10 Essential Home Assistant Integrations to Add First

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Why Integrations Matter

Home Assistant becomes truly powerful when you add the right integrations. These 10 integrations are essential for building a robust smart home that is reliable, feature-rich, and easy to manage.

1. Mobile App Integration

The Home Assistant Companion app is absolutely essential. It provides:

  • Remote access to your dashboard from anywhere
  • Presence detection using GPS and WiFi
  • Actionable notifications with buttons and actions
  • Sensor data from your phone (battery, activity, location)
  • Quick actions from your home screen

Setup: Download from App Store or Google Play → Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → Mobile App

2. MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport)

MQTT is the backbone protocol for many smart home devices, especially DIY projects and Zigbee/Z-Wave coordinators.

  • Supports thousands of devices (Tasmota, ESPHome, Zigbee2MQTT)
  • Low overhead and fast communication
  • Works locally without internet

Setup: Settings → Add-ons → Mosquitto MQTT Broker → Install & Start

3. Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA)

Zigbee is one of the most popular protocols for smart home devices. ZHA provides built-in Zigbee support without external software.

Recommended Zigbee Coordinators:

Setup: Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → Zigbee Home Automation

4. Weather Integration

Weather data enables automations based on conditions like temperature, rain, or sunrise/sunset times.

Best options:

  • Met.no (Norwegian Meteorological Institute) – Free, accurate, no API key
  • AccuWeather – Detailed forecasts with free tier
  • OpenWeatherMap – Popular choice with historical data

Setup: Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → Search for your preferred weather service

5. Sun Integration (Built-in)

The Sun integration tracks sunrise and sunset times for your location. Use it to trigger lights automatically at dusk.

  • Automatically adjusts for daylight saving time
  • Provides sun elevation for advanced automations
  • Essential for outdoor lighting control

Setup: Automatically configured during initial setup (based on your location)

6. Person Integration (Built-in)

Track who is home or away using GPS, WiFi, or other device trackers. Critical for presence-based automations.

  • Combines multiple device trackers for accuracy
  • Enables home/away automations
  • Works with multiple household members

Setup: Settings → People → Add Person → Link to mobile app device tracker

7. Energy Dashboard

Monitor your home energy consumption and solar production. Requires compatible smart plugs or energy monitors.

Compatible devices:

Setup: Settings → Dashboards → Energy → Configure sources

8. Google Calendar or CalDAV

Integrate your calendar to trigger automations based on events. Great for morning routines on work days vs weekends.

  • Turn off automations during vacation
  • Adjust heating before you arrive home
  • Remind you of appointments with notifications

Setup: Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → Google Calendar

9. Spotify or Music Assistant

Control your music playback through Home Assistant dashboards and automations.

  • Start music as part of morning routines
  • Pause music when doorbell rings
  • Create multi-room audio scenes

Setup: Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → Spotify (requires Premium account)

10. HACS (Home Assistant Community Store)

Not an integration per se, but absolutely essential. HACS gives you access to thousands of community-created integrations, themes, and Lovelace cards.

Popular HACS integrations:

  • Browser Mod – Control your browser tabs
  • Alexa Media Player – Advanced Alexa control
  • Frigate – Local AI-powered security cameras
  • Mushroom Cards – Beautiful dashboard cards

Setup: Install via Terminal SSH add-on (see our setup guide)

Bonus: Node-RED

For visual automation building, Node-RED is incredible. Create complex automations using a flow-based interface instead of YAML.

Setup: Settings → Add-ons → Node-RED → Install & Start

Setting Up Your First Integration

Here is a quick walkthrough:

  1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services
  2. Click Add Integration in the bottom right
  3. Search for your integration name
  4. Follow the setup wizard (may require API keys or credentials)
  5. Devices will appear automatically in your dashboard

Integration Best Practices

  • Start with cloud-free integrations (local control = faster + more reliable)
  • Enable debug logging temporarily when troubleshooting
  • Update integrations regularly in HACS and core
  • Document your API keys in a password manager
  • Test each integration before building automations around it

Related Tutorials

Conclusion

These 10 integrations form the foundation of a powerful Home Assistant setup. Start with the Mobile App and MQTT, then add device-specific integrations based on your hardware.

Remember: integrations unlock the real power of Home Assistant. Take your time exploring each one, and do not be afraid to experiment!

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