer videos are way better. I can tell you're reading a script here and not talking to me as a viewer. It's incredible how far you've come in just a few years!
My problem with Home Assistant is the installation with docker. The docker supplied is gimped. It has no ui add on support from what I can see. I've also tried the vm but had networking issues. I got openhab installed via the supplied docker in like 5mins.Managed to get my Sonoff devices working with scheduling in the next hour or so. In my opinion Home Assistant is too focused on the raspberry pie, but it might just be me.This is my first foray in home automation, in a few months I might end up preferring Home Assistant but I've got a lot further with openhab in a much shorter time.
Home Assistant all the way. Tried open hab and had the exact same frustrations... I found about HA from a hive heating forum and was up and running on an old Pi in minutes with little to no doc reading. So far I've found nothing that HA can't do so sticking with that for now.
Many years on OH 1.x, no problem with using text-based configuration, but struggled on upgrade to OH 2.x - it appears that I need to spend significant time on such an upgrade, which I do not want to ... one more issue I've once with OH - it is not possible to run it on weak hardware (I've tried to run on OrangePI)
Great Video and good comparison. I learned a lot about home assistant and even as a over 2 year Poweruser of openhab I consider at lest trying out HA. But I feel like I am already at the point where I have committed myself to openhab
Thanks appreciate it 🙏 I'd definitely give Home Assistant a spin if you haven't already, it might be enough to sway you! And it doesn't take long at all
Just wanna mention that you give very detailed guides and everything but one thing is missing, your smile! Smile, dude, every now and then. You look so serious. Anyway, great videos!
Hey Carl, thanks! Haha this was an early video, still was (and kinda am!) getting used to being on camera but I'm slowly getting more confident. Hopefully if you check out some of the newer stuff you'll see a big difference 😅
@@EverythingSmartHome Been watching your home automation videos for the last hour (extremely helpful btw) and could tell you're getting the hang of it haha. Goodluck, man! Thanks for your tutorials.
Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it! And thanks for the coffee too, means a lot! Yeah I was in the same boat, was good to check out another platform and see what's out there!
I am new to the self hosted smart home topic. I first tried open hab, but it felt so complicated to setup, that I switched to home assistant and never look back..open hab may be very powerful and a good solution for power users, but if you look for something that is easy to setup I think you should choose home assistant
It is great that the system you have kept on running over a long period. I had several times issues with breaking changes while upgrading and if you skip a few versions than it is a pain to find out how to solve it. So I miss in your review how this upgrade process is going, what the impact is on all breaking changes on Home assistant and on Openhab side.
Perhaps I am bit on the late side - but speaking of integration - what is the general feel for "migrating home" the cloud connection parts? Both Openhab and Home Assistant offers Cloud functionality for integration with Google Assistant and Alexa - however, I could not on my brief searching find that (correct me if I am stating the wrong one here) Home assistant had any documented procedure for creating this at home instead of utilizing their cloud services.
It's a good question, I'm not entirely sure on the OpenHAB side as I haven't used the cloud version but on the HA side I think you would would just use the inbuilt snapshot feature to backup and restore it onto a local version! Don't quote me on that though as I would need to.double check
I use OpenHAB and have done for 5 years so am used to it and know the niggly issues it has and how it works, but good to see HomeAssistant in comparison. I'm waiting for OpenHAB3 bugs to get ironed out then will upgrade too it, as I understand it it will nullify a lot of the features and options you say are lacking with OH.
It would be nice to hear some comments on user profile handling. My son would like to control things in his room, without us interweening. Which platform supports this? Also my son would like to do some DIY stuff with Arduino and connect it to the plattform. Which one of the two gives better support?
I could be wrong so please don't quote me but I don't think OpenHAB supports user profiles, I don't remember ever having to login. Home Assistant has very good support for creating different profiles. It would depend how you want to connect the Arduino? Typically you would use something like MQTT so both platforms support that.
Great video. I went for openHab at first but have switched to Home Assistant. Here are a few reasons aside from what you mentioned in the video: 1. There are more available add-ons on the internet that I could use directly without modifying a single line of code. With openHab I tried to integrate my Gree, Tuya and Ewelink devices into it, but only managed to find a Gree add-on in the official repository. I installed it but it didn’t work, and I had to take the code from github and change something to fit my model and then take some trouble configuring the dev environment to compile the add-on (which I find also inconvenient for newbies). With HA I found add-ons for all of my devices and they worked perfectly. 2. Home Assistant has user management function and you can let people use it as guest without messing it up. It’s not something complex but openHab team just doesn’t bother adding such a useful function, perhaps because habpanel and basic UI are designed specifically for non-admin users, but personally I still prefer a login before using the system.
the deal breaker for me is openhab as the api is easy to integrate into custom programs using php or c# allowing me to create a facebook bot to let me send a message with livingroom light on facebook messenger the other thing I like about openhab is the binding echo controller which allows you to pull all my unsupported devices through amazons api I am not used to finding a fellow scottish smart home enthusiast
Thanks for the feedback! Home Assistant actually supports Facebook messenger notifications for a long long time now, it's plug and play so no need to use the API. As for the echo thing, I think there is a similar method for HA for that too but don't quote me on that! Thanks for the info though, good to get a perspective from both sides!
I tried Home Assistant about a year ago and could never get it to work. I flashed one of my switches, but have no idea if that worked or not. It is currently a fancy desk weight, since I could no longer use it with the default software (since it was flashed). Maybe I'll try it again and see if it's easier now. Of course that means I'll need to find that paper weight first.
I'm going to use HA. I Only do have a few things to work out. Like, if I want to use, say a Pi or a tablet as both a monitor and the server, I will have to do the server as a VM and install the remote app on the Pi/tablet. I can't do things on the server itself unless your cmd skills are pro. And I'm curious to find out how I can build RGB lights to connect to a switch using a cat-5 cable and control them in HA. Same goes for a thermostat. I don't really like wireless connections (unless there IR connections) in my bedroom so that's why I'm curious to find out how I can achieve this using Cat-5 cables and a switch.
@@EverythingSmartHome I did think about that. Do you have a tutorial om how to do that? Preferably with a MKR/Nano form factor and PoE? And do you know the best way to make a monitor with a HA client os instead of a client app? My HA pi sits behind the TV, is it recommend to combine the server OS with Kodi? What 3rd OS should I use to virtualize these 2 things at?
I do not at the moment, I'll see if I can get my hands on a spare one to make one with, unfortunately I don't have the hardware to hand at the moment. Could you elaborate on the monitor? I'm no sure what you mean. Does Kodi need to do any transcoding? If so you might need something more powerful depending on your setup, if just straight streaming in native format you might get away with the Pi but I haven't tested Kodi on the Pi.
