ESPHome
Turns cheap chips into smart home devices that you program yourself.
Instead of Smart plugs and sensors
Screenshot from esphome.io, taken 2026-10-23, shown to help you recognise the tool. It belongs to its maker. Ask us to remove it.
ESPHome lets you build sensors and switches from inexpensive chips, with a short config file, and the devices talk to your hub locally instead of through a vendor's cloud. It comes from the same foundation as Home Assistant.
It asks you to handle hardware, so Delivery is a 2 for most people.
- Build your own sensors and switches from cheap chips
- Devices talk to your hub with no vendor cloud
- Needs comfort with hardware
What stands out
Do you make ESPHome? Get the badge for your site
This badge reports a dated review. It is not a certification and it costs nothing. Link it to this page and leave the numbers alone: the image always shows the current score.
For dark backgrounds, use esphome-dark.svg in place of esphome-light.svg.
For comparison, we also reviewed Amazon Alexa (14/30) as a benchmark.
