One of the main reasons to choose a Home Assistant smart home is the freedom you get to choose accessories, brands, and integrations. But not all devices work well with the platform. Some are notoriously unreliable, and others don’t play nicely with the kind of local control that the platform offers.
Here are seven more brands you might want to avoid in your Home Assistant smart home.
Tuya
Tuya isn’t a brand, it’s a platform. That means that you’ll find all sorts of devices for sale under the Tuya label, with a broad range of technologies available. They’re one of the cheapest options for Zigbee devices now that IKEA has dropped out of the game, but you’ll also find Tuya-branded Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, and Thread devices if you look hard enough.
It’s almost impossible to know exactly what you’re getting if you buy Tuya smart home products from a website like AliExpress. It would be inaccurate to say they’re all bad, and many good options exist, but you’re taking a stab in the dark whenever you buy something that doesn’t come with a hearty recommendation and a model number you can use to hunt down the exact item.
One thing that many Tuya devices have going for them is compatibility with Tasmota firmware, which enables all sorts of additional controls and features.
iRobot
iRobot, the company behind the iconic Roomba brand of robot vacuum cleaners, filed for bankruptcy in late 2025 and was later bought out by a Chinese supplier. Given the company’s financial problems, it’s probably not the best place to put your money if you’re thinking of dropping a grand on one of these devices.
But there are other issues to think about. iRobot’s Home Assistant integration is only compatible with certain models of vacuum, which means only some models can be controlled locally using your server. The rest are still dependent on cloud communication by default, and who knows how long those servers will remain online, given the company’s troubles.
Even with supported models, it’s not uncommon to see users complaining of an inability to authenticate their Roomba with the integration. If you’re looking for a robot vacuum to buy and local, cloud-free support is important to you, I’d recommend that you consider a model that’s compatible with Valetudo.
Shark IQ
Sticking with robot vacuums for a moment, Shark IQ is another brand of robot vacuums that has a Home Assistant integration for full local control. After establishing a reputation for instability, the integration stopped working in mid-2025 before coming back online in late September.
The integration then broke a month later and has been spotty ever since. There are Reddit threads that document this saga, with many complaining that the integration is down for days at a time on a regular basis. If you’re wondering whether the integration is working right now, then you might as well toss a coin.
Personally, I’d rather a device not work at all than be inconsistent. At least I know where I stand with things that refuse to work, and I can try to work around them rather than hang on to false hope.
Google
Google Nest smart speakers work just fine with Home Assistant in a casting capacity, which is nice but not particularly notable given the lack of fidelity. In order to use Google Assistant (or Gemini), you’ll need to upgrade to Home Assistant Cloud, and even then, you don’t explicitly need a Nest-branded speaker to use it.
But this isn’t the main reason I’d give Google’s smart home hardware a wide berth. The main issue for me is the company’s insistence on cloud control, which leaves you dependent on Google’s servers with nothing in the way of local control for doorbells, thermostats, or cameras.
Google is an internet company, and like Amazon (Ring), they’d love to sell you some cloud storage to go with their hardware. They’d also much rather you use Google Home than a local solution like Home Assistant.
There’s also the small matter of the company decommissioning its devices, as was the case with the first and second-generation Nest thermostats last year. Sometimes the popularity of these devices spawns projects like NoLongerEvil, but you’re better off buying a doorbell or thermostat that offers local support from the outset.
Kasa
I’ve seen some mixed things from Home Assistant users about Kasa, a TP-Link smart home brand. Some swear by them, while others complain that they’re difficult to set up and unreliable. You’ll see this sort of split opinion a lot when researching brands, so it’s worth taking such reports with a pinch of salt.
What’s not so great is what company support told one Reddit user regarding their EP25 smart plug: “We upgraded the local communication authentication method for the EP25 to prevent local communication security risks. As a result, some third-party smart home software and platforms that use local APIs can no longer communicate with our devices.”
With one firmware update, the company nerfed Home Assistant support. There are other tales of bulbs behaving erratically when not exposed to the internet, and devices limiting what information is exposed to Home Assistant. Kasa would probably rather you use their app, so it’s a good job there are plenty of alternative smart plugs and bulbs for Home Assistant users to pick up instead.
Tesla
Avoiding an auto brand because of poor Home Assistant support might seem like a stretch, but don’t forget that Tesla also produces home battery systems in the form of the Powerwall. I’d also posit that anyone investing in an electric vehicle that they intend to charge at home has at least a passing interest in monitoring and controlling the process with their smart home.
Unfortunately, Tesla has made some disappointing moves to fully nerf its local API and instead now requires that the cloud-connected Tesla Fleet API be used for everything instead. That includes both cars and batteries, which means there’s no longer any way to communicate with these pricey items locally over your own network.
To further rub salt into the wounds, the Tesla Fleet API has limits, and exceeding these limits will cost you.
Did you miss our last roundup? Check out five other brands to avoid if you use Home Assistant.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
