Replaces Amazon Alexa
European alternatives to Amazon Alexa
European home automation without a US assistant
Browse the category: Home automation platforms
Amazon Alexa is the voice assistant behind Amazon's Echo speakers and displays. It answers questions, plays music, sets timers and controls smart home devices by voice, with third parties adding capabilities through skills. In many households it is used mostly as a hands free way to switch lights or check something while both hands are busy.
A voice assistant means a microphone in the kitchen and the living room, connected to a service that decides what gets recorded and how long it is kept. Households and organisations that want that under European rules can assemble the same automation from different parts. A European alternative to Amazon Alexa concentrates on the automation rather than the assistant. Homey and Home Assistant tie devices together, while Homematic IP and Bosch Smart Home supply the hardware.
European options 5
Our pick
Homey
Smart home platform from the Netherlands
Homey is a smart home platform from Athom B.V. in Enschede, the Netherlands, founded in 2014. Homey Pro is a local hub that speaks Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Thread and Matter, infrared and 433 MHz, with thousands of community apps for individual brands; Homey Cloud is the variant that works without a hub. Automations are built visually with Flows and Advanced Flows, and Insights charts energy use.
Netherlands
Homematic IP
Smart home system from Germany
GermanyFree plan
Bosch Smart Home
Smart home system from Bosch in Germany
GermanyFree plan
Netatmo
Connected home devices from France
FranceFree planSelf-hosted and open source
Open source projects you can run yourself. Not necessarily made in Europe, but nobody else holds your data.
Open sourceQuestions
Is there a European voice assistant in this list?
These options are built around automation and device control rather than a conversational assistant. Check what Homey and Home Assistant currently offer for voice before making it your main way of controlling the house.
Can I reuse the devices I bought for Alexa?
Many third party lights, plugs and sensors speak standard protocols and can be adopted by another platform. Look up your specific models in the compatibility documentation from Homey or Home Assistant.
Which option is easiest to set up?
Bosch Smart Home and Homematic IP are packaged systems where hub and devices come from one supplier, which keeps installation simple. Home Assistant offers the most flexibility and asks the most of you in return.