SHSelfHostIndex

Home Assistant vs LHA

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted home automation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
HO Home Assistant Open-source home automation that puts privacy first VS LH LHA Light Home Automation application that is fully extensible using
FeatureHome AssistantLHA
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguagePythonLua
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, one-clickbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 89,795★ 13
First released20132025
ReplacesSmartThings, Google Home—

Why pick each one

Choose Home Assistant if…

  • Huge device support
  • Local control and privacy
  • Very active community
Home Assistant details

Choose LHA if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Written in Lua
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
LHA details

Frequently asked questions

Is Home Assistant or LHA better?

Neither is universally better. Home Assistant has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Home Assistant and LHA free and open-source?

Yes. Home Assistant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and LHA under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Home Assistant and LHA with Docker?

Home Assistant: yes. LHA: check the project docs for container support.

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