@@EverythingSmartHome I need an extra TV tuner. If I want to buy that from my ISP it will cost 10 euros a month extra. That's why I want to try and see if this works with Kodi. As my HA monitor is right next to the entrance door and my TV, I thought it was a good Idea to combine HA and Kodi on 1 device. Wether that's a Pi or something else with a similar formfactor. And on top of that, as my TV doesn't have ambilight, I'd like to add that to an additional device next to the TV. And as both HA and KODI are behind or next to the tv already, I thought it was best to add that aswell. Is there a possibility to contact you through Facebook or email for example? Than I can send a draw I made with how I physically want it.
I think the only thing that make me use openhab is the integration with google home and alexa, that is free, i dont know a way to do this in HA as free. I'm a beginner here with this things, and im havin a lot of problems with my server, so i think i would need to change hardware since openhab in docker (and other services) are crashing a lot
Hey Fernando, I can confirm that Google Home works in HA and is free and isn't too difficult these days. Alexa is free but I think is more involved! What hardware are you currently using?
That might have been the case before but Google Home now works on the local version, I did it myself just a week ago with no cost. Have a check of the Google home integration on the Home Assistant website
Interesting, the biggest draw back for HA was always the integration with Google home. And talking about a steep learning curve, I don't find HA has an easy to walk up slope. The fun for home automation is about making things more easy, but when you want to do it low budget, than things get very complicated very fast. Combine cheap Aqara sensors with Sonoff out of the box, a zigbee dongle and a Pi without spending weeks to learn things (I have HA, Node Red etc). And I used to be a techie! This is still a Nerd hobby, and I regularly doubt if I'm nerdy enough (till a glance in the mirror with my glasses on, then I'm sure again).
More posts on a forum can simply mean more people need help because the documentation is no longer accurate due to the project moving forward and the documentation is not kept up to date. I find the information on intergrations lacking the essential detail on HASS. Openhab forum you find you get a reply on, often in home assistant forum you get no reply except other people posting that they have the same issue. I am on both forums every day because information on X hardware is valid for both platforms.
Hi, found this great comparison because I am looking for home automation software. So I do not have any sw yet, but a lot of devices of Shelly and Smartlink (Tuya). One thing I do not completely understand for Tuya devices. I have both wifi and zigbee devices, (using a zigbee hub). Are zigbee devices via an hub supported by both platforms? Or is there a limitation on the type of devices?
It's a good question, I'm not sure about OpenHAB (although I think it does but don't quote me on that) but Home Assistant should support your Tuya devices no problem! Thanks for the support
Hi I’m new to area and looking for the best platform. You didn’t mention UI in detail . Having a development background although it years ago I’m confident I can deal with the quirks of either. My question is which one has the best UI. While it’s a long term goal I would ultimately like something comparable to Control4 UI something pretty and intuitive for my mom and daughter to use . Thoughts?
Hello! I think I mentioned the UI quite a lot actually, just not in its own dedicated section. If you watch the video through you'll see my thoughts one of the UIs
I installed openhab about 20min ago. It could not detect my Gosund wifi plug. It seems like you have to know which binding/add-on is required, install it and then OpenHab will detect your device. If your device is not a brand name item then you are out of luck (so far this is what 'googling' has showed me). There are a lot of good cheaper 'made in china' (aren't they all anyway?) items out there that wont be able to connect. On Home Assistant I just had to use Tuya and that was all. Am I missing something with OpenHab? I will keep looking in the forums.
I agree I found it difficult to add items but then I was coming at it from a Home Assistant pre-disposition so that could be why! Are you just trying OpenHAB out to see what it's like?
Using home assistant currently. It was not easy to setup, huge learning curve. Been running for about 6 months and still I am no where near fluent in much. Python is strange, more comfortable in C type language. With all that said, I enjoy learning and a challenge. I use ESPhome for a batch of sensors on a 8266 chip and tasmota on many commercial devices, as I lose internet at least once every two days. I wish there was a good resource to get info, but everything changes so fast that it's probably just a dream.
Hey Michael, that's cool to hear. ESPHome and Tasmota are great projects and make things much easier. What kind of resources do you wish existed out of interest?
I would like to see hands on "how to" for: - Lovelace (how to get themes, different ways to integrate switches within cards, and how to organize the layout, suppose to be able to drag and drop after last update) - ESPhome (I see this as the powerhouse, but to play with it can be frustrating, crashes on compile, can't connect to new device #usually usb cable fault, tons of default optional parameters you can set) - Tasmota (perhaps the easiest of the things to learn, but I felt that I had to watch several tutorials until I got it where I can have it up and running within an hour with connections etc, but still no master) - Different ways to run hassIO, on windows, on Linux, on Pi - Reading information and presenting it in Lovelace (reading LUX value and changing living room lighting accordingly, how to monitor weather anyone is home, based on rain chances should my sprinkler system turn on, what's the temp in the pool, etc... just real life examples) I could go on forever, and again, as newer versions pop out, the how to's would have to be updated. Example: My first tasmota install took forever, because the usb cable I was using was not capable of anything but power (I thought all usb cables were the same), then after that I couldn't connect to MQTT broker until I found one that said enter setOption19 1 in the tasmota console. So much to learn, even using github to find the latest download version was intimidating. SO much to learn and it's hard sometimes to find the answers
Great thanks for the suggestions! Just a quick note that I have created an ESPHome video already if you haven't seen it, does that help with any of the queries?
Just watched this and it looks to be a good comparison. I've been thinking about trying out home assistant and this video was helpful in that I feel as though I've done my homework. Thanks for putting this together.
Openhab user here. Liked the comparison, although using mqtt autodiscover was a worst case scenario to openhab, that apart I agree with your points of view when it comes to the UI problems and deficient rule engine in openhab I've paired mine with node red to expand on that area. One thing I would like to have seen mentioned is the cloud aspect of both platforms and the connection to voice assistants (Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa) . AFAIK home assistant only has a paid cloud platform and in the voice assistant part home assistant is quite laborious (or needs the paid cloud to make it easier).
Thanks for the feedback! Definitely something I could look at in the future is the cloud aspect, it's not something I've really explored on either option although I do know there is a paid HA version (very reasonable price IMO) but I don't know an awful lot about the OpenHAB offering. However I can confirm the Home Assistant voice assistant is actually really easy to get working on the local version. Thanks again!
@@EverythingSmartHome was there any difference in configuring (alexa for instance) in recent updates? Because I saw Dr. Zzzz's video and there were too many steps and hoops to make it happen. Openhab cloud is free and using it allows for a super simple integration with home assistants. Keep up the good work, I'm waiting to see more of these comparison videos.
I haven't looked at Alexa in a long time to be honest, I do have one though so can definitely look into that! Thanks, be sure to let me know any you want to see. Happy to make them if I can!
