Hubs
Smart home hubs that unify your devices into one seamless system.
Smart Home Automation UK: Best Systems, Hubs and Starter Kits for 2026
Smart home automation in the UK has quietly crossed the point where it works out of the box for most people.
Home Assistant Default Port: 8123 (and When to Use 443)
Knowing which port Home Assistant listens on takes a minute to learn and can save you an afternoon of lockouts — or a permanently open door into your…
Home Assistant Release Notes in 2026: How to Read Them — and the Hardware That Keeps Pace
Home Assistant ships a new release roughly every month, and the release notes are arguably the most valuable document in the entire ecosystem.
Does Home Assistant Green Have Zigbee?
Short answer: no. The Home Assistant Green ships without a Zigbee radio — and without Thread, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth either.
The Best Home Assistant Servers in 2026: Green, Yellow, Raspberry Pi 5 and Mini PCs Compared
Picking the right Home Assistant server is the single decision that determines whether your smart home feels instant or infuriating.
Best Zigbee2MQTT Coordinators for Home Assistant UK (2026)
A Zigbee network is only ever as steady as the radio at its centre. Zigbee2MQTT for Home Assistant hands you an open-source bridge with no vendor cloud in…
Home Assistant Alexa Integration: Nabu Casa vs Emulated Hue vs Matter Bridge (2026 Guide)
Three ways to connect Home Assistant to Alexa in 2026 — Nabu Casa Cloud, Emulated Hue and Matter Bridge compared by cost, entity support and privacy.
Home Assistant Community Store (HACS): the 2026 UK buying guide
The Home Assistant Community Store — HACS to almost everyone who uses it — is what turns a stock Home Assistant install into something that behaves much…
Smart Life Home Assistant: Does Tuya Work With Home Assistant in the UK in 2026?
If you already own a handful of cut-price Smart Life plugs and you are weighing up Home Assistant, one question decides the whole build: can that Tuya…
Home Assistant Blueprints: The Best Blueprint Collections and Hardware Compared (2026 Guide)
Home Assistant blueprints are the closest thing the platform has to an app store for automations.
Home Assistant Icons: The Best Icon Packs and Integrations for 2026
A dashboard is read, not studied. The quickest way to make one readable is to spend an hour on the icons rather than another hour stacking up cards — a…
Home Assistant on Proxmox: Setup & Best Mini PCs (2026)
Running Home Assistant on Proxmox VE gives you something a plug-in hub can't: a snapshot taken in seconds before every monthly update, scheduled…
Tapo Home Assistant: The Best TP-Link Tapo Devices for Home Assistant in 2026
Tapo hardware is one of the few ways left to build a genuinely local smart home in the UK for a few pounds per device — provided you buy the right models…
Best Home Assistant Bluetooth Proxy Devices for UK Homes in 2026
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Best Home Assistant Hubs and Radios 2026: The Hardware That Makes Home Assistant Integrations Work
Home Assistant integrations are the reason people put up with the setup curve: one dashboard that talks to a Philips Hue lamp, a Shelly relay, a Sonos…
Home Assistant Zigbee Dongle: The Best Zigbee Coordinators for 2026
Every Zigbee sensor, bulb and switch in your home reports to exactly one component: the coordinator plugged into the machine running Home Assistant.
Home Automation with a Raspberry Pi in 2026: Boards, Hubs and Add-Ons Compared
A Raspberry Pi is still the cheapest route to a smart home that answers to you rather than to a cloud server.
Home Assistant HACS in 2026: The Community Store Explained, and the Hardware Worth Running It On
HACS — the Home Assistant Community Store — is the reason a lot of smart-home enthusiasts stay on Home Assistant instead of drifting back to Alexa or…
HACS for Home Assistant: The 2026 Guide to the Community Store — and the Hardware That Runs It Best
Home Assistant is superb at the devices Nabu Casa has chosen to support, and silent about almost everything else.
Home Assistant Software Explained 2026: Free Open-Source Automation, UK Energy Savings and the Hardware That Runs It
For British households on an Octopus Agile or Intelligent tariff, Home Assistant software does something no commercial hub does out of the box: it reads…
Home Assistant login: how it works, and how to fix it when it doesn't (2026)
Getting into your Home Assistant dashboard is normally a five-second job: open a browser, type an address, sign in.
Home Assistant Matter Hub: The Best Matter Controllers and Thread Border Routers for 2026
For most UK homes, the best Home Assistant Matter hub is the machine you already own. Home Assistant has acted as a Matter controller since 2023, so a…
Amazon Smart Home Buyer's Guide 2026: Alexa Hubs, Echo Speakers and Plugs for UK Homes
Affiliate and commercial disclosure: This guide contains affiliate links, and we may earn a commission if you buy through them.
Home Assistant SkyConnect in 2026: the Connect ZBT-1 and the Best Zigbee & Thread Coordinators for UK Homes
If you are shopping for a Home Assistant SkyConnect in 2026, the first thing worth knowing is that the name changed, not the hardware.
