Home Assistant isn't just a great way to control your smart home locally and privately, but it can also save you money.You can use Home Assistant to replace multiple subscription services, which could save you more than $455 per year.Save $9.99 per month on a Ring subscription Frigate can store and analyze camera footage locally I paid for a Ring subscription for a long time.
My first video doorbell was a Ring, and while the hardware itself was relatively cheap, the subscription fees soon mounted up.The problem is that many of Ring's best features aren't available without a subscription.For example, to access your video recordings, event history, and person and package alerts, you need to pay for a Ring Protect plan.
If you want to cover multiple devices, a Ring Multi plan is currently $9.99 per month.You can replace many core features of a Ring Protect plan with Home Assistant and Frigate.Frigate is a local network video recorder (NVR) that you can use to record and store video from your security cameras and video doorbells.
It can also perform local object detection to identify people, animals, vehicles, and more.By using Frigate alongside Home Assistant, you can get notifications when someone is spotted at your door, get alerted when a package has arrived, and even have a live stream from your video doorbell appear on your smart home dashboard when someone rings the bell.You can do all of this without paying a fee.
Frigate won't work directly with Ring cameras, as it requires compatible streams such as RTSP or ONVIF feeds.Workarounds exist, but using a different brand may be better.You also need to provide your own storage, and some object detection may require hardware acceleration.
Running savings: $119.88 per year.Related These Are the 7 Best Ways to Run Home Assistant Find the best hardware for your smart home hub.Posts 8 By Adam Davidson Stop spending $2.99 per month on IFTTT Home Assistant can handle your automations IFTTT is another subscription I used for a while.
IFTTT stands for If This Then That, and it describes the type of automations you can build with the service.If one device or service triggers an automation, then another device or service can perform an action.For example, you could set up an automation to email you when photos are added to Dropbox.
The free version of IFTTT limits you to two Applets, slower execution speeds, and single actions per Applet.IFTTT Pro gives you much more, including webhooks and faster speeds, but currently costs $2.99 per month.I no longer use IFTTT at all because everything that I was automating with IFTTT I can now do with Home Assistant automations.
Home Assistant doesn't limit how many automations you can create, and each automation can include as many actions and conditions as you want.It means I no longer need to pay the subscription fee each month.Running savings: $155.76 per year.
Ditch the $10 per month Google Home Premium subscription Get AI-powered voice control without the fees Popular closed-source smart home systems such as Alexa and Google Home have traditionally been free to use.For example, you can use Alexa to control your smart home without paying a subscription.However, all that is now beginning to change.
Both Alexa and Google Home have subscription options that give you access to features that aren't available for free.It means that you can no longer access the full capabilities of Alexa or Google Home without paying.Google Home Premium is a $ 10-per-month subscription.
It includes Nest camera history and camera alerts, which, as we've seen, Home Assistant and Frigate can replace.It also provides some AI features, including Gemini Live and AI-assisted automation creation.Gemini Live is a more conversational mode for smart speakers, but the flip side is that you can't perform smart home actions while using Gemini Live.
Home Assistant can replicate some of these features.You can hook up Home Assistant's Assist voice assistant to an LLM conversation agent, whether that's a local LLM or a cloud-based model.You can then have natural-language conversations with Assist, but with the added benefit that the same conversation agent can also control your smart home.
Even if you opt for a cloud provider, there are some options that you can use for free within reasonable limits.While there's no direct equivalent to Google's Help Me Create feature, Home Assistant already has a powerful automation system, and you can use AI to create automations with natural-language prompts.With local LLMs or free cloud options, you can do all of this without paying Google $120 per year.
Running savings: $275.76 per year.Drop the $14.99 per month Roon subscription Music Assistant gives you multi-room music from multiple providers Close Roon is a music management and multi-room playback platform.You create a central Roon server that manages your music and sends it to compatible music players around your home.
You can combine locally stored music files and streaming services into a single library, and group speakers into zones for multi-room audio.Roon isn't free, however.A $14.99 per month subscription gives you access to all the features.
You can recreate many of the same features for free using Home Assistant and Music Assistant.Music Assistant is a free, open-source music management and playback system with official Home Assistant integration.Like Roon, you run your own Music Assistant server, and you can play music from your own files as well as streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music.
You can also play music through a wide range of supported devices and protocols.Integrating Music Assistant with Home Assistant makes it even more powerful, as music can become part of your smart home automations, so you could have your favorite playlist automatically start each morning when you walk into the kitchen.Music Assistant isn't a perfect Roon clone; it lacks some audiophile-focused options and other features.
However, you get many of the core Roon features without paying a thing.Running savings: $455.64 per year.Home Assistant can save you serious money These are just four examples of subscriptions that you can replace with Home Assistant.
There are plenty more.If you're paying monthly subscriptions for smart home services, it's worth seeing whether Home Assistant can do the job for free.
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