Home / Directory / Home & network
Alternatives to Alexa and Google Home
Run lights, sensors and automations in your house without a vendor's cloud.
Ranked by score out of 30, most convivial first.
Home Assistant
Runs your smart home on your own hardware, with local control.
ESPHome
Turns cheap chips into smart home devices that you program yourself.
Pi-hole
Blocks ads and trackers for every device on your network.
openHAB
Home automation that works with many brands and runs locally.
Zigbee2MQTT
Frees Zigbee devices from their makers' hubs and apps.
For comparison
The big names these tools are measured against. We review them as benchmarks, so they sit outside the directory.
About these tools
Smart home gadgets usually come with an account and a company server that has to stay up. Home Assistant runs the whole house on your own hardware, openHAB does the same from an older project, ESPHome builds devices you program yourself, Zigbee2MQTT replaces each brand's hub with one adapter, and Pi-hole blocks ads and trackers across your network.
The common thread is local control, so the lights still work when the internet does not.
How to choose
Most people should begin with Home Assistant and buy devices that work locally. Be ready for a real learning curve, and for the fact that the easiest gadgets are often the ones tied to a vendor.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an alternative to Alexa or Google Home?
Home Assistant is the leading open source option and runs on your own hardware.
Do I need to know how to code?
Not to begin with, though ESPHome and Zigbee2MQTT reward some tinkering.
How do I block ads across my whole network?
Pi-hole runs on a small computer and blocks known ad and tracking servers for every device.