Gives every round to home assistant even when the information provided means a clear win for OpenHAB. What's that, OpenHAB has a 1000 more manufacturer integrations than Home Assist does? Gosh, that must be a tie...lol Yep, totally an unbiased review 🙄
I don't think you watched the video 😂 I didn't give every round to Home Assistant. OpenHAB also does not have more integrations than Home Assistant does, at least at the time of filming.. Nice try though!
hi there, I'm new to these two platform and I 've been using Google Home for sometimes now. Well, can anyone please tell me if these platforms really support local LAN without internet connection to perform the automations thru voice. Thanks
Hello! Google Home or Alexa won't give you local control due to the way they work but there are other voice assistant available that should be possible
Nice review. I'm curious how you run Home Assistant - on a dedicated computer or Raspberry? And which is easier for someone new to HA (and no real programming skills)?
Thank you! I run my Home Assistant on docker with supervisor enabled as described in one of my latest videos but the easiest was is definitely using Home Assistant OS on Raspberry Pi, I have a video for that if you need help installing! Any issues please ask!
I found a lot of people who used node-red in the beginning have just stuck with it since it's what they know and it works well! Thanks for the comment 🙏
Everything Smart Home yes I guess this is part of my reason but also in the overall system design there is quite a lot of overlap between what NR, HA, OH can do that I chose to limit the “layers” do devices/MQTT/ NR
Open hab is a very good solution, some will say that HA is better, it might be, But the HA is a harsh and unfreindly society. Arrogant users, that think they are the kings. They say oh yes we help you, but don't dare to critusize us. Open hab is so much friendly. At least for me that is important. Thats make Open HAB much better
I have been a longtime user of openhab but obviously due to the popularity of homeassistant i keep tabs on it as well. I have done some stuff with HA but most of my stuff on openhab. I see ALOT of talk on alot of comparison things around the UI. But if you have to use the UI that much, in my opinion, you have taken the automation out of home automation and have just created a super elaborate remote. Which is 100% ok!! I almost NEVER see the UI for my system because I prefer true automations. I have openhab monitoring light levels in the rooms, motion sensors, time of day, ect to determine if someone walks in the room and it's dark. Turn on the light. If someone is home and it's 15 minutes before sunset, turn on the living room lights. Presence detection, light level, motion sensors will give you ALOT of fully automated scenarios. I don't even turn down my lights to watch a movie. I use kodi, run the movie theater experience app, when the movie starts it turns down my lights. When the movie is done, turns them back up. Now, having said that, the big reason that I have stuck with openhab for so long even given that HA has gotten quite popular is the automation engine. Being a programmer for my entire adult life, being able to open up a text file and write VERY elaborate automations has been fantastic. That is also not for everyone. Alot of my HA experience has been helping a buddy of mine who doesn't WANT to do that level of automation and wants to run something that is easier to setup (HA wins here) and easier to get from opened new thing from store to integrated (HA wins here again) I think both are going to have their audience and honestly, i hope that both see whats better in the other and implement. If i could get them both as one, it would be amazing!
@@EverythingSmartHome thanks for your reply. We are having our extension done at the moment, and I have got a hold of a load of alexa power sockets, and tado. Trying to find a good light switch that does alexa and can be ifttt'd or used with these apps.. Also hopefully going to have an always on server running for nas purposes so could probably make this work.. I'll check out your page...
@@EverythingSmartHome I started with openHAB fairly recently with very little research and switched over to HA. I'd agree with you generally, but am really just scratching the surface! Should be helpful to others!
@@EverythingSmartHome Frustration with the process. Only used it for like a week was having trouble doing what I needed. Realized a lot of people seemed to like HA and I hadn't given it a chance. Also, talked to someone who is very good with openHAB, got the impression that it was perhaps very powerful, but with a steep learning curve.
As embedded electronics engineer, my preferences are always Manjaro for os, O-WRT for routers n supported stuff, home assistant for setup, blynk for management as app then microcontroller & other devices.
@@EverythingSmartHome Great, I don't know if I stay with it, want to try the other open source tools first, too. I think it's very flexible but needs a lot of work first.
I only briefly mentioned a couple of options otherwise the video could be hours long if I tried to mention everything, and iobroker is better in your opinion, in my opinion it doesn't come close to either of these. But it's good we can all enjoy different things and you have found something you like 😉
I started out with OpenHAB, but I ditched it after a couple of months as I found it a bit too confusing with all those interfaces. I tried Home Assistant and I’ve not looked back. Granted, some things are a pain, but I’ve been able to get things working as I want. Well, except for my AllPlay speakers, which still have no integration, one that OpenHAB does have. I might look into running both and use NodeRED to link them somehow. The box I’m running HA on should be able to handle it.
1:46 installation
3:12 ease of use
7:14 supported devices.
8:04 apps
My reason for full stop with OpenHAB was exactly as you described - confused from the UI selection, missing items, then VERY complicated adding of new devices... Ended up with NodeRed and happy ever since.
Would love an update of this now that openHAB 3.4 is being released. It’s a complete different beast than 2.5
Interesting perspective! As a beginner, I agree with almost all of your points except the communities - I get better answers from the OpenHAB community. So, there may be more churn in posts in HA, but I feel the quality is better on the OpenHAB side.
I had Openhab for 2 years, then switched to Home Assistant for 6 months and ended back on OpenHAB. What drove me away was 2 issues:
1. A weekly issue with Z-wave devices dropping out of the network where the community only offered "wait until the next release".
2. I prefer Java over YAML (and I deal with YAML often at work)
For beginners, the OpenHAB interfaces may be confusing, but the result is a much more customizable system as you settle in.
- In Habpanel I could have a strict tablet interface for my wall-mounted devices, each having their own layout depending on the room they're in.
- In Paper UI I have a basic interface for setting up new devices and checking on various devices that I don't have a panel for (like battery voltages of Z-wave sensors).
- In Habmin I have a powerful nuts-and-bolts interface that makes it easier to identify and troubleshoot issues.
One last point - Unless I completely missed it, Home Assistant doesn't have a service like myopenhab.org. myopenhab.org is far more secure than opening up ports on my router to the world and is a big bonus many people miss.
Thanks for the feedback, that's really useful!
The whole UI thing is really frustrating to me, but I'm glad that you like it, at the end of the day a lot of these things are down to preference.
I did see about the remote access version, but I would prefer to actually dive into the security of both before making comment about it so decided to leave it out.
Thanks again!
@@EverythingSmartHome It is a great thing that we have choices of such quality open source (and closed source) systems. Thanks a bunch for doing this video!
Indeed, having a choice is never bad! Thanks man 🙏
Michael, Home Assistant also has a service to make your store available remotely without opening ports. It also hooks into Alexa + Google Assistant.
