Why VistaBoard is easier for a wall dashboard than Home Assistant — and when combining both makes sense.
Home Assistant is the most popular smart home system. Many users want to show their dashboards on a wall display. But getting a Home Assistant dashboard permanently on a wall is more work than you might think. VistaBoard offers a simpler alternative — and can even be combined with Home Assistant.
The problem with Home Assistant dashboards on the wall: you need a browser in kiosk mode, have to handle autostart, screensaver suppression, automatic login and display control. After a crash or power outage, everything must restart automatically. This configuration requires Linux knowledge and regular maintenance.
VistaBoard solves all these problems out of the box. After installation, the display starts automatically, kiosk mode is preconfigured, crashes are recovered automatically, and the display can be scheduled to turn on and off. No need to fiddle with systemd services or Chromium flags.
What VistaBoard offers smart home fans: calendars with iCloud and Google, local weather forecasts, rotating family photos, news and quotes. Plus PV system data from Fronius, wallbox status and Tibber electricity prices. All on an elegant, auto-rotating display — without writing YAML.
When does the combination make sense? If you already have a Home Assistant dashboard and want to show it alongside VistaBoard, you can use VistaBoard as the main display and switch to Home Assistant with a button press. Or use VistaBoard in the hallway and Home Assistant in the utility room.
For most families, VistaBoard is the better choice for a wall display: it works immediately, requires no smart home knowledge and shows exactly the information that matters in daily life. Home Assistant remains perfect for device control in the background.
VistaBoard runs on the same Raspberry Pi as Home Assistant. If you want both systems, you can run VistaBoard on its own Pi or Mini-PC and Home Assistant on a separate device. This way each system has its own hardware and they don't interfere with each other.