Why ÉCRIN
If you enjoy setting up and maintaining your home yourself, Home Assistant is an excellent choice. ÉCRIN is for those who want a finished home, installed by a professional, and someone who answers for it.
Home Assistant, the manufacturer’s own smart-home system, or ÉCRIN: three ways to run a home, compared on facts.
The table, line by line
| What matters | Home Assistant | The manufacturer’s own smart-home system | ÉCRIN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who installs it and answers for it | You: free, open-source software that you commission and maintain yourself | Depends on the system | Your installer, who fits it, commissions it and looks after it |
| Without internet | It runs locally, in your home | Depends on the system | The house carries on: the brain is in your home, in the Écrin |
| Remote access | Through the optional Home Assistant Cloud subscription, or set up yourself (VPN, port forwarding) | Depends on the system, sometimes as an option | Included, through an encrypted tunnel. Our servers relay without seeing into the house |
| Updates | A release every month, with fixes in between, to install yourself | Depends on the system | Pushed to all homes by the publisher, reverting automatically to the previous version if the Écrin does not restart |
| The bus and the equipment | Integrations for more than a thousand brands, including KNX | The brand’s own products, depending on the system | Wired KNX, and compatible equipment from the catalogue, controlled over your network |
| The app | Official apps for iPhone and Android, including the watch | Depends on the system | Native for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, with the watch, widgets and Siri |
| An assistant that knows the house | Assist, the voice assistant: local or online | Depends on the system | As an option: it reads the video door entry system, the cameras, presence and energy, and acts within your permissions |
| People and their permissions | User accounts, administrator or not | Depends on the system | Eight profiles, permissions by room, by time of day and until a given date, and a log by first name |
| Energy | An energy dashboard for electricity, gas and water, with solar, the battery and individual devices | Depends on the system | Measured values only, the cost of each device, real-time tariffs |
| EV chargers | Integrations, brand by brand; OCPP through a community component | As an option, depending on the system | Controlled by the Écrin over OCPP 1.6, with badges and kWh quotas |
| Cameras and video door entry | Integrations for cameras and door entry systems, depending on the brand | Depends on the system | Camera detections, playback from the recorder, the video door entry system and named codes |
| Backup | Automatic and encrypted, configured by you | Depends on the system | Encrypted every night, in three copies |
| A point of contact | The community, on its forum and on Discord | Depends on the system | In the Var, on +33 4 94 54 35 84 |
| The price | The software is free; the hardware and the optional Home Assistant Cloud subscription are extra | Depends on the system | On quotation, installed by your installer. No subscription, with two optional extras |
| Waking the TV on a camera alert | Depends on your installation | Depends on the system | Yes: on an urgent or critical alert, the Apple TV switches on and opens the alert; an urgent camera alert shows the camera live. Screen by screen, as you choose |
Facts gathered on 14 October 2026 from home-assistant.io: the FAQ (is Home Assistant free, does it work without internet, who can use it, when is the next release), installation, remote access, updates and backups, the list of integrations (KNX, chargers), the mobile app, voice control, accounts, the energy dashboard and help; the OCPP component, absent from the official list and installed through HACS (community forum, community.home-assistant.io). This table says who does what, never who does it better.
Judge for yourself
A demonstration on a real installation, and all your questions. Let’s talk about your home.
Or call +33 4 94 54 35 84, Monday to Friday, 8 am to 6 pm.