Home Assistant Renames $6.50 Link Service as 2.7 Million-Home Platform Pushes Beyond Cloud
Updated
Updated · The Verge · Oct 2
Home Assistant Renames $6.50 Link Service as 2.7 Million-Home Platform Pushes Beyond Cloud
3 articles · Updated · The Verge · Oct 2
Summary
$6.50-a-month Home Assistant Cloud service has been renamed Home Assistant Link, a mostly symbolic shift meant to distance the platform from “cloud” branding and clarify that Home Assistant itself runs locally.
Home Assistant says the service still provides remote access, Alexa and Google integrations, speech features, and encrypted backups, with backend changes aimed at improving speed and reliability.
Paulus Schoutsen framed the move as a privacy and resilience argument against cloud-dependent smart homes, saying Link cannot access user data and that basic device functions should work locally by default.
2.7 million homes now run Home Assistant, but the company says complexity still blocks mainstream adoption; it plans a simpler hub next year, easier setup, HACS integration next month, and AI agents to reduce friction.
The rebrand fits a broader strategy to make Home Assistant the local control layer for legacy devices, open standards, and future AI assistants without locking users into proprietary ecosystems.