Google Home Assistant in 2026: Which Google Speaker or Display Should UK Buyers Actually Buy?
Google's smart-home line-up has been rebuilt around AI, and the hardware has shifted with it.
Zigbee2MQTT in Home Assistant (2026): Best Zigbee Coordinators, Add-on vs Docker
Running Zigbee2MQTT in Home Assistant gives you local, cloud-free control of Zigbee devices from Philips Hue, IKEA, Aqara and Tuya in a single mesh — no…
Home Assistant OS Review 2026: The Best Way to Run Home Automation
Ask a long-term Home Assistant owner how they run the software and the answer, more often than not, is Home Assistant OS — HAOS for short.
Best Hardware for Home Assistant Docker in the UK (2026 Buying Guide)
Ask a serious smart-home enthusiast how their Home Assistant instance actually runs, rather than where it lives, and a surprising number will answer…
Best Smart Home Control Panel UK 2026: Amazon Echo Hub vs Shelly Wall Display X2i & XL
Jumping between three or four different apps just to dim the lounge lights, nudge the thermostat and glance at the front-door camera is the exact…
Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen) UK Buying Guide (2026): Gemini, Sleep Sensing and the Echo Show 8 Compared
Ask what a smart display is actually for in 2026 and the answer keeps getting broader. It is a digital photo frame, a kitchen radio, a video-call…
Best Zigbee USB Dongle UK (2026): A Complete Buyer's Guide for Home Assistant
Building a smart home around a self-hosted platform like Home Assistant means taking control of your local network, but the single most critical component…
The 2026 Home Assistant Backup Guide: Cloud, NAS and SSD Options Compared
Home Assistant is the quiet workhorse of a modern smart home. It coordinates your lighting, heating, security cameras and media players, and it quietly…
Best Home Server for Home Assistant in the UK (2026)
The best home servers for Home Assistant in the UK in 2026 — N100 mini PCs, Raspberry Pi 5 builds, official hardware and NAS options compared for price…
Home Assistant WiFi Setup: The Best Routers & Access Points (2026)
Home Assistant turns a pile of smart bulbs, sensors, cameras and switches into one coherent, dependable home.
Govee Home Assistant Integration: A Complete Guide for UK Smart Homes in 2026
Building a unified smart home means confronting a common dilemma: the most affordable, visually striking consumer lighting rarely plays nicely with…
Home Assistant Octopus Energy Integration: The Complete UK Guide for 2026
If you're running Home Assistant and your electricity is supplied by Octopus Energy, you are sitting on a wealth of tariff and consumption data that can…
BT Home Hub Router Login: A Complete Guide for 2026
Getting into your router's settings panel ought to take thirty seconds, yet for thousands of BT broadband customers it becomes a frustrating dead end.
Best Budget Smart Home Hubs UK 2026: Affordable Options Compared
A research-based UK guide to the best budget smart home hubs, comparing affordable options from Amazon, Aqara, IKEA, SmartThings and Home Assistant.
Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen) and the Best Smart Displays for UK Buyers in 2026
The Google Home Hub is now the Nest Hub (2nd Gen): specs, Ambient EQ, Thread and Matter support, and how it compares with Echo Show smart displays.
Home Assistant Install: The Best Hardware & Software Options for Your Smart Home in 2026
Set up your smart home with the right hardware and software. We compare the best Home Assistant install options for UK homes in 2026.
Home Logic: The Ultimate Smart Home Hub for a Truly Connected Home in 2026
Struggling with a messy smart home? Home Logic simplifies everything. Compare top-rated UK smart home hubs for 2026 and find the best fit for your home.
The Ultimate Guide to Home Automation in 2026: Smart Hubs, Lights, and Thermostats
A UK guide to home automation in 2026, comparing smart hubs, Philips Hue lighting and smart heating by protocol, Matter support and boiler type.
The Ultimate Smart Home Guide for 2026: Systems, Hubs, and Security
Smart home hubs, Matter-compatible devices, and security systems compared for 2026 — with protocol compatibility, pricing, and ecosystem lock-in analysis.
The Best Home Assistant Hardware for Your UK Smart Home in 2026
Best hardware to run Home Assistant in the UK (2026): Green vs Yellow vs Raspberry Pi 5 — specs, prices and compatibility compared for UK smart homes.
Best Home Assistant NAS Integration (2026): Synology, QNAP & DIY Builds Compared
Home Assistant NAS integration compared: Synology, QNAP and DIY TrueNAS builds, plus why the installation type decides your add-on support.
The Best Smart Hub for Home Assistant in 2026: A Comprehensive UK Buying Guide
Compare the best smart hubs for Home Assistant in 2026, from the Green and Yellow to Raspberry Pi and mini PCs, with UK pricing and specs.
Best Smart Home Hub with Local Storage in 2026: The Ultimate Buying Guide
Best smart home hub with local storage for UK homes in 2026 — compare Hubitat, Home Assistant & Homey Pro for privacy and offline reliability.