The best Smart Home newsletters

Personal essays and guides from the Home Assistant lead on smart home automation, open source maintenance and building reliable software. Readers get practical explanations of Home Assistant features alongside reflections on how open source practices change as projects scale.

Practical build notes on putting AI layers on top of real systems, including a smart home run through Home Assistant and Claude, a Cloudflare Worker proxy over closed commerce platforms, and brand-specific AI assistants. Each issue walks through the problem, the architecture chosen and the tradeoffs.

A personal tech blog with technical write-ups on security, reverse engineering and homelab practice. Readers get detailed, referenced explanations of how things like contactless cards and Bluetooth devices work, plus practical self-hosting advice.

A podcast newsletter from brothers Matt and Sean Ferrell featuring long-form interviews with founders and engineers in electric vehicles, solar, smart home and energy tech. Each issue includes episode summaries, chapters, links and listener feedback.

Hands-on home automation tutorials centered on Home Assistant, covering local control of devices, self-hosted notifications and AI integration. Each issue pairs a written walkthrough with a video and explains the author's own setup choices.

Hands-on technical write-ups about home automation projects, mainly Home Assistant integrations with ESP32 hardware, GoodWe solar inverters and Modbus heating controllers. Each issue includes configuration snippets, register details and the reasoning behind the setup.

Martin Dougiamas, founder of Moodle, writes personal essays on AI, education and the open internet, including design principles for a local household AI agent. Readers get reflective, opinionated takes on how to use AI for learning versus work and why ownership and openness matter.

BoatHackers is a practical blog by a software developer living aboard a catamaran, documenting DIY smart home and marine tech projects such as integrating NMEA instruments, Shelly relays and Starlink with Home Assistant. Readers get step-by-step, hands-on accounts of wiring and automating boat systems, including the hardware pitfalls and real-world testing.

BTTR Reviews is an Australian tech review newsletter covering consumer gadgets such as smart home cameras, doorbells, and AI glasses. Readers get hands-on reviews and launch coverage with practical notes on battery life, privacy, subscriptions and local pricing.

A monthly-style newsletter from the Open Home Foundation's president, Paulus Schoutsen, covering privacy, choice and sustainability in smart homes through Home Assistant and related open projects. Readers get project updates, community showcases of novel uses, and arguments against proprietary smart-home devices.

A maker's personal newsletter about building open hardware projects, mostly around Home Assistant, Raspberry Pi and DIY gadgets. Issues cover project write-ups, event reports and commentary on the smart home ecosystem.

Rich on Tech shares practical tech news, gadget reviews, useful apps and handy tips for everyday users. Recent issues cover finding and cancelling forgotten subscriptions, AI assistants for managing money, Apple's new Home View display, and a visit to a Boxabl foldable tiny home.

A personal blog-style newsletter from a middle-aged UK IT enthusiast covering homelab builds, Home Assistant and smart home troubleshooting, plus life and travel musings. Readers get irreverent, self-deprecating accounts of projects with some practical technical detail.

A personal tech blog with short, hands-on posts covering home lab setup, smart home configuration and LLM usage limits. Readers get step-by-step fixes and test notes based on the author's own hardware.

Skyhaven Group publishes field notes on building practical AI agent systems that read signals from physical or business systems and propose actions under human approval. Issues cover an agentic irrigation example, a home energy harness, and a call to start building with existing models rather than waiting for the next release.

A personal blog by Florian Jensen with hands-on technical guides covering smart home integration, self-hosting Ghost with ActivityPub behind Traefik, and multi-host single sign-on with Authelia. Readers get step-by-step configuration instructions with working snippets, plus occasional travel writing.

A personal newsletter where a technologist and creative generalist explores ideas on topics such as smart lighting, jazz and leadership, and attitudes toward AI. Issues are reflective essays that mix personal anecdote with opinion and practical perspective.

