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Debating between Home Assistant OS or Docker for Raspberry Pi 4
(discuss.tchncs.de)
Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io
HA OS is the way to go.
You don't want to have to think about it. HA OS just works. You set it up and let it run.
There's no sense in trying to kerfuffle other things into it. You don't want to do too much on the Pi anyway because it'll lower the responsiveness of Home Assistant slightly. If you want a server that does things, buy a separate NAS and run it alongside HA OS.
This is what I do with a Pi running HAOS and a Synology ds920+ running backups and everything else. It's been rock solid, gives me a decent backup solution, my home automation is stable and responsive and no-fuss, and plenty of options for tinkering. Highly recommend.