5.1 KiB
Product assessment & market position
Written 2026-07-05. Sources: GitHub API star counts and HA docs verified 2026-07-06; see links inline. Update this file when the landscape shifts.
What the product is
An interactive floor plan for Home Assistant delivered as one HACS package: a storage integration (server-side config, WS API, file uploads, auth) + a Lovelace card (rendering, room markup editor, drag layout, zoom, live states, temperature, Zigbee LQI, device metadata with PDF manuals, virtual markers, en/ru localization). GUI-first: no YAML, no hand-made SVG.
Competitive landscape (stars verified 2026-07-06)
| Competitor | Stars | Approach | Weakness we exploit |
|---|---|---|---|
| ha-floorplan (incumbent) | 1 562 | hand-made SVG + YAML/CSS/JS rules | steep barrier: Inkscape + YAML; no GUI editor; config in card YAML |
native picture-elements |
built-in | absolute % coordinates in YAML | trial-and-error positioning, no zones, no editor |
| native Areas/Home dashboard (2025.4→2025.12) | built-in | auto card grid by area/floor | not spatial — leaves the visual-plan niche open |
| Dwains Dashboard | 2 049 | auto-generated menus | not a floor plan |
| Bubble Card | 4 391 | GUI card collection | not a floor plan; sets the GUI-quality bar |
| zigbee-floorplan-card | 71 | LQI over a plan image | single-purpose; validates our LQI feature |
| kishorviswanathan/ha-floorplan (2026-01) | 155 | external web editor → YAML export | editor outside HA, still YAML at runtime |
| Padraigggs-ha-interactive-floorplan (2026-03) | 41 | editor+viewer cards, "no YAML" | weeks old, card-only, no server-side integration |
| easy-floorplan (2026-05) | 11 | draw walls/furniture in the card | drawing-centric, immature |
Demand evidence: a dedicated Floorplan forum category; the "100% Floorplan UI" mega-thread (500k+ views); a visible 2025–2026 wave of new floorplan projects (three launched in the last six months alone). The pain is constant: people want a floor plan without Inkscape and YAML.
Honest assessment
Usefulness — high. A floor plan is the most natural "at a glance" home UI, and the GUI-first workflow (upload image → outline rooms → devices appear → drag) removes the exact barrier that keeps most users on lists of entity cards.
Demand — real but niche-shaped. Floorplan is a perennial top request, but the audience is enthusiasts with wall tablets. Realistic trajectory given the field: hundreds of stars in the first year if discoverability is solved (HACS default + demo GIF + forum post). Bubble Card (4.4k★) proves polished GUI cards can go quasi-mainstream; ha-floorplan's 1.5k★ with a hostile workflow shows the demand floor.
Unique position — currently unoccupied. Nobody else combines: server-side config
(integration + .storage, survives dashboard edits, shared across users/devices,
optimistic locking, live multi-client sync) + in-card room polygon editor bound to HA
areas + curated auto-placement + drag layout + LQI/temperature overlays + config flow +
en/ru localization + CI/quality-scale discipline. The newcomers are card-only toys so
far; the incumbent is powerful but YAML/SVG-locked. Our moat grows if we integrate
deeper with the areas/floors registry (Phase 9) — that is the direction HA core itself
is signalling with the native Areas dashboard.
Risks.
- HA core ships a native spatial plan. The Areas dashboard is grid-based today, but core moving spatial would commoditize us. Mitigation: registry integration, speed.
- Discoverability. 0 stars until the HACS queue (~2 months) clears. Mitigation: demo assets + forum/Reddit showcase now, custom-repo installs meanwhile.
- Single maintainer bus factor — mitigated by docs/ discipline and tests.
- Frontend API churn (undocumented hass internals custom cards rely on). Mitigation: minimal surface, CI against beta HA (add to Phase 8).
Recommended next moves (priority order)
- Demo GIF + English forum/Reddit posts — cheapest adoption lever, do before the HACS queue clears so the storefront lands with social proof.
- Phase 7 quality items (runtime_data, unloading, storage migrations, single_config_entry) — cheap now, expensive later; also a credibility marker for reviewers.
- Registry-driven onboarding (import floors/areas as spaces/rooms suggestions) — the feature that makes first-run magical and that no competitor has.
- Editable icon rules — removes the last dacha DNA and answers the #1 predictable user complaint ("wrong icon for my device").
- Click actions (toggle from the plan) — most requested behavior in every floorplan thread; we currently only open info dialogs.