Droplet will soon offer 2 Smart Home API integrations: MQTT and Home Assistant Core (expected October 2025). For most users, we will recommend the Home Assistant Core integration once it is available. It is easier to set up and requires no extra add-ons to be installed on your Home Assistant.
However, there are cases where the MQTT integration may be preferable:
You already set up the MQTT integration when it was made available in an earlier Droplet release. In this case, there is no need to switch to the Core integration. Once your Droplet receives the firmware update to enable volume data over home API, it will send a new MQTT discovery message to add this capability to your Home Assistant.
Your Home Assistant can’t use Zeroconf/mDNS (required for auto-discovery). To set up the Home Assistant Core integration without auto-discovery, your Droplet will need a fixed IP address.
You are integrating with a home automation setup other than Home Assistant. As long as you provide an MQTT broker, Droplet’s data can be ingested by an MQTT client of your choosing.