They do charge $5 per month for those services. But with that money the original developer can more work full time on Home Assistant, and he has hired 3-4 other developers to join him. I don’t need the remote access, but I feel it is $5 well spent! :)
The pace of improvements has improved incredibly as more developers get to spend more time on the project!
@@brian.hanifin Thank you for this info! I'm going to take another look at Home Assistant, see if it better fit my needs now!
I use both. Where I find a weakness in one I allow the other to take over that function. All my Z-wave and Alexa control is run through OpenHAB and I use HA for my printer, Vizio TVs, weather and location information. I mostly use Node-Red for automating both systems (it is odd having 2 Node-Red systems). The HABpanel interface with the HABpanel viewer app makes great for all my wall mounted tablets. I actually run a lovelace dashboard in HABpanel as well.
That's awesome! Cool to see how other people use these projects!
Those first 8 seconds sound like you're about to announce the end of the world.
Lol!
HAHAHHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAH
I rarely smoke, I rarely drink, dude needs to do a little of one, or the other 😂
I think for a new user in 2020 this is a good comparison I started using openhab in 2017 and home assistant was Far and Away behind the capabilities of openhab at that time. it looks like home assistant has definitely caught up. There's definitely a learning curve to openhab not going to argue that it is definitely true. I will say I typically interact with openhab only through the cli and do not have the UI issues that you were experiencing. But again this goes back to the high learning curve that a new user may find difficult. I really liked the idea of having actionable push notifications in home assistant I hope openhab had this functionality soon. When I was evaluating these two platforms a few years ago home assistant didn't have any mobile apps now it seems like there's is a superior mobile app. The openhab cloud connector is also a big advantage in my opinion over openhab as far as remote connectivity to your home automation system. I do find the split between the UI and the CLI in openhab be a challenge for someone who is not used to how the system works.
Thanks for explaining and the feedback, really useful! I think that's what a lot of people are finding is how far Home Assistant has come in a short time, it's really amazing! Thanks again, really good insight!
A nice overview. But I found it very strange when you say "well I can not judge that on the OpenHAB side, so I give the point to HA" that kind of ruined the comparison for me.
Thanks! I said I was disgregarding the stability aspect for both platforms but I was still taking into consideration community and update cycle for which I gave the point to HA. Sorry if that wasn't clear, I'll try to improve! Thanks for the feedback!
I don't take videos like this as a contest to see how many points each one gets. I use these kind of videos to figure our the trade-offs and which things are important for me. So the video is very useful to me :)
Hi, I was a Openhab for several years and found it to be very clunky for new users, trying to run a security camera long term was impossible to do in habpanel or paper ui, it would quit after about 2 hrs and had to restart openhab to get it to work again, also presence detection was hard to implement and spotty at best making it hard to do automations based on who was home, I have moved to Homeassistant about a week ago and have set up my system better and faster then Openhab, so all in all an very accurate assessment of the 2 systems!
Hey John, that sounds like a lot of troubles! Glad your up and working now, at least you have given both a fair assesment!
Home Assistant now supports NFC tags natively. It supported it before, but now it's fully baked in with the mobile app reading / writing.
Indeed, just a few days after this video!
I found Home Assistant incredibly frustrating as a new user. The UI was non-obvious, there was no official documentation on how to use it, and instructions on the web described a wide variety of versions of the user interface, none of which looked like what I installed. Entities are poorly documented, the UI is confusing, I couldn’t remove devices that were added as I was trying to figure things out.
That's interesting you had that experience, I guess it just goes to show we are all different and think differently! What did you end up going with in the end?
Just a note.... As of version 2020.5 of the Home Assistant iOS app (released on August 11th) NFC tags are now supported. That being said, since the Android app is developed separately, I can’t speak to the features it supports.
A few people did mention that thanks! I don't think it's in the Android version yet but hopefully won't be long!
I started on Home Assistant but ended up dropping it for openHAB after a few hours when I started trying to group light bulbs together but immediately had to drop into YAML files to do that. I'm no stranger to YAML, but so many devices in my home (like ceiling lights) have multiple bulbs that it was just shocking that there wasn't a user interface option to group them onto the same control. It gave me the impression that a lot of my fundamental configuration was going to end up spread across modifications to files, and that a year from now I wouldn't remember what I modified and where.
I would say the initial learning curve to openHAB was steeper with bindings, things, channels, items, and item types like group or dimmer, and it was missing unusual things like being able to set a group item to the "color" type, but it felt more complete once I understood the vocabulary and how grouping worked (mirroring commands to all child items--so like, don't have two unlike points that both can accept the same command under the same group if you don't want both points to do something when you send a command to the group... or, in English, don't stick your light dimmer points in the same group as your color temperature points because sending "35" to the group is going to dim your lights to 35 and also adjust their color temperature at the same time). It really sold it to me that the idea of groups was just part of the system, and not something you had to manually tack on in a YAML file every time you needed one.
I'm curious what all I could have done if I went deeper into Home Assistant, because my openHAB card setup was also quite the experience and I ended up programming my own custom control cards for most of my devices. I love the result, but it took a lot of reading and tinkering to get right, and I'm not sure I could have made things like cards controlling entire rooms' color, color temp, dimming, etc. for different devices if I wasn't a programmer to begin with. Maybe that's easier in HA, or maybe not.
The thing is, depending on what you're running HA on (most likely Linux), you can write a program yourself that'll edit the yaml files themselves based on values of other file (use python). You can even use Blynk app to do it.
I'd simply make a virtual single bulb called kitchen, & when value was edited into that file, a python script will trigger detecting the change n then set the real bulb values of kitchen at that value. And by that script, even a year later I'll remember what I did if I just took a look at the script (and you can comment too)
Recently setup Home Assistant (specifically for access to ESPHome) after having heard about it for quite a while now.
Before this video I wasn't even aware there were other projects similar to home assistant
Thank you for your well structured and informative video.✌🏽
The conditions settings missing a "and" function on the UI of openHAB was the most relevant for my interests. Home assistant supporting such a feature was the deciding factor in top of everything else. Thanks again!
Interesting video. On Ease of Use, I found HomeAssistant (which I tried before switching over to OpenHab) to be very confusing. OpenHAB isn't super straighforward as you discussed. However, to me, what I didn't like about HomeAssistant was the lack of documentation. This was a couple of years ago though, so hopefully they've improved in that area.
That is interesting, it's funny how we all have different thought processes isn't it!
