Home Assistant or Homebridge - Which one to use ? My Unbiased Opinion

building a DIY smart home is like the movie Matrix it all depends on what pill you want to take first so in this video I will give you my unbiased opinion on whether you should take first the home Bridge pill or the home assistant pill hello and welcome to my channel which is all about building an affordable DIY smart home that supports the Apple homekit ecosystem and I have done tons of tutorial videos that you can literally use right now so pretty please do take a look and don't be shy to like share and subscribe to always follow along now it's a known fact that I love using homebridge however it's been a while I started tinkering with home assistant so when I started onboarding myself with home assistant I looked around for opinions on the matter guess what all homebridge users said use homebridge and all home assistant users said use home assistant now the good news is that as of today I've been actively using both these amazing softwares and I thought to myself I should provide my unbiased opinion to you now before we go knee deep into this video let's set the stage right to avoid any confusion one both are open source systems and amazingly both are free to use both can be run on pretty much any hardware well this video is not a comparison between the two because their value propositions are totally different lastly your primary choice of a smart home ecosystem is basically Apple hawkit so before we go ahead and decide which DIY smart home build to take first you need to ask yourself what kind of a Dr wire are you with your smart home are you a noob which is a person who is totally inexperienced with tech and needs 100 tech support however you can with some guidance scan a QR code pair a smart home device and do everything within an app like the Apple home app and you basically don't have a lot of spare time with you or are you tech savvy which is a person with basic Tech experience and needs some kind of tech support however you can do a lot more than a noob can do you can also set up smart home systems following online tutorials build basic automations and you have some time to spare with your smart home setup or are you a tinkerer which is a person who literally enjoys building fixing experimenting and has a broad knowledge with technology however you can do a lot more than a noob and or it in tech savvy can do you can build local Control Systems over the smart home you aim to unify all of your smart home devices Under One Roof and lastly you have all of the time in the world so once you identify yourself what kind of DIY you are with your smart home it's time to find out the value propositions of both these amazing systems first up homebridge their value proposition is Crystal Clear bringing home kit support on where there is none now homebridge is just a bridge to make devices home kit compatible meaning it allows you to integrate with smart home devices that do not natively support home kit so in short everything that has been made for homebridge was designed to be used and controlled in apple homekit by basically installing configuring and using plugins which in turn makes devices homekit compatible and your main method of smart home control and automation is going to be all done within the Apple home app second up home assistant they have value proposition is to literally awaken your home meaning it allows you to put local control and privacy first when building your smart home system so in short home assistant is a fully featured self-hosted home automation software where you have total control in setting up your smart home like creating scenes automations build your own smart home hub that supports multiple smart home protocols like zigbee thread and of course the amount of standard plus they also have a dedicated app you basically don't need Apple or Google or Amazon to sell you a smart device you buy them on your own terms and conditions to add them in your smart home setup and your main method of smart home control and automation is going to be all done within a dashboard created and self-hosted by you so the question is which DIY smart home filter take first now here's where my unbiased opinion kicks in now if you are a tech savvy and want everything to be controlled with apple homekit the answer is obvious do take first the purple pill which is homebridge this will allow you to learn the ropes to get you into building a DIY smart home introduce you to basic code like Json and yml if you are to use Sigby to mqtt plus it also allows you to know that you can mix and match Brands and their devices in Apple homekit so if you're content and looking to create a home kit smart home there's a 95 chance the purple pill is the way to go for you now if you are a tinkerer you have outgrown your use of Home Bridge you build a solid foundation in navigating code opening and debugging issues you have a need to control every feature of a smart home device plus you are driven by curiosity to know how deep the rabbit hole goes into building a DIY Smart Home then only you need to take the blue pill which is home assistant that's like literally taking the red pill from the movie Matrix you are Alice in the Wonderland now with the blue pill you have universally accepted the choice for free and open source home automation you have opened the Pandora's Box to not just add devices and services but also add NFC tags blueprints that are basically automations build scripts create scenes run extra applications all within the operating system and most importantly together with the sky connect dongle which is a combination of zigbee thread and supports the matter standard you have literally future proofed your smart home with additional Network protocols for a fraction of a cost however here's a word of caution if you do decide to take the purple pill you know that your smart home is only limited by Apple homekit with the blue pill you are only limited by your ability and Imagination of having a near perfect functional smart home and how much you are willing to invest in building that so to wrap it all up if you're looking to create a home kit smart home there's a 95 chance home bridge is the way to go for you and do take the purple pill if you really want to create the ultimate DIY smart home using the best resources available and you are willing to go down the rabbit hole then 100 check out home assistant and take the blue pill either ways as for me I have enjoyed the purple pill and it's time for me to take the blue pill I'll see you in the next video cheers and happy automation

Channel: Eddie dSuZa

Views: 31,430

Keywords: Home Assistant Homebridge, homebridge, Apple HomeKit, homebridge plugins, homebridge homekit, homebridge setup, homebridge tutorial, what is homebridge, homebridge raspberry pi, affordable homekit devices, homekit smart home, homekit ideas, home assistant homekit, home assistant homebridge integration, what is home assistant, home assistant vs homebridge, home assistant guide, home assistant automation, home assistant raspberry pi, home assistant desktop, smart home 2023

Id: D9ME9BhPQ0E

Length: 7min 50sec (470 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 08 2023