--- title: "The best Home Assistant dashboards in 2026" description: "Sections, Mushroom, Bubble Card, GlassHome, Magic Frame, or Tunet? A fair look at the best Home Assistant dashboard options in 2026, including where each one falls short (mine included)." canonical: https://glasshome.app/blog/best-home-assistant-dashboards date: 2026-06-03 updated: 2026-08-22 tags: ["Comparison","Home Assistant","Dashboards"] --- Want a better Home Assistant dashboard in 2026? There are a handful of real options. You can stay on the built-in Sections view, build your own look with Mushroom or Bubble Card from HACS, or install an app that replaces the dashboard entirely: GlassHome, or the self-hosted Magic Frame and Tunet. Full disclosure: you are on the GlassHome website, written by the person who makes GlassHome. I have tried to give every option a fair hearing, and several of them beat mine for specific cases: Sections if you want to go deep in config, Tunet for energy and EV, Magic Frame for a photo frame. What you pick depends on how much you want to build yourself, who else in the house uses the dashboard, and where it hangs. ![A Home Assistant dashboard built with GlassHome, running the Midnight Glass theme](/assets/screenshots/home-midnight-glass-light-desktop.webp) GlassHome connected to Home Assistant, running the Midnight Glass theme. No custom CSS. [Sections](#home-assistant-sections-the-built-in-default) [Mushroom](#mushroom-hacs-card-collection) [Bubble Card](#bubble-card-hacs-card-collection) [GlassHome](#glasshome-dedicated-dashboard-app) [Magic Frame](#magic-frame-source-available-dashboard-app) [Tunet](#tunet-open-source-dashboard-app) ## At a glance | Option | Out of the box | Wall / kiosk | Household | Extend | Deep config | Open source | Price | | ---------------------------------------------------------- | -------------- | ------------ | --------- | ------ | ----------- | ----------- | ---------------- | | [Sections](#home-assistant-sections-the-built-in-default) | Partial | Partial | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free | | [Mushroom](#mushroom-hacs-card-collection) | Partial | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free | | [Bubble Card](#bubble-card-hacs-card-collection) | Partial | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free | | [GlassHome](#glasshome-dedicated-dashboard-app) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Partial | Free; PRO $39.99 | | [Magic Frame](#magic-frame-source-available-dashboard-app) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Partial | Free at home | | [Tunet](#tunet-open-source-dashboard-app) | Yes | Partial | Partial | No | No | Yes | Free | What the columns mean (a dash is "partly", tap it for the reason): - **Out of the box**: looks designed the moment you install it, no theming or CSS. Partial means it is tidy as shipped, but the look is yours to build. - **Wall / kiosk**: built for a mounted tablet: locks to the dashboard, hides the chrome, pairs the screen. Partial means it works on a tablet but locking it down takes add-ons or workarounds. - **Household**: per-person views or themes, and guest access, not one dashboard for everyone. - **Extend**: third-party cards or widgets, via HACS, a store, or an SDK. - **Deep config**: YAML, templates, custom CSS, conditional cards, the long tail of "make it do exactly this". The ready-made apps trade that away on purpose; if you live in YAML, Sections and the HACS cards win this column outright. - **Open source**: the whole app under an open-source license. Partial means the app is closed or source-available only. ## Home Assistant Sections (the built-in default) `Free` `Built in` `Open source` `Since 2024.3` Since 2024.3, the Sections view gives you a real drag-and-drop grid with a visual editor. The Areas dashboard can even build a clean starting layout from your rooms. No YAML needed. **Strengths** - Built in, free, and open-source: nothing extra to install - Goes as deep as you want in config - Works with everything in Home Assistant - Enormous community **Trade-offs** - Leans functional over polished - A designed look still means finding, installing, and theming HACS cards - Wall tablets, kiosks, per-user views, and guests take extra add-ons and workarounds **Best for:** tinkerers, and anyone who would rather stay free, open, and built in. ![The default Home Assistant dashboard on desktop, built with the native Lovelace UI](/assets/screenshots/competitors/ha-sections.webp) The default Home Assistant dashboard. Capable and tidy, but you build and theme the look yourself. Learn more: [Home Assistant Sections docs](https://www.home-assistant.io/dashboards/sections/). ## Mushroom (HACS card collection) `Free` `HACS` `Apache-2.0` `Card set` Mushroom is one of the most popular ways to upgrade the look of Lovelace. It is a free, well-kept set of clean, minimal cards for lights, climate, media, people, and more, and it is lovely work. **Strengths** - Genuinely beautiful cards - Kept up to date - Themeable to taste - Plenty of users, so help when you get stuck **Trade-offs** - A card set, not a whole dashboard - You still place the cards, build the layout, and theme it - No wall, kiosk, or household mode **Best for:** people who enjoy building their own dashboard and just want better-looking parts to build it from. ![Mushroom minimalist cards for Home Assistant Lovelace dashboards](/assets/screenshots/competitors/mushroom-cards.png) Mushroom's card collection: clean building blocks you place and theme yourself. ## Bubble Card (HACS card collection) `Free` `HACS` `MIT` `Phone-first` Bubble Card adds sleek pop-up and header cards with expandable buttons. It shines on phones. **Strengths** - Polished controls, built for phones first - Clean look - Big following **Trade-offs** - Same do-it-yourself model as Mushroom - Narrower in purpose - An interaction style, not a whole dashboard **Best for:** phone-first users who want modern pop-up controls in their current dashboard. ![Bubble Card room, media, vacuum, people and energy cards on a Home Assistant dashboard](/assets/screenshots/competitors/bubble-card-cards.webp) Bubble Card's pop-up and