r/homeautomation vs r/smarthome

Side-by-side using public descriptions, members, growth and rule titles from SubMouse. Missing fields show as n/a. Adult communities are excluded.

Swap sides New comparison Related to r/homeautomation Related to r/smarthome

Home automation project room vs smart home product room

r/homeautomation’s public description is a place to share and discuss all things related to home automation. r/smarthome’s directory text covers smart home products and IoT help, tips and advice.

In our directory, homeautomation is larger (about 4.6M, rank #200) than smarthome (about 1.2M, rank #894). Activity samples show homeautomation posting more often (~22 posts/day vs ~13). homeautomation’s sample mixes links, text, images and galleries with question, personal-setup, Home Assistant and project flairs; smarthome’s sample is more text-forward with Home Assistant, Apple HomeKit, SmartThings, Google Home and Alexa flairs. Our directory lists homeautomation among smarthome’s related communities.

Rule titles: homeautomation bans abusive behavior, referral/affiliate/crowdfunding links, politics and low-effort spam and wants project details; smarthome requires smart-home relevance, citing sources/products used, and bans abusive behavior and referral links.

Choose r/homeautomation for DIY setups, projects and automation discussion under its project-detail and anti-spam rules.
Choose r/smarthome for product/platform help across HomeKit, SmartThings, Alexa and similar under its citation rules.
Both sit outside the current Top 100 cut; neither replaces a vendor support forum for a single brand.

Written comparison based on public descriptions and rule titles · updated 2026-11-07.

r/homeautomation

HomeAutomation

A place to share and discuss all things related to home automation.

Members: 4.6M
7-day growth: +833
Posts/day: 22
Directory rank: #200
Created: Dec 28, 2010
Submissions: Text or links

Sample mix: links 38%, text posts 31%, images 15%

Topics: Smart Home

Rule titles (short names we collected)

No abusive behavior
No referral, affiliate, or crowdfunding links
No politics
Include project details
No reposts, karma farming, or low-effort posts
Use the appropriate flair for posts
No Youtube, blog, etc spam
No hazardous information
Extra rules for vendors
Follow the Reddiquette

Open r/homeautomation on SubMouse

r/smarthome

SmartHome

This is the place for all your smart home product. This subreddit topics about a wide variety of smart home products and IoT's. Find help, tips, tricks and advice from our users!

Members: 1.2M
7-day growth: +889
Posts/day: 12.6
Directory rank: #894
Created: Oct 1, 2011
Submissions: Text or links

Sample mix: text posts 72%, videos 14%, images 6%

Topics: Smart Home

Rule titles (short names we collected)

Smart Home Related
Citing Sources/Products Used
No Abusive Behavior
No Referral Links

Open r/smarthome on SubMouse

Supported differences

Aspect	r/homeautomation	r/smarthome
Public focus (from each community’s public description)	A place to share and discuss all things related to home automation.	This is the place for all your smart home product. This subreddit topics about a wide variety of smart home products and IoT's. Find help, tips, tricks and advice from our users!
Size r/homeautomation is larger in our directory (about 3.9×).	4.6M members	1.2M members
Posting activity (our sample)	22/day	12.6/day
Common post types in our sample	links 38%, text posts 31%, images 15%	text posts 72%, videos 14%, images 6%
Selected rule titles (short names we collected)	No abusive behavior; No referral, affiliate, or crowdfunding links; No politics; Include project details; No reposts, karma farming, or low-effort posts	Smart Home Related; Citing Sources/Products Used; No Abusive Behavior; No Referral Links

What they share

Shared SubMouse topics: Smart Home
Our directory lists each of these communities on the other’s related list.

Rules and posting patterns we can verify

homeautomation short titles include: no abusive behavior; no referral, affiliate, or crowdfunding links; no politics; include project details; no reposts, karma farming, or low-effort posts; use the appropriate flair; no YouTube/blog spam; no hazardous information; extra rules for vendors; follow Reddiquette. Our sample flairs include question, personal setup, Home Assistant, project, news and SmartThings.

smarthome: smart home related; citing sources/products used; no abusive behavior; no referral links. Our sample flairs lean platform-specific (Home Assistant, HomeKit, SmartThings, Google Home, Alexa).

Where this comparison comes from

Public titles, descriptions and member counts from SubMouse’s safe-for-work directory. Short rule titles and posting-activity samples SubMouse collected. Related-list link from smarthome to homeautomation. Short titles only.

Members and public descriptions come from SubMouse's safe-for-work directory (as of 2026-11-02 UTC); 7-day growth measured from 2026-10-26. Posts/day and post-type mixes appear when we have an activity sample. Rule lines are short titles, not the full sidebar. Directory rank is listing order — communities outside the current Top 100 open in the info tool instead of a full community page.