Looking for the best way to run Home Assistant? Our readers have their say

The latest version of Home Assistant OS made its bow last month, bringing a more streamlined setup process. While do-it-yourself smart home platforms like Home Assistant OS and Home Assistant at large are geared more towards power users, it’s always welcome when any usability improvements are pushed through.

Given how popular the smart home space seems to be with our readers (and my colleagues, to be honest), I wanted to know just how many readers deploy Home Assistant in their homes. But, more importantly, what is the most popular platform to run the smart home suite?

We ran a poll to garner this information from our readers, and over 2,000 responded. Two platforms in particular proved the most popular in our poll, racking up a combined 64.4%.

So, which platform won? Using a virtual machine is our readers’ favorite Home Assistant deployment option, with just under a third (32.8%) of the total vote.

Virtual machines are a natural home for platforms like Home Assistant OS, thanks to their ease of updates, greater control over resource utilization, and extensibility. If you already have a dedicated server for smart home services, it makes sense to add Home Assistant OS to that list via a dedicated machine.

Notably, 14.5% use Docker to run Home Assistant in a container, which can and often does dovetail with the virtual machine option, while a further 11% run Home Assistant directly on a NAS.

The next popular option is deploying Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi. Again, this tiny microcomputer offers so much versatility, whether you use it solely for Home Assistant or run it alongside other options, like Pi-hole. For users who don’t have a dedicated server with VM potential, a dedicated, affordable single-board computer like the Pi is an effective way to boost smart home potential for little cash.

Just under 10% of respondents use other platforms for Home Assistant.

Let us know how you run Home Assistant in your abode, whether it’s the fully-fledged Home Assistant OS or Home Assistant on another platform.