Any automation system should be chosen based on a set of requirements. My requirements are not extensive nor complex. I played with both openHAB and HomeAssistant on a Raspberry PI. I was able to learn the basics of both and your video did a good job explaining some differences between the two. After those trials I chose Hubitat. I've been completely satisfied. I won't say it's better than openHAB or HomeAssistant. I just feel it suits my requirements better. An investment in home automation is way more about the devices than the hub. I can always switch hubs and retain my device investment. Of course I would lose the time I invested in learning and implementing my hub but in my case that hasn't been significant and I doubt it ever will be. Thank you for your comparison.
Hey Jim, thanks for sharing your experience, cool to see that you've tried a few systems and glad you've found one your satisfied with!
Try using Home Assistant as a front end for Hubitat Elevation. The mobile app is much better. Currently I use HE for Zigbee, Zwave and TP-Link Wi-Fi and HA for a few devices that are not compatible with HE. Being able to control everything from one mobile app (and Alexa, of course) makes everything work seamlessly as if it were a single system.
Sounds like a cool setup you have there!
This came up on my Recommended list so I thought I would have a quick look.
I have to say, not detracting from this video, you have come a long way in 2 years.
Seriously, keep up the amazing work. Would it be worth doing another HA vs OpenHab now?
At 3:39 int the MQTT command topic, the topic must be "cmnd/sonoff/POWER1".
At about 11:14, it looks like there was an unintended cut. It skips over your analysis of the openhab automation.
Yeah someone mentioned, thanks for pointing out though, I am trying to sort that! 🙏
@@EverythingSmartHome no worries. Video is great, btw
Thank you, very much appreciate it 🙏 still getting used to being on camera but over time I hopefully will get better!
I skipped over this video when I saw it before and regret that now. Struggled with openHAB for hours (the new v3) and got nowhere with it before giving up. But before going with HA, watched this excellent review. Thanks!🙏
That's OK, your welcome here at any time 😅 glad you found it useful! Let me know how HA goes! 😁
Installing HomeAssistant on Armbian is a pain in the ass
Shame you did not wait until after Openhab V3.0 is released in one months time. Most of your complaints on the user interfaces is solved in the massive update soon to be released. Thanks for creating the video, always love seeing more content produced on home automation so keep them coming.
Thanks, appreciate it! Well that just means I will have to revisit this topic in another video!
Everything Smart Home looking forward to it, subbed to your channel.
🙏
@@EverythingSmartHome Seems like it is time for an update
To be fair you have to run with what's available at the time, had he waited the month and started making the video he may have been 90% done and then home assistant could drop an announcement saying major upgrades coming next month, so you could potentially be months down the line with no video uploads depending on update frequency.
What happened at 11:15 seconds? Audio was cut off and he was referencing the Lovelace interface while showing the UI for openhab.
Wow, the newer videos are way better. I can tell you're reading a script here and not talking to me as a viewer. It's incredible how far you've come in just a few years!
11:13 why did you skip the explanation?
11:15 has a time skip causing loss of footage, you drop just after going into something.
My problem with Home Assistant is the installation with docker. The docker supplied is gimped. It has no ui add on support from what I can see. I've also tried the vm but had networking issues. I got openhab installed via the supplied docker in like 5mins.Managed to get my Sonoff devices working with scheduling in the next hour or so. In my opinion Home Assistant is too focused on the raspberry pie, but it might just be me.This is my first foray in home automation, in a few months I might end up preferring Home Assistant but I've got a lot further with openhab in a much shorter time.
thanks for your time on doing this! You certainly spared a lot of people ALOT of time :)
Thanks for watching glad it helped!
Home Assistant all the way. Tried open hab and had the exact same frustrations... I found about HA from a hive heating forum and was up and running on an old Pi in minutes with little to no doc reading. So far I've found nothing that HA can't do so sticking with that for now.
Many years on OH 1.x, no problem with using text-based configuration, but struggled on upgrade to OH 2.x - it appears that I need to spend significant time on such an upgrade, which I do not want to ... one more issue I've once with OH - it is not possible to run it on weak hardware (I've tried to run on OrangePI)
Great Video and good comparison. I learned a lot about home assistant and even as a over 2 year Poweruser of openhab I consider at lest trying out HA.
But I feel like I am already at the point where I have committed myself to openhab
Thanks appreciate it 🙏
I'd definitely give Home Assistant a spin if you haven't already, it might be enough to sway you! And it doesn't take long at all
Just wanna mention that you give very detailed guides and everything but one thing is missing, your smile! Smile, dude, every now and then. You look so serious. Anyway, great videos!
Hey Carl, thanks! Haha this was an early video, still was (and kinda am!) getting used to being on camera but I'm slowly getting more confident. Hopefully if you check out some of the newer stuff you'll see a big difference 😅
@@EverythingSmartHome Been watching your home automation videos for the last hour (extremely helpful btw) and could tell you're getting the hang of it haha. Goodluck, man! Thanks for your tutorials.
That's awesome, thanks so much for the support, really means alot! Good luck with the automation!
I started off two years ago on Openhab and just couldn’t get on with it. I have been on HA and love it.
Home Assistant absolutely supports NFC Tags. I have two configured currently with plans to add more
Yep we all know this, check the date of when the video was release compared to when Home Assistant introduced tags 😜
Maybe you want to do a new video about the current versions, which changed a lot in both platforms.
Thanks! You helped convince me... Home Assistant will go on my Pi tomorrow :-) Great and well structured video, very informative and helpful!
Thank you so much, glad I could help 🙏
Idk if i did something wronge with Home Assistant, but i cant control the Color light of my Tuya Smart Lights. Can someone help?
Thanks for sweating through that. Loooking at HA vs OHAB coming from Homeseer,
Really good to see another channel about smart homes! I use Home Assistant but good to learn about OpenHAB
Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it! And thanks for the coffee too, means a lot!
Yeah I was in the same boat, was good to check out another platform and see what's out there!
I am new to the self hosted smart home topic. I first tried open hab, but it felt so complicated to setup, that I switched to home assistant and never look back..open hab may be very powerful and a good solution for power users, but if you look for something that is easy to setup I think you should choose home assistant
Glad to have you along for the smart home journey!
It is great that the system you have kept on running over a long period. I had several times issues with breaking changes while upgrading and if you skip a few versions than it is a pain to find out how to solve it. So I miss in your review how this upgrade process is going, what the impact is on all breaking changes on Home assistant and on Openhab side.
Thanks for the feedback, I'll try to cover that in later videos!
anyway you can redo this comparison nowadays?
The biggest issue I have with HA is that it requires a subscription to use it with Alexa.
Perhaps I am bit on the late side - but speaking of integration - what is the general feel for "migrating home" the cloud connection parts?
Both Openhab and Home Assistant offers Cloud functionality for integration with Google Assistant and Alexa - however, I could not on my brief searching find that (correct me if I am stating the wrong one here) Home assistant had any documented procedure for creating this at home instead of utilizing their cloud services.
