If you're exploring dashboard options for Home Assistant, you've likely encountered Lovelace, the built-in customizable dashboard. You might also be wondering how Stuga compares. Both serve the same fundamental purpose, controlling your smart home, but they take very different approaches.

This comparison aims to be honest about the strengths and limitations of each. Stuga isn't trying to replace Lovelace. They're designed for different priorities. Understanding those priorities will help you choose the right tool, or decide to use both.

Quick Comparison

Feature	Stuga	Lovelace
Setup time	Minutes	Hours to days
Configuration	Zero YAML required	YAML or visual editor
Mobile experience	Mobile-first design	Desktop-first, responsive
Customization	Limited, opinionated	Unlimited, highly flexible
Card types	Fixed (rooms, devices)	Dozens of built-in + custom
Native apps	Yes (iOS, Android)	Via Companion app
Local HTTP support	Yes (native apps)	Yes
Complex automations	No	Yes
Charts/graphs	No	Yes
Price	Free	Free

Philosophy: Opinionated vs Flexible

The fundamental difference between Stuga and Lovelace is philosophical.

Lovelace is a blank canvas. It gives you every possible tool and lets you build exactly what you want. Want a card that shows your washing machine's cycle progress alongside today's weather and your energy consumption? You can build that. The only limit is your imagination and willingness to learn YAML.

Stuga is opinionated. It makes choices for you about how a smart home dashboard should work. Rooms are cards. Devices are toggles. The layout is fixed. You can't add a weather card or energy graph because that's not what Stuga is designed for.

Neither approach is objectively better. It depends on what you value:

Value customization? Lovelace wins, no contest.
Value simplicity? Stuga wins by deliberately limiting options.

Setup Experience

Stuga Setup

Download the app
Enter your Home Assistant URL
Log in with OAuth
Done. Your rooms and devices appear automatically.

Total time: about 2 minutes.

Stuga reads your existing Home Assistant configuration and presents it immediately. If you've organized your devices into areas, those become your rooms. If you haven't, you'll see a flat list of all devices. The app works instantly either way.

Lovelace Setup

Lovelace comes pre-configured with an auto-generated dashboard that shows all your entities. But most users quickly realize they want something more customized:

Plan your dashboard layout
Learn about card types (button, entity, grid, stack, gauge, etc.)
Create views and add cards
Customize colors, icons, behaviors
Install custom cards from HACS for additional functionality
Optimize for mobile (conditional cards, different views)

Total time: hours to days, depending on complexity.

This isn't a criticism. Many users enjoy building their perfect dashboard. It's a satisfying project that results in something uniquely yours. But if you just want a working mobile interface today, the learning curve is significant.

Mobile Experience

This is where Stuga has a clear advantage. It was designed exclusively for phones.

Stuga on Mobile

44px+ tap targets throughout
Single-column layout optimized for one-handed use
Swipe gestures for navigation
Controls positioned in thumb-friendly zones
No pinching or zooming needed

Lovelace on Mobile

Responsive design that adapts to screen size
Multi-column layouts collapse on narrow screens
Tap targets depend on how you configure cards
Can be optimized with custom CSS and mobile-specific views
Requires effort to create a good mobile experience

Lovelace can be great on mobile. But you have to make it great. Stuga is great on mobile by default.

Customization Depth

If customization is important to you, Lovelace is the clear choice.

What You Can Do with Lovelace

Completely custom layouts with rows, columns, and grids
Dozens of card types: gauges, history graphs, calendars, maps, media players
Custom cards from the community (via HACS)
Custom themes with complete visual control
Conditional cards that appear based on states
Complex tap actions including service calls and navigation

What You Can Do with Stuga

Edit room names and icons
Reorder rooms
Hide devices
Organize rooms into floors
Choose light/dark mode

Stuga's limited customization is intentional. Fewer options mean faster setup and a more consistent experience. But if you want to display weather forecasts, energy consumption, camera feeds, or custom visualizations, Lovelace is your only option.

Performance and Responsiveness

Both solutions use WebSocket connections for real-time updates, so both can be fast.

In practice, Stuga tends to feel snappier because:

Simpler UI means less to render
Native apps benefit from platform optimizations
Focused feature set means less overhead

That said, a well-optimized Lovelace dashboard can be very fast too. Performance depends heavily on how many entities you're displaying and whether you're using resource-heavy custom cards.

Local Network Access

Many Home Assistant users prefer not to expose their installation to the internet. Both solutions support local access, but differently:

Stuga

Native apps connect directly to local HTTP (no SSL required)
Web app requires HTTPS
No need for Nabu Casa or reverse proxy for native apps

Lovelace

Built into Home Assistant, works wherever HA is accessible
Home Assistant Companion app handles local connections
No additional setup needed if you can already access HA

Both work well for local-only setups. The Companion app and Stuga's native apps both handle local connections smoothly.

Use Cases: When to Choose Each

Choose Stuga If...

You want a working mobile dashboard immediately
You don't enjoy configuring YAML
Your primary use is controlling lights and common devices
You value a clean, minimal aesthetic
You're frustrated with Lovelace's mobile experience

Choose Lovelace If...

You want complete control over your dashboard design
You need to display complex information (graphs, calendars, custom data)
You enjoy the process of building and tweaking your dashboard
You're primarily using a tablet or desktop to control your home
You need features beyond basic device control

Use Both If...

Many users find value in using both:

Stuga on your phone for quick daily controls while walking around
Lovelace on a wall tablet for at-a-glance status and detailed information
Lovelace on desktop for configuration and monitoring

They're not mutually exclusive. Use the right tool for each context.

What About Mushroom Cards?

If you're researching Home Assistant dashboards, you've probably heard of Mushroom cards. They're a popular HACS add-on that provides a modern, mobile-friendly design for Lovelace.

Mushroom bridges some of the gap between Lovelace and Stuga's aesthetics. The cards are well-designed with good touch targets and a clean look. However, you still need to:

Install and configure the cards
Build your layout manually
Maintain the configuration over time

Mushroom is a great option if you want Lovelace's flexibility with better mobile aesthetics. But it's still fundamentally a Lovelace customization, not a zero-config alternative like Stuga.

Conclusion

Stuga and Lovelace solve the same problem differently. Lovelace gives you unlimited power and flexibility. Stuga gives you a polished mobile experience with zero effort.

There's no universal "best" choice. It depends on:

How much time you want to spend on configuration
What devices and information you need to display
Whether you primarily use mobile or desktop
How much you value customization vs simplicity

If you're reading this article, there's a good chance you're frustrated with something about your current setup. If that frustration is about mobile experience and configuration complexity, give Stuga a try. It's free, and you can be up and running in minutes.

If your frustration is about needing more features and flexibility, Lovelace (perhaps with Mushroom cards) is probably the better investment of your time.

And remember: you don't have to choose just one. Use both where they each excel.