Home Assistant Says ‘Big Tech Ruined The Cloud, So We’re Out’

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Home Assistant is renaming Home Assistant Cloud to Home Assistant Link, a mostly symbolic change intended to clarify that the platform runs locally and does not require the service. The paid service’s features and pricing remain the same, while the project is also working to make Home Assistant easier for new users.

Home Assistant is renaming Home Assistant Cloud to Home Assistant Link, a change founder Paulus Schoutsen describes as a response to the reputation of cloud-dependent smart-home products. The service’s features and pricing are staying the same; the wider effort is part of the open-source platform’s push to attract mainstream users without requiring them to give up local control.

Schoutsen told The Verge that the new name is largely symbolic. Home Assistant runs on local hardware and controls devices on a user’s home network. Link provides remote access from outside the home and optional internet-based features, including Alexa and Google voice-control integrations, speech-to-text, text-to-speech and encrypted backups. The report says the service costs $6.50 a month or $65 a year.

Home Assistant Cloud was optional, and Link remains so: users can set up alternatives to the service’s functions themselves. Schoutsen said Link is operated by Nabu Casa, Home Assistant’s commercial partner, and that its traffic is encrypted. He said the service cannot access users’ data. According to the report, 60 percent of its profit goes to the nonprofit Open Home Foundation, which runs Home Assistant.

The announcement comes alongside plans to lower the platform’s learning curve. The team is developing simpler dashboards and setup, and plans to integrate the community-built HACS store into Home Assistant the following month. Schoutsen also described plans for a more approachable hub next year, as well as work on a “No Device Left Behind” program. The source report does not give a launch date or full details for those projects.

Local Control Without the Cloud

The rename draws a distinction between remote access services and smart-home products that depend on a company’s servers to function. Schoutsen argues that cloud-dependent devices can lose core functions when a provider shuts down a service. He cited Nest thermostats whose cloud support was discontinued and the June Oven after its servers were sunset. Those examples reflect his criticism, rather than a new change to either product announced in this report.

For Home Assistant users, the practical effect of the name change appears limited: the service remains paid and optional, and its stated capabilities remain in place. The broader issue is relevant to people choosing connected devices: whether basic controls continue to work locally if internet access or a manufacturer’s servers disappear. Home Assistant’s position is to favor local control and open standards, while accepting that some functions, including backups and speech processing, can rely on online services.

The project’s challenge is to make that approach usable beyond enthusiasts. Schoutsen estimates Home Assistant is installed in 2.7 million homes, but the report provides no comparative market-share calculation. Its flexibility is a draw for experienced users and a source of complexity for newcomers. Making setup easier could widen its audience, but the report does not establish whether the planned changes will do so.

From Cloud Branding to Link

Home Assistant is an open-source smart-home platform that can run on local hardware and connect devices from different manufacturers. Schoutsen told The Verge that many people arrive after running into limits with mainstream platforms such as Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple Home. The trade-off is that Home Assistant offers many options and can take more work to configure.

The “cloud” name had sat awkwardly alongside the project’s criticism of proprietary, cloud-dependent ecosystems. But the renamed service does not represent a withdrawal from all online functions: it continues to offer remote access and features that need an internet connection. The distinction the team is drawing is that these functions are optional, while the core system operates locally.

Schoutsen said the project wants manufacturers to provide local control by default, use standards such as Matter, Zigbee, Z-Wave, MQTT and ESPHome, avoid putting basic functions behind a cloud connection, and let customers control their own data. He also said Home Assistant is building a database to help people identify products that are not fully cloud-dependent.

“Big tech ruined the cloud, so we’re out.”

— Paulus Schoutsen, Home Assistant founder, speaking to The Verge

Details Still to Be Confirmed

The report does not specify when the name change will take effect for all users, or detail the back-end improvements Schoutsen said would address speed and reliability. It also does not provide a new feature list, migration requirements or information about whether existing subscribers need to take any action.

Several usability plans remain at different stages. The HACS integration was described as planned for the following month, and a successor to the Home Assistant Green hub was discussed for next year, but the report gives no exact release dates or product specifications. Details of the “No Device Left Behind” program, including the devices it will support and when, were not provided. The privacy statements about Link are attributed to Schoutsen; the report does not include an independent technical audit of the service.

Upcoming Usability Changes

The next reported milestone is bringing the HACS community store into Home Assistant, with Schoutsen saying the integration was planned for the month after the announcement. That change is intended to make community-built integrations easier to discover and install. The report does not state a confirmed date.

Home Assistant also expects to develop a successor to its Green hub with simpler setup, alongside dashboard and onboarding improvements. The team’s broader plans include the “No Device Left Behind” effort and a database of products that are not fully reliant on cloud services. Their timing and scope remain unspecified. For users, the immediate change is the new Link name; the planned releases will determine whether the platform becomes easier to adopt while maintaining its local-control approach.

Key Questions

What is Home Assistant Link?

Home Assistant Link is the new name for Home Assistant Cloud, an optional paid service that enables remote access to a Home Assistant setup and provides online features such as voice-control integrations and encrypted backups.

Is Home Assistant moving its smart-home controls into the cloud?

No such change is described in the report. Home Assistant runs on local hardware and controls devices locally; Link provides remote access and other optional functions that use the internet.

How much does Link cost?

The report lists the price as $6.50 per month or $65 per year. It says the name is changing but the service’s features are staying the same.

Do Home Assistant users have to subscribe to Link?

No. Home Assistant Cloud was optional, and the report says Link remains optional. Users can use other methods to reproduce the service’s functions, though the source does not detail those alternatives.

What changes are planned to make Home Assistant easier to use?

The team is working on simpler dashboards and setup, plans to integrate the HACS community store, and has described a more user-friendly hub for next year. Exact launch dates and specifications were not provided for most of these plans.

Source: rss