It's a good question, I'm not entirely sure on the OpenHAB side as I haven't used the cloud version but on the HA side I think you would would just use the inbuilt snapshot feature to backup and restore it onto a local version! Don't quote me on that though as I would need to.double check
I use OpenHAB and have done for 5 years so am used to it and know the niggly issues it has and how it works, but good to see HomeAssistant in comparison. I'm waiting for OpenHAB3 bugs to get ironed out then will upgrade too it, as I understand it it will nullify a lot of the features and options you say are lacking with OH.
Good to hear your experiences, I will hopefully get some time to check out the latest version soon!
It would be nice to hear some comments on user profile handling. My son would like to control things in his room, without us interweening. Which platform supports this?
Also my son would like to do some DIY stuff with Arduino and connect it to the plattform. Which one of the two gives better support?
I could be wrong so please don't quote me but I don't think OpenHAB supports user profiles, I don't remember ever having to login. Home Assistant has very good support for creating different profiles.
It would depend how you want to connect the Arduino? Typically you would use something like MQTT so both platforms support that.
Great video. I went for openHab at first but have switched to Home Assistant.
Here are a few reasons aside from what you mentioned in the video:
1. There are more available add-ons on the internet that I could use directly without modifying a single line of code. With openHab I tried to integrate my Gree, Tuya and Ewelink devices into it, but only managed to find a Gree add-on in the official repository. I installed it but it didn’t work, and I had to take the code from github and change something to fit my model and then take some trouble configuring the dev environment to compile the add-on (which I find also inconvenient for newbies). With HA I found add-ons for all of my devices and they worked perfectly.
2. Home Assistant has user management function and you can let people use it as guest without messing it up. It’s not something complex but openHab team just doesn’t bother adding such a useful function, perhaps because habpanel and basic UI are designed specifically for non-admin users, but personally I still prefer a login before using the system.
Thank you! Good to hear your experience with it, I'm always interested how other people use the software!
the deal breaker for me is openhab as the api is easy to integrate into custom programs using php or c# allowing me to create a facebook bot to let me send a message with livingroom light on facebook messenger the other thing I like about openhab is the binding echo controller which allows you to pull all my unsupported devices through amazons api I am not used to finding a fellow scottish smart home enthusiast
Thanks for the feedback! Home Assistant actually supports Facebook messenger notifications for a long long time now, it's plug and play so no need to use the API. As for the echo thing, I think there is a similar method for HA for that too but don't quote me on that!
Thanks for the info though, good to get a perspective from both sides!
@@EverythingSmartHome see ive only ever installed ha and used it for as play about i ve been addicted to smart home gadgets for about 7 years now
Definitely worth a second go if it's been a while! That's cool, keep tinkering my man 🙏
I tried Home Assistant about a year ago and could never get it to work. I flashed one of my switches, but have no idea if that worked or not. It is currently a fancy desk weight, since I could no longer use it with the default software (since it was flashed). Maybe I'll try it again and see if it's easier now. Of course that means I'll need to find that paper weight first.
I would definitely advise giving it another shot, hopefully you get on better! Join us on discord if you need help 😊
Hang on, what was that you said after 0:15?
I'm going to use HA. I Only do have a few things to work out. Like, if I want to use, say a Pi or a tablet as both a monitor and the server, I will have to do the server as a VM and install the remote app on the Pi/tablet. I can't do things on the server itself unless your cmd skills are pro.
And I'm curious to find out how I can build RGB lights to connect to a switch using a cat-5 cable and control them in HA. Same goes for a thermostat.
I don't really like wireless connections (unless there IR connections) in my bedroom so that's why I'm curious to find out how I can achieve this using Cat-5 cables and a switch.
Hey Erik, you could always use something like an Arduino with a Ethernet shield and MQTT in order to use a wired method, that should work.
@@EverythingSmartHome I did think about that. Do you have a tutorial om how to do that? Preferably with a MKR/Nano form factor and PoE?
And do you know the best way to make a monitor with a HA client os instead of a client app?
My HA pi sits behind the TV, is it recommend to combine the server OS with Kodi? What 3rd OS should I use to virtualize these 2 things at?
I do not at the moment, I'll see if I can get my hands on a spare one to make one with, unfortunately I don't have the hardware to hand at the moment.
Could you elaborate on the monitor? I'm no sure what you mean.
Does Kodi need to do any transcoding? If so you might need something more powerful depending on your setup, if just straight streaming in native format you might get away with the Pi but I haven't tested Kodi on the Pi.
@@EverythingSmartHome I need an extra TV tuner. If I want to buy that from my ISP it will cost 10 euros a month extra. That's why I want to try and see if this works with Kodi.
As my HA monitor is right next to the entrance door and my TV, I thought it was a good Idea to combine HA and Kodi on 1 device. Wether that's a Pi or something else with a similar formfactor. And on top of that, as my TV doesn't have ambilight, I'd like to add that to an additional device next to the TV. And as both HA and KODI are behind or next to the tv already, I thought it was best to add that aswell. Is there a possibility to contact you through Facebook or email for example? Than I can send a draw I made with how I physically want it.
Sure, join us on our discord server, link is in the video description!
I think the only thing that make me use openhab is the integration with google home and alexa, that is free, i dont know a way to do this in HA as free.
I'm a beginner here with this things, and im havin a lot of problems with my server, so i think i would need to change hardware since openhab in docker (and other services) are crashing a lot
Hey Fernando,
I can confirm that Google Home works in HA and is free and isn't too difficult these days. Alexa is free but I think is more involved! What hardware are you currently using?
@@EverythingSmartHome nice, because i remember cost a subscription about 5 usd, if you can point in the right direction would be awsome. thanks
That might have been the case before but Google Home now works on the local version, I did it myself just a week ago with no cost. Have a check of the Google home integration on the Home Assistant website
Interesting, the biggest draw back for HA was always the integration with Google home. And talking about a steep learning curve, I don't find HA has an easy to walk up slope.
The fun for home automation is about making things more easy, but when you want to do it low budget, than things get very complicated very fast. Combine cheap Aqara sensors with Sonoff out of the box, a zigbee dongle and a Pi without spending weeks to learn things (I have HA, Node Red etc).
And I used to be a techie! This is still a Nerd hobby, and I regularly doubt if I'm nerdy enough (till a glance in the mirror with my glasses on, then I'm sure again).
More posts on a forum can simply mean more people need help because the documentation is no longer accurate due to the project moving forward and the documentation is not kept up to date. I find the information on intergrations lacking the essential detail on HASS. Openhab forum you find you get a reply on, often in home assistant forum you get no reply except other people posting that they have the same issue. I am on both forums every day because information on X hardware is valid for both platforms.
