Home Assistant hosting for an always-on smart home
Home Assistant brings lights, sensors, energy meters and cloud services into one dashboard with automations. On a HyperDC VPS it stays reachable, runs cloud integrations, an MQTT broker and your automations, and reaches the devices at home through a VPN. Preinstalled as an app option or installed with our guide.
- Home Assistant Container, reachable from anywhere
- Cloud integrations, MQTT and automations
- Home devices through a WireGuard tunnel
- Or a remote-access gateway for your home server
- Official docs
- home-assistant.io/docs
- Stack
- Python · SQLite, MariaDB, MySQL or PostgreSQL
- Default portHome Assistant’s docs warn that opening a port alone is not secure: use HTTPS through a reverse proxy, or reach it through a VPN.
- 8123, behind HTTPS or a VPN
- MinimumPublished for the Home Assistant OS virtual machine. The Container install has no published figures; the same size is a safe start.
- 2 GB RAM and 2 vCPU
- Install methodCore and Supervised installs have been unsupported since 2025.12. Container runs on any Linux server; it has no app store, so you run MQTT or Node-RED as containers of their own.
- Home Assistant Container
- Current release
- 2026.10, released monthly
Runs well with
- MQTT
- Zigbee2MQTT
- ESPHome
- Node-RED
- Companion apps
- Energy dashboard
- Cloud integrations
- WireGuard
- InfluxDB
- Grafana
Facts from the project’s official website, documentation and repository, checked in October 2026.
Home Assistant plans are being prepared
Tell us which devices and integrations you use, and our team will reply with the right server. Or start today on a Linux VPS and install Home Assistant with our guide.
How big a server does Home Assistant need?
Home Assistant is light; the history database and the services you run next to it decide the size.
| Feature |
Starter
Home Assistant with cloud integrations
|
Recommended Smart home
Plus MQTT, Zigbee2MQTT and Node-RED
|
Power user
Plus long history and dashboards
|
|---|---|---|---|
| vCPUVirtual processor cores of the server. | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| MemoryMemory for the app, its database and the operating system. | 2 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| DiskNVMe or SSD storage for the app, its data and local backups. | 32 GB | 40 GB | 80 GB |
| History databaseSQLite is the default. MariaDB or PostgreSQL suit long histories of many sensors. | SQLite | SQLite | MariaDB or PostgreSQL |
-
Starter
Home Assistant with cloud integrations
- vCPUVirtual processor cores of the server.
- 2
- MemoryMemory for the app, its database and the operating system.
- 2 GB
- DiskNVMe or SSD storage for the app, its data and local backups.
- 32 GB
- History databaseSQLite is the default. MariaDB or PostgreSQL suit long histories of many sensors.
- SQLite
-
Recommended
Smart home
Plus MQTT, Zigbee2MQTT and Node-RED
- vCPUVirtual processor cores of the server.
- 2
- MemoryMemory for the app, its database and the operating system.
- 4 GB
- DiskNVMe or SSD storage for the app, its data and local backups.
- 40 GB
- History databaseSQLite is the default. MariaDB or PostgreSQL suit long histories of many sensors.
- SQLite
-
Power user
Plus long history and dashboards
- vCPUVirtual processor cores of the server.
- 4
- MemoryMemory for the app, its database and the operating system.
- 8 GB
- DiskNVMe or SSD storage for the app, its data and local backups.
- 80 GB
- History databaseSQLite is the default. MariaDB or PostgreSQL suit long histories of many sensors.
- MariaDB or PostgreSQL
Home Assistant publishes 2 GB of RAM and 2 vCPU for its OS virtual machine and uses 32 GB disks in its examples. History grows with every sensor you record.
What Home Assistant on a server is good for
A server cannot plug into a USB stick in your home, but it can run everything that lives on the network, and reach home over a tunnel.
Cloud integrations around the clock
Weather, energy prices, calendars, cloud-connected devices and notifications keep running while your home internet is down.
MQTT for your devices
Run a Mosquitto broker next to Home Assistant, so ESPHome devices and Zigbee2MQTT at home report to it through the tunnel.
