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Home Assistant is changing the name of its paid Home Assistant Cloud service to Home Assistant Link, while keeping its core features and subscription prices. Founder Paulus Schoutsen says the rebrand reflects the project’s opposition to smart-home products that depend on company servers, as the team also works to simplify setup and use.
Home Assistant is renaming its paid remote-access service from Home Assistant Cloud to Home Assistant Link, founder Paulus Schoutsen told The Verge ahead of the announcement. The service’s main features and prices are staying the same; the name change underscores the open-source smart-home platform’s preference for local control over products that rely on company-run cloud servers.
Link will cost $6.50 a month or $65 a year, the same prices reported for Home Assistant Cloud. It lets subscribers reach their Home Assistant setup from outside their home network and offers internet-dependent features including Alexa and Google voice control, speech-to-text, text-to-speech and encrypted backups. The service is optional: users can access similar capabilities through other methods, according to the report.
Home Assistant runs on local hardware and controls connected devices locally, but that ordinarily means users cannot reach their setup once they leave their home network. The Link service addresses that limitation. Schoutsen said its traffic is encrypted and that the service, operated by Home Assistant commercial partner Nabu Casa, cannot access users’ data. Those are his descriptions of how the service works.
The name change is not a withdrawal from all internet-connected features. Schoutsen acknowledged that functions such as speech processing, backups and AI can work better online. His objection is to smart-home products that depend on remote servers for basic operation, potentially losing functions when a manufacturer ends support or changes its service.
A Local-Control Argument for Smart Homes
The announcement brings Home Assistant’s positioning into sharper focus: internet access is an option for remote control and selected services, not a requirement for the core local setup. That distinction matters to owners concerned that a device may stop working if a company closes its servers, changes its terms or limits access to data.
It also highlights a practical challenge for the platform. Home Assistant offers broad customization, but Schoutsen says that flexibility can make it difficult for newcomers. The project is trying to attract mainstream users without removing advanced capabilities, a balance that could affect whether consumers see local control as a usable alternative to Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home and SmartThings.
Home Assistant local control device
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From Cloud Service to Link
Home Assistant Cloud was not mandatory, and the reported rename does not change that. The platform’s core approach is to run on local hardware; Link provides a convenient route back into a user’s system from outside the home and access to selected online features. The new name is also intended to reduce confusion among people who assume Home Assistant itself runs in the cloud.
Schoutsen told The Verge that Home Assistant is installed in an estimated 2.7 million homes, still a fraction of the reach of major smart-home platforms. The report also described work aimed at reducing setup friction: simpler dashboards, more intuitive onboarding, integration of the HACS community store into Home Assistant, and a more user-friendly hub planned for next year. The report places HACS integration next month; it does not give a calendar date.
The platform is also developing a “No Device Left Behind” program to help connect existing or legacy equipment. The source report describes that effort as in development and does not provide details on its scope or release schedule.
“Big tech ruined the cloud, so we’re out.”
— Paulus Schoutsen, Home Assistant founder, speaking to The Verge
Privacy Claims and Rollout Details
The report does not provide an exact launch date for the rename or specify what the promised back-end improvements to speed and reliability will change. It also does not explain how users will verify the claim that Link cannot access their data, beyond Schoutsen’s description of encrypted traffic.
Dates and details for the planned new hub and “No Device Left Behind” program remain limited. The reported 2.7 million-home figure is an estimate, and the source does not give a measurement method or date for that count. Whether simpler onboarding will bring substantially more mainstream users is also unresolved.
Simpler Setup and a New Hub
Home Assistant plans to integrate the HACS community store into the platform the month after the report, making community-built integrations easier to find and install. The team also plans a more user-friendly hub next year, described by Schoutsen as a successor to Home Assistant Green, with setup intended to resemble onboarding a Philips Hue hub.
The service rebrand and the usability work are separate developments: Link retains the reported subscription features, while the broader effort targets setup complexity and device compatibility. The report does not give launch dates for the hub or the legacy-device program, so those timelines remain to be confirmed.
Key Questions
What is Home Assistant Link?
Home Assistant Link is the new name for Home Assistant Cloud, an optional paid service for reaching a Home Assistant setup remotely and using selected internet-dependent features.
Are the service’s price and features changing?
The report says the main features and prices stay the same: $6.50 per month or $65 per year. It mentions back-end improvements to speed and reliability but does not detail them.
Does Home Assistant require cloud access?
No. Home Assistant runs on local hardware, and the paid Link service is optional. Remote access from outside the home network and some online features require an internet-connected route.
Why is Home Assistant changing the name?
Schoutsen said the name reflects the project’s criticism of cloud-dependent smart-home products and addresses confusion among new users who think Home Assistant itself runs in the cloud.
When will the new hub be available?
The report says a more user-friendly successor to Home Assistant Green is planned for next year, but it gives no specific release date.
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