Home Assistant does have nfc tags (Well now it does)
Hi, found this great comparison because I am looking for home automation software. So I do not have any sw yet, but a lot of devices of Shelly and Smartlink (Tuya). One thing I do not completely understand for Tuya devices.
I have both wifi and zigbee devices, (using a zigbee hub).
Are zigbee devices via an hub supported by both platforms? Or is there a limitation on the type of devices?
It's a good question, I'm not sure about OpenHAB (although I think it does but don't quote me on that) but Home Assistant should support your Tuya devices no problem! Thanks for the support
Hi I’m new to area and looking for the best platform. You didn’t mention UI in detail . Having a development background although it years ago I’m confident I can deal with the quirks of either. My question is which one has the best UI. While it’s a long term goal I would ultimately like something comparable to Control4 UI something pretty and intuitive for my mom and daughter to use . Thoughts?
Hello! I think I mentioned the UI quite a lot actually, just not in its own dedicated section. If you watch the video through you'll see my thoughts one of the UIs
I installed openhab about 20min ago. It could not detect my Gosund wifi plug. It seems like you have to know which binding/add-on is required, install it and then OpenHab will detect your device. If your device is not a brand name item then you are out of luck (so far this is what 'googling' has showed me). There are a lot of good cheaper 'made in china' (aren't they all anyway?) items out there that wont be able to connect. On Home Assistant I just had to use Tuya and that was all. Am I missing something with OpenHab? I will keep looking in the forums.
I agree I found it difficult to add items but then I was coming at it from a Home Assistant pre-disposition so that could be why! Are you just trying OpenHAB out to see what it's like?
Nfc tags are official available in home assistant too
Yep they were a few days after shooting this video
I can't find any videos on using Modbus with Home Assistant. Could you shed some light on this?
Sorry your comment was caught in the spam filter for some reason! Unfortunately I don't have any experience with Modbus at this time
Using home assistant currently. It was not easy to setup, huge learning curve. Been running for about 6 months and still I am no where near fluent in much. Python is strange, more comfortable in C type language. With all that said, I enjoy learning and a challenge. I use ESPhome for a batch of sensors on a 8266 chip and tasmota on many commercial devices, as I lose internet at least once every two days. I wish there was a good resource to get info, but everything changes so fast that it's probably just a dream.
Hey Michael, that's cool to hear. ESPHome and Tasmota are great projects and make things much easier. What kind of resources do you wish existed out of interest?
I would like to see hands on "how to" for:
- Lovelace (how to get themes, different ways to integrate switches within cards, and how to organize the layout, suppose to be able to drag and drop after last update)
- ESPhome (I see this as the powerhouse, but to play with it can be frustrating, crashes on compile, can't connect to new device #usually usb cable fault, tons of default optional parameters you can set)
- Tasmota (perhaps the easiest of the things to learn, but I felt that I had to watch several tutorials until I got it where I can have it up and running within an hour with connections etc, but still no master)
- Different ways to run hassIO, on windows, on Linux, on Pi
- Reading information and presenting it in Lovelace (reading LUX value and changing living room lighting accordingly, how to monitor weather anyone is home, based on rain chances should my sprinkler system turn on, what's the temp in the pool, etc... just real life examples)
I could go on forever, and again, as newer versions pop out, the how to's would have to be updated. Example: My first tasmota install took forever, because the usb cable I was using was not capable of anything but power (I thought all usb cables were the same), then after that I couldn't connect to MQTT broker until I found one that said enter setOption19 1 in the tasmota console. So much to learn, even using github to find the latest download version was intimidating. SO much to learn and it's hard sometimes to find the answers
Great thanks for the suggestions! Just a quick note that I have created an ESPHome video already if you haven't seen it, does that help with any of the queries?
hey, maybe you should do comparispn again now that openhab 3 is out...
Hi, will you please let me know if the ( Mi Box S) tv box can be used to turn on and off smart tv by using Google assistant. Thanks
Hello! Sorry I'm not sure, I've never used that box before
@@EverythingSmartHome anyway thanks for your reply , my friend. I 'll look somewhere , thanks again.
Also hat 3d printer do you have? It looks like an ender with dual extruders....
It is a Prusa MK3S with only a single extruder... unfortunately!
Wasn't NFC added to the Home Assistant app recently?
Or is that only in the beta version perhaps?
I do believe it was, it wasn't at the time of filming but literally the day or day after this was posted it was added on iOS only I believe!
@@EverythingSmartHome Yes it was. I'm using ;D
Home Assistant hands down for me.
Just watched this and it looks to be a good comparison. I've been thinking about trying out home assistant and this video was helpful in that I feel as though I've done my homework. Thanks for putting this together.
Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated 🙏 I'm glad it helped!
You have a weird cut at 11:15, as you switch mid-sentence it seems, to a different cut/topic.
Yeah been mentioned just a few times, just a little editing mistake, I'm better now I swear 😅
Openhab user here.
Liked the comparison, although using mqtt autodiscover was a worst case scenario to openhab, that apart I agree with your points of view when it comes to the UI problems and deficient rule engine in openhab I've paired mine with node red to expand on that area.
One thing I would like to have seen mentioned is the cloud aspect of both platforms and the connection to voice assistants (Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa) . AFAIK home assistant only has a paid cloud platform and in the voice assistant part home assistant is quite laborious (or needs the paid cloud to make it easier).
Thanks for the feedback!
Definitely something I could look at in the future is the cloud aspect, it's not something I've really explored on either option although I do know there is a paid HA version (very reasonable price IMO) but I don't know an awful lot about the OpenHAB offering. However I can confirm the Home Assistant voice assistant is actually really easy to get working on the local version.
Thanks again!
@@EverythingSmartHome was there any difference in configuring (alexa for instance) in recent updates? Because I saw Dr. Zzzz's video and there were too many steps and hoops to make it happen.
Openhab cloud is free and using it allows for a super simple integration with home assistants.
Keep up the good work, I'm waiting to see more of these comparison videos.
I haven't looked at Alexa in a long time to be honest, I do have one though so can definitely look into that!
Thanks, be sure to let me know any you want to see. Happy to make them if I can!
Great comparison thank you
Can you do a compare using Openhab 3?
Hopefully one day I would like to!
Gives every round to home assistant even when the information provided means a clear win for OpenHAB.
What's that, OpenHAB has a 1000 more manufacturer integrations than Home Assist does? Gosh, that must be a tie...lol
Yep, totally an unbiased review 🙄
I don't think you watched the video 😂 I didn't give every round to Home Assistant. OpenHAB also does not have more integrations than Home Assistant does, at least at the time of filming..
Nice try though!
