The ESPHome Starter Kit Launches August 12
The date is set. On August 12, the official ESPHome Starter Kit goes on sale, and the ESPHome team is launching it live with a stream covering the technical details, the design decisions, and the software work behind it.
We have been building this in the open with the Open Home Foundation for a long time now. It took longer than we first hoped, and the kit is better for every extra week. Getting to this point still does not feel entirely real.
What the ESPHome Starter Kit is
It is the first official kit for learning to build your own smart home devices with ESPHome.
If you have ever looked at a shelf of sensors and thought about building something yourself, you already know where that usually goes. You have to figure out which dev board to buy. You need a breadboard, jumper wires, resistors, and the patience to work out which pin does what. Somewhere in there a wire pops loose and the whole afternoon disappears into a wiring diagram.
The Starter Kit removes all of that. Snap a module off the panel, connect it to the main board with a single ribbon cable, open the visual builder, and you have a working smart home device. No soldering. No breadboards. No parts sourcing. No code required.
$40, and the majority of the profit from every kit goes back to the Open Home Foundation.
Build. Learn. Automate.
Those three words shaped every decision in this project.
Build. Solder-free assembly gets you straight to the interesting part. Every module snaps off a single panel and connects through one FPC ribbon cable. Every connection is identical and hard to get wrong, so the hardware stops being the obstacle.
Learn. We did not want a kit that hands you a result without any understanding. The accompanying learning wiki explains the why behind each step, connecting what you physically plugged in to the configuration running underneath it. The skills carry directly into anything you build with ESPHome next.
Automate. Each module becomes a genuine device in your home, not a lesson you pack away. Connect it to Home Assistant for deeper automations, or run it standalone. Either way it keeps working long after the lessons end.
What is in the box
The kit uses the same quality of components found in professional smart home devices.
ESPHome C6 main board. Built on the Espressif ESP32-C6-MINI-1, handling connectivity, device logic, and communication with your smart home. It carries two 14-pin FPC module ports, an onboard RGB status LED, and USB-C for power and programming, with support for an optional rechargeable LiPo battery so you can deploy it anywhere. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, and Thread are supported. Zigbee exists at the chip level for advanced users who want to experiment, though it is outside the supported out-of-the-box experience.
Motion sensor module. An MH-SR602 PIR sensor detecting movement from 0 to 3.5 meters. One of the most practical sensors in home automation.
Temperature and humidity module. An AHT20F sensor accurate to ±0.3°C and ±2% relative humidity. Precise enough to drive automations you actually trust.
Button module. A physical, clickable button with a satisfying press, built for everyday use. Sometimes the best interface is one you can feel.
ESPHome "Casita" notification module. Ten programmable RGB LEDs and a piezo buzzer in the shape of the ESPHome logo. Status indicators, color patterns, animations, tones, and chimes, in a module that looks good enough to leave on a shelf.
Plus: the ESPHome Casita stand and three FPC ribbon cables. The button, temperature and humidity, and Casita modules all live on a single snap-apart module board, with the PIR motion sensor as its own module.
Two modules can run on the main board at the same time, which turns the kit into a multi-purpose sensor for any room.
No code required, and no Home Assistant install needed to start
The kit is configured through the ESPHome Device Builder, the visual desktop app that lets you assemble a device by picking components and building automations without writing configuration by hand. Pick your parts, set your behavior, install.
This matters more than it might sound. For years, getting into ESPHome meant setting up Home Assistant first, or running a server, or standing up a Raspberry Pi before you could touch anything. That is a significant ask for someone who mostly wants to learn. Now you can start building right away, then connect to Home Assistant whenever you want to go further.
And the YAML is always there underneath. The visual builder is a starting point, not a ceiling. When you want to drop into configuration directly, nothing is hidden from you.
What you can build
Four modules, and each one becomes something real:
- Walk into a room, lights come on. The motion module as a presence trigger for lighting, so you stop reaching for switches in the dark.
- A thermostat for a room that needs one. Set a minimum temperature and have a heater kick on when your bedroom or workshop gets too cold.
- A do-not-disturb indicator. Program the Casita LEDs to glow red and the buzzer to chime when you are on a call, so the household knows.
- A one-press macro. Tap the button to start your morning routine, run the coffee machine, play music, or fire any Home Assistant automation you like.
- A multi-purpose room sensor. Run two modules at once, for example motion and climate together, and cover a whole room with one board.
- Whatever comes next. Once the basics click, the same skills apply to the entire ESPHome ecosystem and hundreds of supported components.
Who it is for
Complete beginners who have watched the smart home hobby from a distance and want a real way in that does not start with a soldering iron.
Home Assistant users who have wanted to build a custom device rather than buy one, but never found a clean starting point.
Tinkerers and makers who want quality components, open firmware, and hardware they can extend.
Educators and students. We keep hearing from teachers using our sensors to teach IoT and programming, and this kit was built with exactly that classroom in mind.
