Home Assistant Dashboards

The default HA dashboard is functional. The community has spent five years making it gorgeous. This page is the curated list of cards / themes / patterns that show up in every "best HA dashboard" Reddit thread.

For HA itself see Smart Home Hubs; for HA add-ons see Home Assistant Add-ons; for the HACS store that distributes most of these see below.

Lovelace — the dashboard engine

• ★ Lovelace — HA's built-in YAML / GUI dashboard engine. Cards are pluggable, layouts are nestable, themes apply globally. Edit via the UI for casual; edit the raw YAML for power.
• Sections view (HA 2024.3+) — the modern auto-flow layout; replaces older panel: true and grid hacks for most use cases.
• Storage mode vs. YAML mode — storage is GUI-friendly; YAML is git-friendly. Pick one and stick.

HACS — how you install custom cards

• ★ HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) — third-party "store" inside HA for custom integrations, frontend cards, themes, and AppDaemon apps. Required to install almost everything below.
  • https://github.com/hacs/integration
• HACS is community-maintained, not part of core HA — install once, update like an add-on.

The "must-install" cards

• ★ Mushroom Cards — flat, modern, single-button-style cards; the dashboard look that defined 2023-2024 HA aesthetics. Still ubiquitous in 2026.
  • https://github.com/piitaya/lovelace-mushroom
• ★ Mini Graph Card — the "small chart inside a card" that HA's built-in card never quite gets right. The single most-installed custom card historically.
  • https://github.com/kalkih/mini-graph-card
• ★ Button Card — programmable button card; massive customization; templated state styling. The power-user's swiss-army card.
  • https://github.com/custom-cards/button-card
• ★ Bubble Card — newer (2024); rounded "iOS Control Center"-style cards with animations; minimalistic; gaining huge traction in 2026.
  • https://github.com/Clooos/Bubble-Card
• ★ ApexCharts Card — proper time-series charts using ApexCharts.js; replaces HA's basic history graph for serious dashboards.
  • https://github.com/RomRider/apexcharts-card

Layout / structure

• Card-Mod — inject CSS into any card; the foundation of every "designer" HA dashboard. Use sparingly; minor HA updates can break custom CSS.
• Layout-Card — grid / horizontal / vertical layouts beyond Lovelace's defaults (mostly superseded by Sections view in HA 2024+).
• Stack-In Card — combine multiple cards inside one card with custom styling.
• Vertical Stack In Card — visually merge stacked cards (no double borders).
• auto-entities — generate card entries dynamically from a filter (e.g., "all lights in this room"). Saves enormous YAML.

Specialty cards

• Plotly Graph Card — alternative chart card; Plotly under the hood; very flexible.
• Calendar Card Pro — gorgeous calendar / agenda card.
• Weather Card / Hourly Weather — better-than-default weather UI.
• State Switch — show different cards based on state.
• Battery State Card — dedicated "battery levels of all my Z2M / BLE devices" card.
• ha-floorplan — SVG floorplan with live state overlays; for the "show me a top-down view of my house" dashboard.
• atomic-calendar-revive — calendar; older but still updated.
• light-entity-card / more-info-card — surface the "more info" panel inline.

Themes

• ★ HA Themes — built-in theme engine; YAML-defined; switchable per user.
• Mushroom Themes — pair with Mushroom Cards.
• Catppuccin / Tokyo Night / Dracula themes — coding-aesthetics fans port their favorite.
• Minimalist UI (Theme + dashboard pattern) — opinionated all-in-one design system; entire dashboard in a coherent style.
  • https://github.com/UI-Lovelace-Minimalist/UI
• Mushroom Default + Catppuccin is a common 2026 combo.

Editor / dev experience

• ★ Studio Code Server (HA add-on) — VS Code in browser pointed at /config. With homeassistant-config-helper extension, you get YAML completion for HA entities. Essential.
• HA Card Mod dev tools — live edit + reload.
• Developer Tools → Template — sandbox for testing Jinja2 templates before sticking them in YAML.
• ha-blueprint-store community — shared blueprint exchange beyond HA's official forum.

Mobile / TV / wall-tablet

• ★ HA Companion app (iOS / Android) — official; widgets; shortcuts; notifications. The "phone goes everywhere" client.
• Wallpanel mode (HA Companion Android) — kiosk mode for old tablets stuck on a wall.
• Fully Kiosk Browser — Android kiosk; has an HA integration that exposes the tablet's brightness / camera / motion as HA entities. The de facto wall-tablet stack.
• HA-Floorplan-on-iPad — old iPads on charging stands as "Star Trek panels" near doors.
• Hass.Agent (Windows) — desktop tray client; pushes Windows status into HA; gets HA notifications.

Practical guidance

• ★ One dashboard per use case — "Wall Tablet" view, "Phone" view, "Admin" view. Each can use the same backend entities, different layouts.
• Mobile-first design. Most HA usage is on phone; design for narrow screens, then add desktop chrome.
• Don't go overboard on Card-Mod. Every minor HA / card update risks breaking custom CSS. Mushroom + Bubble out-of-the-box is very good.
• Version your dashboard YAML in git. Store the raw YAML in the same repo as configuration.yaml.
• Hide unused entities. "Show only entities used on dashboards" is buried in Settings → Devices → Entity → Disable.

Pick this if…

• Default beautiful dashboard: Mushroom Cards + a theme.
• iOS Control Center vibe: Bubble Card.
• Real charts: ApexCharts Card.
• Floorplan-on-screen: ha-floorplan.
• Wall-mounted tablet: Fully Kiosk Browser + HA Companion.
• Designer-grade end-to-end design system: Minimalist UI.