A personal blog-style newsletter by a hobbyist tinkering with local AI for invoice processing, vibe coding security concerns, and home Wi-Fi access point benchmarks. Readers get first-person experiments, measured results and candid caveats about practical technology projects.

Martin Lindemann shares personal blog posts on building an e-ink biomarker dashboard, his heavily automated smart home running Home Assistant, and reflections on software engineering culture like preserving the 'why' behind code decisions. Readers get practical DIY detail and a thoughtful, first-person take on engineering judgment.

Iqbal Ibrahim's blog shares hands-on notes from a software and electronics engineer, including a Zemismart M1 Pro review for Home Assistant and Matter, a look at Cursor as an AI code editor, and a workflow for running parallel autonomous coding agents with Claude Code and JIRA. Readers get practical, tested setup details and tooling experience rather than general news.

Michael Leen's newsletter offers practical smart home and tech guidance, including Home Assistant troubleshooting, lessons learned from building a smart home, and hands-on reviews of gadgets like robot window cleaners. Each issue pairs a companion YouTube video with step-by-step explanations aimed at making home life more productive.

James Ridgway, a software engineer, writes personal technical blog posts covering conference travel write-ups, data structures like Count-Min Sketch, and DIY smart home projects with Shelly and Home Assistant. Readers get practical hands-on detail from his own installations alongside a light travel diary.

A hobbyist's personal blog covering home server builds, unRAID storage, Linux, and Home Assistant smart home projects, with build logs and cost breakdowns. Readers get practical, first-hand details on hardware choices, power-saving tweaks and Zigbee/WiFi setup.

A personal blog by a frontend engineer covering hobby projects and technical writing, including a smart home writeup and a history of web development. Readers get first-person, informal posts mixing practical detail with personal experience.

Practical guides on plant diagnostics, smart-home watering with Matter, and setting up automated drip irrigation for home gardens, with an Australian climate focus. Readers get step-by-step advice on reading plant symptoms, zoning gardens and choosing compatible watering devices.

A practical blog from a licensed low-voltage contractor in metro Atlanta covering access control, outdoor Wi-Fi, and security camera placement for homes and small businesses. Readers get concrete planning steps and hardware guidance tailored to local building types.

This is the blog of Safire Home Solutions, a smart home installer in Oklahoma, sharing project write-ups on Home Assistant integration and Wi-Fi troubleshooting. Readers get practical examples of diagnosing home networks and combining devices from several brands, though the posts also promote the company's services.

A personal tech newsletter by J.P. Whiteside covering pen computing, gadgets and general technology news, with weekly commentary on product launches and AI industry moves. Readers get brief takes on new devices, hands-on reviews of wireless microphones and a sense of the author's enthusiasm for tech.

A personal tech newsletter focused mainly on Apple products, with commentary on upcoming devices like the HomeView smart home display and iPhone Duo, plus occasional video game and gadget reviews. It mixes first-person opinion, speculation and links to the author's other writing and podcast.

BLACKVOID.CLUB is a Synology-focused site under a media partnership, publishing reviews, tutorials and technical guides on Synology hardware, software and cloud services. Readers get product coverage, pricing changes and how-to walkthroughs for NAS backup and surveillance setups.

A personal blog mixing travel photo essays, hobby reflections and hands-on smart home write-ups. Readers get first-person stories and photography alongside practical notes on home automation and lifestyle.

A personal blog covering furry culture, programming and smart home projects, written in a first-person voice. Readers get convention reports, hands-on Homey setup experiences and step-by-step practical guides.

A personal technology and home automation blog with practical how-to guides, product news, and honest opinion pieces. Recent issues cover a diskpart-based clean Windows install and Belkin ending support for older WeMo smart home devices.

A personal blog by Chris DeFlumeri covering his hands-on home automation build with Home Assistant, local-only Zigbee and Z-Wave hardware, and remote access, alongside rambling life updates about becoming a stay-at-home dad and occasional track-day photos. Readers get a practical look at a fully local smart home setup mixed with informal personal anecdotes.

