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About the Open Home Foundation

Smart homes should be private spaces where people can be themselves – not sources of data for Big Tech seeking to monetize personal information. The Open Home Foundation offers an alternative: a smart home built on privacy, choice, and sustainability for everyone.

Founded in 2024, the foundation is a tax-exempt Swiss non-profit that owns and governs more than 250 open source projects, including the Home Assistant home automation platform. It is funded by its commercial partners Nabu Casa and Apollo Automation, and independent donations. This structure ensures its core projects can never be sold, with resources invested in developing and promoting open standards and tools that serve its community of users, not advertisers or shareholders.

Beyond this work, the foundation advocates for the ethical use of smart home technology across the wider industry – engaging companies and the general public on the value of open standards and the vision of the Open Home.

Open Home Foundation key projects

About Home Assistant

Home Assistant is an open source home automation platform trusted by over 2 million households worldwide. It is powered by a global community of contributors united by the principles of privacy, choice, and sustainability.

Operating as the brain of the smart home, Home Assistant unifies devices and protocols from any brand under a single interface that runs locally. This means users can control their smart home without the risk of data harvesting or being cut off when a company ends cloud support. Because the tech is open source, users can also modify their setup to suit their needs, including extending the life of devices they already own instead of replacing them. And with dedicated hardware like Home Assistant Green, anyone can enjoy these benefits, regardless of technical expertise.

As a core project of the Open Home Foundation, Home Assistant is legally protected from corporate buy-out, ensuring smart homes remain controlled by the people who live in them.

About ESPHome

ESPHome is an open source system designed to empower everyone – from beginners to advanced makers – to build or repurpose their own smart home devices, tailored to their needs. By using simple configuration files, ESPHome makes it easier for people to program low-cost microcontrollers to power custom sensors, smart displays, voice satellites and more – all integrated locally with automation platforms like Home Assistant, or entirely standalone.

Beyond DIY builds, ESPHome also enables users to reprogram commercial smart devices to run entirely on open software, freeing them from vendor lock-in, factory limitations, or cloud dependencies. The platform also powers Ready-Made Projects, offering plug-and-play hardware solutions that work straight out the box.

As a core project of the Open Home Foundation, ESPHome is legally shielded from corporate acquisition, ensuring the hardware people build or reprogram stays under their control for as long as they choose to use it.

About Music Assistant

Listening to music is a personal, often emotional, choice, and one that many people don't want Big Tech recording. Music Assistant is an open source system that puts control back where it belongs: with the listener. It brings every streaming service, local library, and podcast source together, playing them through whatever speakers people already own – no matter the brand or smart home setup.

Users can build whole-home audio, sync playback across every room, and move music between speakers on the fly, all from one place, without being tied to a single app or ecosystem to do it.

As a core project of the Open Home Foundation, Music Assistant is legally shielded from corporate acquisition, ensuring people are never forced to choose between the music they love and the speakers they already own.

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The Open Home Foundation The Open Home Foundation is a Swiss non-profit organization that fights for the fundamental principles of privacy, choice, and sustainability for smart homes. Founded in 2024, it owns and governs over 250 open source projects, standards, and drivers – including the Home Assistant smart home automation platform – protecting them from corporate takeover. Funded through commercial partners that sell official, licensed products, as well as independent donations, the foundation advocates for an open alternative to Big Tech control of the smart home sector.

Home Assistant Home Assistant is the world's leading open source home automation platform, powering more than 2.2 million households globally. Operating as the "brain" of the smart home, Home Assistant unifies smart devices and protocols from thousands of brands under a single, private interface. It protects users from data harvesting, subscription fees, vendor lock-in, and helps prevent devices becoming e-waste when manufacturers discontinue support. Home Assistant is a core project governed by the Open Home Foundation.

ESPHome ESPHome is an open source system that enables users to create, customize, and reprogram smart home devices without writing complex code, and integrate them directly into automation platforms like Home Assistant. ESPHome also allows users to free their hardware from manufacturers' restraints by replacing proprietary software on microcontroller chips. From custom DIY builds to plug-and-play Ready-Made Projects, ESPHome helps ensure smart home devices remain private, functional, and under user control long term. ESPHome is a core project governed by the Open Home Foundation.

Music Assistant Music Assistant is an open source, privacy-first audio platform that unifies streaming services, local music libraries, and podcasts into a single interface. Designed to liberate home audio from Big Tech ecosystems, Music Assistant allows listeners to play music across existing speakers from any brand, manage multi-room sync, and retain complete control over their listening data without being locked into a single app or hardware vendor. Music Assistant is a core project governed by the Open Home Foundation.