Home Assistant Green

The supported way to start, with nothing to build

Home Assistant Green is a small box that arrives with Home Assistant OS already installed. You connect the supplied Ethernet cable and power adapter, then finish setup in the Home Assistant app or a browser. There is nothing to assemble and no operating system to install.

For a household that wants Home Assistant to run its Matter devices, that matters more than it sounds: Home Assistant supports its Matter Server app only on Home Assistant OS, and container and other installs run it at the owner's risk.

The simplicity now costs more. Green launched in 2023 at a $99 suggested price. Nabu Casa raised that price twice in 2026, in January and again in April, blaming memory and other component costs; it now stands at $199 in the US, before tax, and €179 in Europe. The specification has not changed, so the comparison with a mini PC or another platform's hub is much closer than it was at launch.

Matter runs over the network; Thread needs another radio

Green has no Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee or Thread radio. It reaches Matter devices through its Gigabit Ethernet connection, so Wi-Fi and Ethernet Matter devices can join once the Matter integration is installed. You add each new device from the Home Assistant app on a phone, which uses the phone's Bluetooth for the first connection.

Many Matter locks and sensors use Thread instead, and those need a Thread border router as well. If the house already has a compatible Apple or Google one, such as a HomePod mini or a Nest Hub (2nd gen), Home Assistant can use that network without extra hardware. With an Apple border router on that network, though, Home Assistant cannot currently deliver Matter firmware updates to its Thread devices.

The other route is Nabu Casa's Connect ZBT-2 in one of Green's USB ports. It runs Zigbee out of the box; switching it to Thread is a manual step, and Nabu Casa's Green page still labels Thread support through it as under development. ZBT-2 also runs one protocol at a time, so a home with both Zigbee and Thread devices needs two radios, or a ZBT-2 for Zigbee beside another border router for Thread.

Count that radio in the budget. Green plus a ZBT-2 comes to about $250 before tax, roughly the price of a Homey Pro mini with Thread and Zigbee already inside.

Fixed hardware sets the ceiling

Green has 4 GB of memory and 32 GB of built-in storage, and Nabu Casa designs it to be used as it comes. The microSD slot is for recovery, the HDMI port is for diagnostics, and the two USB ports are USB 2.0. There is no slot for more memory or a faster internal drive later.

Buy it for a home of lights, plugs, sensors, locks and the routines that tie them together. If you already plan camera recording, local voice processing or a long list of add-on apps, the fixed memory and storage are a reason to start on a mini PC with more of both. Home Assistant OS installs on ordinary x86 computers, but you then choose the hardware, set it up and support it yourself.

Nabu Casa rates the small board at about 3 W under load and cools it with a large aluminium heatsink instead of a fan, so Green can sit quietly on a shelf beside the router.

When another hub is the better buy

Green asks someone in the house to look after a server: updates, backups and the occasional integration that breaks. If nobody wants that job, buy a platform hub instead. The Homey Pro mini keeps Homey's automation software in a box with the radios built in, and the Aeotec Smart Home Hub 2 does the same for SmartThings with Thread and Zigbee included.

In a mixed household, Green reaches other apps unevenly. Home Assistant's built-in HomeKit Bridge puts its devices in Apple Home. Google Home and Alexa voice control is easiest through the paid Home Assistant Cloud subscription, which Nabu Casa renames Home Assistant Link on December 2. The SmartThings link runs the other way, bringing SmartThings devices into Home Assistant.

Owners of a Home Assistant Yellow do not need to replace it. Nabu Casa stopped making Yellow in October 2025 but keeps updating its software, and it now points new buyers to Green. Green is the only hub Nabu Casa sells, and it has not announced a newer one.

Stock depends on where you live

In early November 2026, US buyers could order Green at about the suggested price from AmeriDroid, one of Nabu Casa's listed resellers, which also sells refurbished units when it has them. Europe was patchier: Dinamotech in Italy had it at the suggested price, while BerryBase in Germany and HAshop.nl in the Netherlands were sold out. All three UK shops on Nabu Casa's list were sold out.

Buy Green when you want Home Assistant and would rather not build the computer it runs on, and plan the Thread radio or border router at the same time. Choose a mini PC when your plans already outgrow 4 GB, or a platform hub when nobody wants to run the server.