Everything Smart Home is a UK blog covering smart home gear, with deal roundups, Home Assistant release write-ups and hands-on device reviews. Readers get practical product guidance and updates on the Home Assistant ecosystem.

Celmin publishes buying guides and how-to articles for smart home devices, gadgets and home appliances, with a Canadian focus on pricing and availability. Recent issues cover a steam cleaner, troubleshooting a smart plug for Alexa, and choosing a lighted magnifying mirror.

A weekly roundup for developers building local-first software, mixing news, discussion and links to new tools such as sync engines, offline-capable SDKs and on-device AI projects. Readers get a quick scan of what is shipping in the local-first space, with brief excerpts and short commentary rather than long-form analysis.

VacuBots covers robot vacuums and robotic lawn mowers with news on new product launches, specifications and trade show previews. Readers get concise, spec-focused coverage of upcoming and recently released models.

This newsletter from 2057 Holdings describes how the firm applies one shared operating system across its portfolio of companies, with examples from a smart-home build on Home Assistant, a Cloudflare Worker that puts a unified checkout in front of separate vendor platforms, and AI tooling that enforces each brand's voice. Readers get concrete accounts of the technical setups and the reasoning behind them, though the content is mostly about the firm's own work.

The Hardwire is a weekly-style roundup of newly released AI-adjacent hardware, with each issue briefly describing gadgets, prototypes and research such as espresso machines, smart-home hubs and wireless speakers. Readers get quick, specs-focused summaries of what each device does, what it costs and where it is available.

NineFortyOne is a tech news newsletter that rounds up recent rumours and announcements, mainly about Apple hardware and smart home plans, plus Xbox and gaming. Readers get a quick digest of what is expected and where the reporting comes from.

Nudge is a controller app for Sonos speakers on iPhone and Apple Watch, centred on letting guests request and receive temporary DJ access without sharing account details. The issues mix product walkthroughs with comparative guides on controlling Sonos without the official app.

A product-driven blog covering the Matter smart home standard, with guides on connecting Zigbee devices and roundups of Matter hubs, controllers and door sensors. Readers get buying recommendations, pros and cons, and setup steps, mostly tied to affiliate-style 'Add to Cart' listings.

A smart home hobby blog covering DIY and practical automation, such as controlling cheap IR-remote LED candles via a Tasmota-flashed blaster and Home Assistant. It also promotes a large sponsored smart home cinema project and a planned high-tech residence, with the latter mostly announcement-style text.

A hobbyist's personal notes on home plant automation, covering smart sensors, humidifiers and drip irrigation, with a shared Home Assistant-style script. Other entries are short updates on air plants and yearly harvests.

Company blog from the SharpTools team covering smart home dashboards, rule-based automations, and product updates. Readers get practical automation ideas and announcements of new features and platform integrations.

A personal tech blog with hands-on tutorials and tinkering notes, covering Raspberry Pi SSH setup, reviving an old Android tablet as a smart home panel, and getting a DJI Osmo Pocket to work with micro-USB phones. Readers get practical step-by-step instructions drawn from the author's own home projects.

Stellar Home Weekly publishes practical guides on smart home living, covering topics such as landscaping for security, homeowners insurance, and Halloween decoration safety. The excerpts are keyword-heavy and often generic, though the insurance and fire-safety issues cite sources like Triple-I, NAIC, NFPA and CPSC.

A company newsletter from a solar and battery installer in Isan and Northern Thailand, covering new Sigenergy products, customer installation feedback and home automation setups. Readers get product news and practical examples of residential solar storage in Thailand.

iSupra Design publishes affiliate-linked buying guides for smart-home products, such as Govee lighting and Anker SOLIX power stations, with quick-pick tables and setup advice. Each issue ranks products by use case and links to the retailer, so readers get shortlists and specs more than independent testing.