button cards. Sleek, mobile-first controls you drop into your dashboard. ## GlassHome (dedicated dashboard app) `Free tier` `PRO one-time` `Add-on / Docker` `Widget store + SDK` `Local only` GlassHome is a separate app that connects to Home Assistant. Instead of assembling cards, you install something ready-made: one visual style, drag-and-drop layouts, room-by-room navigation. It also does kiosk pairing for wall tablets, per-user themes, and guest access. Widgets come from a store, and there is an SDK and CLI if you want to build your own. Everything runs on your network. The flip side of "ready-made" is that you get GlassHome's look, not yours. There is no YAML, no templating, no custom CSS. If your current dashboard is a carefully tuned set of conditional cards and Jinja templates, GlassHome will feel like a step down in control, and that is by design. **Strengths** - Looks designed without theming - Kiosk pairing, per-user themes, and guest access built in - Widgets from a store, with an SDK if you want to write one - Quick setup, everything stays on your network **Trade-offs** - A separate app to install and keep updated - No YAML, templates, or custom CSS: one visual style, take it or leave it - The widget catalog is far smaller than HACS - The dashboard itself is closed-source (SDK, CLI, UI library, and widgets are open) - Small community, and one person building it (me) - PRO features cost money; the rest of this list is free **Best for:** households with a wall tablet and people who would rather not assemble a dashboard themselves. Not for anyone who wants to tune every card in YAML. The local tier is free. PRO is a one-time . Learn more: [How GlassHome connects](/docs/dash/connecting), [Pricing](/pricing), [Live demo](https://demo.glasshome.app). ## Magic Frame (source-available dashboard app) `Free at home` `Polyform NC` `Self-host` `Photo frame` `iOS beta` Magic Frame is a newer self-hosted app, in the same class as GlassHome. It is built for tablets, wall monitors, and picture frames, and it talks to Home Assistant directly. You lay it out by dragging widgets around, and every screen updates live. It also works as a photo frame: point it at a local Immich library and it cycles your own wallpapers. One tap turns the tablet from art into a control panel. Everything runs locally, with no cloud or account. **Strengths** - Source available and free at home - Photo frame and dashboard in one app, your own Immich wallpapers behind it - Screens stay in sync, no YAML anywhere - Reads Google and Microsoft calendars and Todoist - Ships an MCP server, so an AI assistant can read your views and widget catalog **Trade-offs** - Polyform Noncommercial: free at home, separate license to sell or embed - Young, small community - iOS app still in beta - No widget store or SDK yet **Best for:** tinkerers who want a tablet and a photo frame in one, and who enjoy self-hosting something new and following along as it grows. Learn more: [Magic Frame](https://magicframe.dev/), [Magic Frame on GitHub](https://github.com/jeremiaa/magic-frame). ## Tunet (open-source dashboard app) `Free` `GPL-3.0` `Add-on / Docker` `Energy + EV cards` `PIN-locked settings` Tunet is a free, open-source dashboard for Home Assistant. You install it as an add-on or run it with Docker, then arrange cards on a drag-and-drop grid. It arrives dark and glassy, and the cards cover a lot of what the native dashboard leaves you to build: hourly electricity prices, EV charge and range, Sonos and Android TV media, alarm, climate, calendar. Layouts are saved on the server as profiles, keyed to your Home Assistant user, so each person's layout follows them from screen to screen. Settings sit behind a PIN, so a wall panel does not get rearranged by whoever walks past it. **Strengths** - Free and open-source under GPL-3.0 - Installs as an add-on, looks designed without theming - Energy cards that are genuinely good: Nord Pool prices, EV charge and range - Profiles follow you across devices - Translated: German, Norwegian, Swedish, Chinese **Trade-offs** - Built-in cards only (23 of them), no plugin system - Started early 2026, mostly one person's work - No kiosk pairing or locked full-screen mode, and no guest access **Best for:** people who want a free, ready-made dashboard with strong energy and EV cards, and who are happy inside the card set it ships with. Learn more: [Tunet on GitHub](https://github.com/oyvhov/Tunet). ## Also worth knowing Dwains Dashboard (HACS) builds a full themed dashboard from your areas and entities. It is one of the closest community options to a ready-made product. The trade-off: you fit into its layout instead of designing your own. Button Card (HACS) is an endlessly customizable card for YAML and JavaScript fans. If you love templating, it is for you. It is the opposite of no-config. Tileboard and the other JSON-based wall panels still work, but they are aging and driven by config files, and most kiosk builders have moved on. Learn more: [Dwains Dashboard](https://github.com/dwainscheeren/dwains-lovelace-dashboard), [Button Card](https://github.com/custom-cards/button-card), [HACS](https://www.hacs.xyz/). ## How to choose Two questions decide it: how much control you want to keep, and who else uses the thing. Walk the tree. Every leaf says what you give up, because every one of these costs you something: You can also combine them. GlassHome, Tunet, and Magic Frame run next to the native dashboard, not instead of it, so an existing Sections or Mushroom dashboard keeps working. ## FAQ ### Do I need anything beyond the default dashboard? Not always. Sections is good now. You need more when you want a designed look, wall-tablet or kiosk behavior, or per-person views. ### Can I combine these options? Yes. Mushroom and Bubble Card live inside the native dashboard. GlassHome runs next to it on its own port. Nothing replaces anything. ### Does GlassHome replace Home Assistant? No. Home Assistant stays the engine. GlassHome is just a dashboard that connects to it. Your existing dashboards keep working. ### Is GlassHome free? Yes, there is a free tier for local use. PRO is a one-time purchase, not a subscription.