Home over WireGuard
A WireGuard tunnel between the server and your home router makes local devices reachable without opening ports at home.
Companion apps everywhere
Set the external URL once and the iOS and Android apps connect over HTTPS from anywhere, with location and notifications.
Root access, your rules
Every Linux VPS, VDS and dedicated server comes with full root access: you choose the versions, the add-ons and the security settings.
Backups included
Free weekly and monthly backups come with every VPS and VDS plan. For data that changes every day, keep copies of your own as well.
Locations on three continents
Run your server in the United States, Europe or Asia, close to the people who use it. The order form estimates the latency from where you are to each location.
Preinstalled or with our guide
Choose the app as an option when you order and it is installed for you, or set it up yourself with our step-by-step guide.
Set up Home Assistant in four steps
Order the app preinstalled on your server, or install it yourself with our guide.
-
Choose your server
Pick a VPS, VDS or dedicated server in the size from the table above and the location closest to your users.
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Install Home Assistant Container
Choose Home Assistant as an app option, or run the official image with Docker and host networking as described in our guide.
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Add HTTPS and the home tunnel
Put a reverse proxy with a Let’s Encrypt certificate in front of port 8123, then connect your home network with WireGuard.
-
Onboard and connect the apps
Create the owner account, set the external URL under Settings › System › Network, and sign in from the companion apps.
Step-by-step setup guides
Install, secure and update the app with our guides, written for current Ubuntu and Debian releases.
-
How to install Docker Engine on Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04
Install Docker Engine, Buildx and Compose from Docker's official apt repository on Ubuntu LTS, run it without sudo, rotate logs and keep published ports private.
15 min Beginner -
How to set up a WireGuard VPN server on Ubuntu or Debian
Build your own WireGuard VPN on a Linux server: generate keys safely, write wg0.conf, enable forwarding and NAT with ufw, run wg-quick under systemd and hand out client configs as QR codes.
35 min Intermediate -
How to set up Caddy as a reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS
Install Caddy from the official repository, point your domains at the server and serve every self-hosted app over HTTPS with a two-line site block, plus headers, password protection, logs and backups.
30 min Beginner
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Learn moreFrequently asked questions
Can Home Assistant on a server control the devices in my home?
Devices with a cloud service, yes, directly. Local devices need a link: a WireGuard tunnel between the server and your home router, Zigbee or Z-Wave coordinators that connect over the network, or Zigbee2MQTT on a small device at home that sends MQTT to the server. USB radios and Bluetooth cannot be plugged into a server in a data center.
Which installation method works on a VPS?
Home Assistant Container: the official image runs with Docker on any 64-bit Linux server. Home Assistant OS needs its own virtual machine image with UEFI boot, and the Core and Supervised methods have been unsupported since 2025.12, along with 32-bit systems.
Can I install apps from the Home Assistant store?
The store of apps, formerly called add-ons, is part of Home Assistant OS and is not available in the Container install. Run the same software, such as Mosquitto, Zigbee2MQTT, Node-RED or ESPHome, as separate Docker containers next to Home Assistant.
Should I keep Home Assistant at home instead?
If most of your devices are local, keeping Home Assistant at home is often simpler. The server is then your remote-access gateway: a WireGuard tunnel from home to the server lets you reach Home Assistant from anywhere without opening ports, even behind carrier-grade NAT.
How do the companion apps connect?
Set the external URL under Settings › System › Network to your HTTPS address. The iOS and Android apps use it away from home and send location, sensors and notifications through it.
How do I keep Home Assistant secure?
Do not open port 8123 directly. Serve it through a reverse proxy with HTTPS and set it as a trusted proxy, turn on multi-factor authentication for every user, keep Home Assistant updated, and keep admin access to SSH and Docker behind your firewall.
How do I back up Home Assistant?
Create backups under Settings › System › Backups and copy them off the server, or back up the configuration folder of the container. Free weekly and monthly backups of the whole VPS add another layer.
Ready to run your smart home from a server?
Tell us what you want to run and for how many people, and we will help you pick the right server.