The best smart home hubs, according to hackers
6 smart home hubs were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 3 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended smart home hubs with the badge. Each figure is 25 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Local control, no cloud needed
A free, open-source smart home hub that runs locally without cloud subscriptions and integrates almost any device, though setup takes real tinkering and technical skill.
Open source and locally controlled
People recommend it as an open-source bridge that connects many Zigbee devices to MQTT and Home Assistant, often more reliably than alternatives. One critic notes it can use several hundred MB of RAM.
Connects non-HomeKit devices to HomeKit
Lets non-HomeKit smart devices work in Apple Home, and people find it solid and handy for remote access without port forwarding.
All 6 smart home hubs, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Home Assistant | 298 | 75 | 80% | 13 | 2 yrs17 owners | Approved |
| 2 | Apple HomeView | 95 | 149 | 39% | 6 | — | — |
| 3 | Zigbee2MQTT | 16 | 2 | 89% | 6 | — | Approved |
| 4 | Homebridge | 13 | 1 | 93% | 7 | — | Approved |
| 5 | Home Assistant Green | 6 | 1 | 86% | 3 | — | — |
| 6 | Samsung SmartThings | 5 | 7 | 42% | 4 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same smart home hub in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to smart home hubs that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.