Home Assistant vs Gladys Assistant: Compared
Quick Verdict
Home Assistant is the better choice for most people. Gladys Assistant has a cleaner default UI and a stronger privacy focus, but Home Assistant’s integration library (2,000+ vs ~30) and community size make it the more practical platform. Choose Gladys only if you want a simple, privacy-first setup with a small number of supported devices.
Overview
Home Assistant is the most popular open-source home automation platform. 2,000+ integrations, monthly releases, native mobile apps, and a massive community. It’s the default recommendation for self-hosted smart home automation.
Gladys Assistant is a privacy-first home automation platform built with Node.js. Created by a French developer, Gladys emphasizes simplicity and a clean UI over integration breadth. It supports Zigbee (via Zigbee2MQTT), Z-Wave, MQTT, Philips Hue, Sonos, Tasmota, and a handful of other protocols — but the total integration count is much smaller than Home Assistant’s.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Home Assistant | Gladys Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Integrations | 2,000+ | ~30 |
| UI | Lovelace dashboards (customizable) | Built-in dashboard (clean, modern) |
| Mobile app | Native iOS/Android | Progressive Web App |
| Automation engine | Visual editor + YAML + Node-RED | Scene-based visual editor |
| Language | Python | Node.js |
| Privacy focus | Local-first (cloud optional) | Local-only by design |
| Zigbee | ZHA, Zigbee2MQTT | Via Zigbee2MQTT |
| Z-Wave | Z-Wave JS | Via Z-Wave JS UI |
| MQTT | Native | Native |
| Voice assistants | Assist (local) + cloud integrations | None |
| Camera support | Extensive (ONVIF, RTSP, etc.) | Basic RTSP support |
| API | REST + WebSocket | REST |
| License | Apache 2.0 | Apache 2.0 |
Installation Complexity
Home Assistant has a straightforward Docker setup and an onboarding wizard that auto-discovers devices. The configuration can get complex as you add more integrations, but getting started is simple.
Gladys Assistant is equally easy to deploy — single Docker container with a SQLite database (no external DB needed). The onboarding is clean and fast. The limited integration count actually makes configuration simpler because there are fewer options to navigate. If your devices are in Gladys’s supported list, setup is faster than Home Assistant.
The difference: Home Assistant has more to configure because it supports more. Gladys is simpler because it does less.
Performance and Resource Usage
| Resource | Home Assistant | Gladys Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| RAM (idle) | ~300 MB | ~150 MB |
| RAM (loaded) | 500-800 MB | 200-400 MB |
| CPU (idle) | Low | Low |
| Startup time | 30-60 seconds | 10-20 seconds |
| Docker image size | ~1 GB | ~500 MB |
| Minimum hardware | Raspberry Pi 4 | Raspberry Pi 3 |
Gladys is lighter than Home Assistant but heavier than Domoticz. Both run fine on a Raspberry Pi 4 or any modern mini PC.
Community and Support
Home Assistant has an enormous community: 70,000+ GitHub stars, hundreds of thousands of forum members, active Discord and Reddit communities, and annual conferences. Finding help is easy.
Gladys has a small but engaged community (~2,500 GitHub stars), primarily French-speaking. The developer is active and responsive, but the smaller community means fewer tutorials, forum posts, and third-party add-ons. Documentation exists in English and French.
Use Cases
Choose Home Assistant If…
- You have a wide variety of smart home devices
- You need 2,000+ integrations
- You want native mobile apps
- You want voice assistant support (local or cloud)
- You need a large community for troubleshooting
- You want advanced automation capabilities (Node-RED, templating)
- You plan to expand your smart home significantly
Choose Gladys Assistant If…
- You want a privacy-first platform with no cloud features at all
- Your devices are all Zigbee, Z-Wave, MQTT, Hue, or Sonos
- You prefer a clean, simple UI out of the box
- You want a lightweight system with minimal complexity
- You don’t need voice assistants or extensive automation
- You want something that “just works” for a small, focused setup
Final Verdict
Home Assistant is the practical choice. With 2,000+ integrations versus ~30, the device compatibility gap is too large to ignore. Home Assistant also has better mobile apps, voice assistant support, and a vastly larger community.
Gladys Assistant is a genuinely nice project with a clean UI and honest privacy-first approach. If every device in your home is Zigbee or MQTT and you want something simpler than Home Assistant, Gladys delivers. But most people accumulate devices from different ecosystems, and that’s where Home Assistant’s integration breadth becomes essential.
Start with Home Assistant unless you specifically want Gladys’s simplicity and your device list fits within its supported protocols.
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