A really useful overview of both, thanks very much! Just a note though that there is a bad cut here at around 11:10
Thanks James! Yes unfortunately there was, this was an early video so still working out some teething issues but hopefully much improved now 😅
@@EverythingSmartHome Good to know, you've got a sub from me anyway as my i5 nuc just arrived to setup with docker and home assistant and much more!
Awesome, let us know how it goes 😅
openhab got a major upgrade in UIs and features with Openhab 3 so we want a "rematch" :)
looking forward to getting more videos like this and more step by step videos tutorial
really like this channel :) ;)
Ah thanks buddy, really means a lot! 🙏
hi there, I'm new to these two platform and I 've been using Google Home for sometimes now.
Well, can anyone please tell me if these platforms really support local LAN without internet connection to perform the automations thru voice. Thanks
Hello! Google Home or Alexa won't give you local control due to the way they work but there are other voice assistant available that should be possible
@@EverythingSmartHomewhat about Home Assistant? Can it supports voice command and LAN.? Thanks 👍
Nice review. I'm curious how you run Home Assistant - on a dedicated computer or Raspberry? And which is easier for someone new to HA (and no real programming skills)?
Thank you! I run my Home Assistant on docker with supervisor enabled as described in one of my latest videos but the easiest was is definitely using Home Assistant OS on Raspberry Pi, I have a video for that if you need help installing! Any issues please ask!
@@EverythingSmartHome Thanks. I'll start on Pi and work my way up...but I will watch your video on your setup.
Any questions please let me know!
@@EverythingSmartHome 7
@@rdy4trvl h
update with the new OpenHAB 3?
On the cards at some point!
Another great video and a good explantion. Well done! Thanks
Thank you, appreciate it!
I still only use node-red. Only shortcoming I found is no native app.
I found a lot of people who used node-red in the beginning have just stuck with it since it's what they know and it works well! Thanks for the comment 🙏
Everything Smart Home yes I guess this is part of my reason but also in the overall system design there is quite a lot of overlap between what NR, HA, OH can do that I chose to limit the “layers” do devices/MQTT/ NR
That's a solid plan!
Open hab is a very good solution, some will say that HA is better, it might be, But the HA is a harsh and unfreindly society. Arrogant users, that think they are the kings. They say oh yes we help you, but don't dare to critusize us. Open hab is so much friendly. At least for me that is important. Thats make Open HAB much better
Team Blue!
Good job on this video, thank you!
🙏
Excellent video. Thank you
Thanks, appreciate it 🙏
I have been a longtime user of openhab but obviously due to the popularity of homeassistant i keep tabs on it as well. I have done some stuff with HA but most of my stuff on openhab.
I see ALOT of talk on alot of comparison things around the UI. But if you have to use the UI that much, in my opinion, you have taken the automation out of home automation and have just created a super elaborate remote. Which is 100% ok!!
I almost NEVER see the UI for my system because I prefer true automations. I have openhab monitoring light levels in the rooms, motion sensors, time of day, ect to determine if someone walks in the room and it's dark. Turn on the light. If someone is home and it's 15 minutes before sunset, turn on the living room lights. Presence detection, light level, motion sensors will give you ALOT of fully automated scenarios.
I don't even turn down my lights to watch a movie. I use kodi, run the movie theater experience app, when the movie starts it turns down my lights. When the movie is done, turns them back up.
Now, having said that, the big reason that I have stuck with openhab for so long even given that HA has gotten quite popular is the automation engine. Being a programmer for my entire adult life, being able to open up a text file and write VERY elaborate automations has been fantastic. That is also not for everyone.
Alot of my HA experience has been helping a buddy of mine who doesn't WANT to do that level of automation and wants to run something that is easier to setup (HA wins here) and easier to get from opened new thing from store to integrated (HA wins here again)
I think both are going to have their audience and honestly, i hope that both see whats better in the other and implement. If i could get them both as one, it would be amazing!
Home assistant tags are introduced
They sure are which is awesome!
So do these apps replace ifttt?
Depends on your usecase but most definitely can!
@@EverythingSmartHome thanks for your reply. We are having our extension done at the moment, and I have got a hold of a load of alexa power sockets, and tado.
Trying to find a good light switch that does alexa and can be ifttt'd or used with these apps..
Also hopefully going to have an always on server running for nas purposes so could probably make this work..
I'll check out your page...
Home assistant is definitely your best bet I would say!
@@EverythingSmartHome brilliant.
Do you have a light switch you recommend
Great stuff, thanks for the contrast!
Thanks, appreciate it!
@@EverythingSmartHome I started with openHAB fairly recently with very little research and switched over to HA. I'd agree with you generally, but am really just scratching the surface! Should be helpful to others!
What made you switch out of interest?
@@EverythingSmartHome Frustration with the process. Only used it for like a week was having trouble doing what I needed. Realized a lot of people seemed to like HA and I hadn't given it a chance. Also, talked to someone who is very good with openHAB, got the impression that it was perhaps very powerful, but with a steep learning curve.
Good to see other people's perspective. Thanks!
As embedded electronics engineer, my preferences are always Manjaro for os, O-WRT for routers n supported stuff, home assistant for setup, blynk for management as app then microcontroller & other devices.
Am I the only one that noticed the jump in the automation part?!
Nothing to see here 👀😅
That looks like a really nice shirt 🤣 thanks for the video 🤘
Great video, could you compare with Jeedom (free, clear interface, release 4 = stable )?
Thanks! Sure I'll take a look, never heard of it so could be interesting!
IObroker is the best!
Not a fan of Java, so it's Home Assistant / Python for me!
I'm running iobroker for about one year now...
Cool! How do you find it?
@@EverythingSmartHome Great, I don't know if I stay with it, want to try the other open source tools first, too. I think it's very flexible but needs a lot of work first.
Cool, maybe I need to check it out!
You forgott iobroker, which is by far better than both...
I only briefly mentioned a couple of options otherwise the video could be hours long if I tried to mention everything, and iobroker is better in your opinion, in my opinion it doesn't come close to either of these. But it's good we can all enjoy different things and you have found something you like 😉
I started out with OpenHAB, but I ditched it after a couple of months as I found it a bit too confusing with all those interfaces. I tried Home Assistant and I’ve not looked back. Granted, some things are a pain, but I’ve been able to get things working as I want. Well, except for my AllPlay speakers, which still have no integration, one that OpenHAB does have. I might look into running both and use NodeRED to link them somehow. The box I’m running HA on should be able to handle it.
Awesome man, glad to hear your enjoying HA!
Sounds like Openhab needs a UX professional.
For anyone watching this in 2023, this is now very outdated. OpenHab is way more organized and easier to use now.
If you want to use Google / alexa with Home Assistant it isn't free :/
Google Home certainly is, done it just the other day for free. Alexa used to be about a year ago when I tried it