Home Assistant Is Replacing HACS - Here’s What’s Really Happening

Summary

Home Assistant is integrating the functionality of HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) into Home Assistant Core under a new name: Home Assistant Marketplace. The change is intended to make community integrations and other add-ons easier to find and manage—not to turn them into officially supported Home Assistant features.

The Marketplace code was merged into the development branch, with a release expected in Home Assistant 2026.11 at the time of the video. It had not yet reached a stable release, so the speaker had not tested the migration.

What’s changing

• Marketplace will be available within Home Assistant, removing the need to install the separate HACS integration.
• Users will be able to browse, install, and manage supported community content from Home Assistant.
• Existing HACS users are expected to have their downloaded integrations, custom repositories, and dashboard resources migrated automatically.
• Marketplace is intended to manage updates for migrated community integrations.
• A GitHub account should no longer be required to browse or download items from the standard catalog. GitHub authentication will still be needed for some features, such as custom repositories and alternative versions.

Exceptions and migration notes

• A custom repository without a HACS JSON file may remain installed but might not be manageable or receive updates through Marketplace.
• Marketplace will no longer manage AppDaemon apps or Python scripts installed through HACS. These items are not necessarily expected to stop working, but users will need another way to maintain them.
• Home Assistant is expected to issue repair notifications for users affected by these changes.
• The speaker recommends making a backup before a major Home Assistant update and notes that migration behavior still needs to be confirmed in practice.

Rumors, Docker, and security

• Paid integrations: No paid-integration system or payment feature had been announced. The speaker says the name “Marketplace” alone is not evidence that Home Assistant plans to charge for community content.
• Docker users: Because Marketplace is being built into Home Assistant Core, the implementation does not appear to depend on Home Assistant OS or Supervisor. Container users are therefore expected to receive it too, but they will not gain Supervisor-managed apps.
• Security: Marketplace availability does not mean community code has been reviewed or audited by Home Assistant. Users will see warnings before installing or updating community content, with additional warnings when replacing a built-in integration with a custom version. Community integrations still require trust in their developers and maintainers.

Rationale and possible future direction

The main benefits are improved accessibility and a more consistent experience: users will have fewer separate installation and update processes to learn.

Developers have discussed the possibility that Marketplace could eventually become a central place to discover and manage more Home Assistant offerings, potentially including built-in integrations. This is a possible future direction, not part of the initial release, and does not mean official integrations are being removed or made paid.

Overall assessment: The standalone HACS integration is expected to be replaced, but its core purpose—access to community-developed integrations and custom content—is not going away. The speaker views the change as a positive step, while emphasizing that migration details and Marketplace’s long-term direction remain to be seen.

Reviews, guides, or tutorials

This is an explainer and analysis, not a hands-on tutorial. Practical advice includes checking custom repositories, planning separately for the maintenance of AppDaemon apps or Python scripts, and backing up Home Assistant before upgrading.

Main speaker and source

Simon, host of Byte of Geek.