Anyone buying a gift for the person in their life who takes things apart.
Working with the Open Home Foundation
This is the part we still find surreal.
Apollo started in September 2023 with a modest goal and Saturday assembly sessions in Trevor's basement. We built the entire business on ESPHome and Home Assistant. Without those projects we would be two people tinkering with no way to turn it into anything. Being asked to build the first official ESPHome-branded hardware, as only the second commercial partner of the Open Home Foundation alongside Nabu Casa, is not something we ever expected.
Working with this team has been the best part of the project. The ESPHome and Open Home Foundation folks care deeply, argue about the right things, and hold a high standard for what goes out with their name on it. The kit went through more revisions than we planned because of that, and every one made it better. Speaking at State of the Open Home 2026 in Utrecht, where we first previewed the kit, and meeting the community in person, only made that clearer.
The Open Home Foundation exists to champion privacy, choice, and sustainability for smart homes, and for every person living in one. Those are not decorative values here. They are the design brief:
Privacy. Everything the kit builds runs 100% locally. No cloud, no account, no subscription, no telemetry. Your data stays in your home.
Choice. Open standards and open source throughout. The firmware and hardware designs are public on GitHub. Use it with Home Assistant, use it standalone, modify it, extend it. No lock-in.
Sustainability. Most learning kits end up in a drawer once the lessons finish. Every module here is built to last and designed to keep working as a real device in your home, which is the whole reason we made them durable rather than disposable.
And the funding piece matters. The majority of the profit from every ESPHome Starter Kit goes directly to the Open Home Foundation, supporting the team behind ESPHome, Home Assistant, Music Assistant, and hundreds of other open source projects. Buying a kit to learn on also helps pay for the continued development of the software that made all of it possible. That loop is the reason we wanted to build this in the first place.
Where it goes from here
This kit is the starting point, not the destination.
The design is modular on purpose. Two FPC ports and a snap-off module panel mean the platform can grow, and we are already thinking about what comes next: more modules, more boards, and more ways to extend what you already own. The ESPHome Device Builder is improving quickly, Thread and Matter support keep maturing, and the ceiling on what a low-cost chip can do keeps rising.
To borrow a line from the ESPHome team's own framing of this work: the goal is to lower the floor without lowering the ceiling. That is exactly what we tried to build.
This starter kit is just the beginning.
Thank you
A tremendous amount of work went into this from a lot of people. The Open Home Foundation and ESPHome teams, the reviewers and community members who gave blunt feedback on pre-production units, everyone in our Discord who has been asking about this for months, and our own small team in Versailles, Kentucky who kept refining it until it was right.
We cannot wait to get it into your hands.
How to be there on August 12
- Watch the launch livestream with the ESPHome team and special guests: youtube.com/live/aK2HMY9-Tzo
- Reserve or buy the kit: ESPHome Starter Kit product page
- Read the docs before you start: ESPHome Starter Kit wiki
- Join the conversation: Apollo Discord
Build. Learn. Automate. We will see you on the twelfth.
Frequently asked questions
When does the ESPHome Starter Kit launch? The ESPHome Starter Kit goes on sale August 12, 2026, alongside a launch livestream from the ESPHome team.
How much does the ESPHome Starter Kit cost? $40 USD. Prices may differ between regions due to local market conditions and individual retailers.
Do I need to know how to code? No. The kit is configured through the ESPHome Device Builder, a visual interface that handles every step. If you want to work with YAML directly, you can at any time.
Do I need to solder anything? No. Every connection is made with an FPC ribbon cable. No breadboards, no jumper wires, no solder joints.
Do I need Home Assistant to use it? No. You can build and run devices without installing Home Assistant first. Connect it to Home Assistant whenever you want deeper automations.
What is included in the kit? The ESPHome C6 board, the ESPHome Starter Kit module board holding the button, temperature and humidity, and ESPHome Casita modules, a PIR motion module, three FPC ribbon cables, and the ESPHome Casita stand.
Does it need the cloud or a subscription? No. Everything runs 100% locally with no cloud, no account, no subscription, and no telemetry.
Does the kit support Zigbee? The kit supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, and Thread. The ESP32-C6 has Zigbee at the hardware level, so it is possible at the chip level for advanced users experimenting, but it is not part of the supported out-of-the-box experience.
How does buying a kit support the Open Home Foundation? The majority of the profit from every ESPHome Starter Kit goes directly to the Open Home Foundation, funding work on ESPHome, Home Assistant, Music Assistant, and hundreds of other open source projects.
Apollo Automation designs, engineers, and manufactures privacy-first, locally-controlled smart home sensors in Versailles, Kentucky. Every product features 100% local control with no cloud dependencies or subscriptions required. Apollo is a Works With Home Assistant partner, Made For ESPHome certified, Works With Homey certified, a BBB Accredited Business, and the second official commercial partner of the Open Home Foundation. Learn more at apolloautomation.com.
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