SonoffLAN Home Assistant

Ideas & Suggestion Free discussion
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Hello,
Alexxit has developed an excellent and popular Sonoff integration for Home Assistant ( GitHub - AlexxIT/SonoffLAN: Control Sonoff Devices with eWeLink (original) firmware over LAN and/or Cloud from Home Assistant · GitHub ).

Unfortunately, for the past few months, eWeLink has been blocking the use of this integration, causing considerable frustration among Sonoff hardware users.
Many of them (myself included) are considering leaving the eWeLink/Sonoff ecosystem for a less restrictive system for Home Assistant.

These users will lose money (I have approximately 30 Sonoff devices), but so will eWeLink and Sonoff, as we will no longer purchase this hardware.

What a shame…

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I used this integration in the past, but I don’t use it anymore, so I’m not sure how it is now or what restrictions you’re referring to.
However, for those who have a ZBBridge-U, it’s very easy to use SONOFF devices in Home Assistant, either through a Matter bridge or via MQTT.

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What?!? How exactly?

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See last comment of AlexxIT: Energy/Power sensors stop updating unless eWeLink app is open (Background update failure) · Issue #1707 · AlexxIT/SonoffLAN · GitHub

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This has nothing to do with eWeLink or Sonoff blocking anything. Come on, drop it.

AlexxIT simply has a strange reluctance toward collaboration and sometimes abandons features halfway through. It’s happened more than once. It’s his private initiative and his project, so he’s free to do whatever he wants. But remember — it takes two to tango.

All that aside, the SonoffLAN integration was never an optimal solution to begin with. Instead of wrestling with it, consider looking into other options.

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What are the other options?

I tried the new eWeLink Smart Home v1.0.4, it’s a rough draft…

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SonoffLAN works, but it’s essentially a workaround — a heavy, maintenance‑prone bridge that only makes sense if someone insists on keeping both eWeLink and Home Assistant in the loop. It’s not an optimal long‑term solution for HA because it adds an extra translation layer and depends on how eWeLink behaves internally.

If you’re using Sonoff devices with Home Assistant, the better options depend on the hardware you actually have:

• Zigbee models → ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT
Fully local, fast, stable, and cloud‑independent. This is the cleanest and most reliable way to use Sonoff gear with HA.
• Wi‑Fi models that can be flashed → Tasmota or ESPHome
Gives you complete local control, predictable behavior, and native HA integration.
• eWeLink Smart Home v1.0.4 → still very early
As you noticed, it’s a rough draft. It’s cloud‑based, limited, and not yet a real alternative to proper local integrations.

So SonoffLAN is fine if someone absolutely wants to do the “splits” between eWeLink and HA, but it’s still just a functional prosthesis — not a native, efficient integration layer.

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I get the sentiment, but it’s a bit naïve to think that “Sonoff will lose money because we stop buying their devices.” Sonoff hardware is built primarily for the eWeLink ecosystem — that’s their core business and their main customer base. Home Assistant users are a tiny side‑audience using the devices in a way they were never designed for.

And honestly, every major vendor behaves the same way. Philips Hue, Aqara, Tuya, Shelly, Meross — all of them prioritize their own ecosystem first, and only then (sometimes) offer integrations for third‑party platforms. That’s just how consumer IoT works.

So getting upset at Sonoff for not restructuring their entire platform around Home Assistant is a bit like being angry at a washing machine for not washing dishes. It’s not what it was built for.

Home Assistant exists precisely because vendors build closed ecosystems. HA is the glue layer for people who want to unify everything locally — not a mandate for manufacturers to change their business model. So “I won’t buy Sonoff anymore” doesn’t really change anything. It just means the user chose the wrong tool for the job. If someone wants native, predictable HA integration, they should pick hardware designed for that — not blame Sonoff for being what it has always been.

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I use quite a few different Sonoff Zigbee devices with Home Assistant, but have never used the eWeLink app. I don’t use a Sonoff hub (or Wifi devices). I just use ZHA. I was using a Sonoff USB Dongle, but have recently switched to a ‘Connect ZBT-2’.

While not using their app, I also don’t use the SonoffLAN integration. However, everything seems to be working fine.

I guess I don’t really know what I maybe missing?

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Nothing. Nothing at all :slight_smile:

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I use AlexxIT’s SonoffLan Home Assistant integration for the Tx Ultimate wall switches and find its great for local control of these and he has added features when asked. Ive not seen anything else that can expose these to Home Assistant with full control of all the features beyond on/off like Backlight scenes, alarm, doorbell

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I stopped buying Sonoffs. They are great but their “draft ecosistem” is a joke. I diversified my smart home based on “works with HA” + “local” and I think this “Glue” will be the future. When Sonoff LAN will die I will investigate how to flash my Sonoffs but until then this works fine (Thank you AlexxIT)

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Nothing else stopped working, everything is working! This behavior affects both SonoffLan and the eWelink Docker plugin! They said it’s a matter of too many requests to their servers! The Sonoff R3 devices work normally and receive updates periodically! I only know that this affected those who have updated devices and those who don’t!

Therefore, I think the LAN mode of these plugins was never properly implemented!

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I just saw it, it seems he fixed the LAN side!

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Nothing ? Not true !
The ability to integrate with HA and the subsequent power that brings is a selling point in its own right.

My NSPanel Pro is enhanced significantly because it displays HA dashboards. HA dashboards allows me to manage domestic fire alarms, garage door controls, window controls, SmartThings, TPLink, Geek Magic TV, Weather display, WD NAS status, WAN (Fibre) and LAN (wifi) status through a single interface

The windows open because the sonoff device says “it’s hot”. Kitchen “mood” lighting (TP Link) comes on because a sonoff device tells it too.

All of this (and more) would be extremely difficult if not impossible for me without the Sonoff/Lan integration, as would any multi-vendor installation

I dont think I’m alone - and your response is misleading and lacking in imagination - especially for any enthusiastic newbies.

The integration is extensive and personally Im just grateful to AlexxIT for what has been done, rather than comment on what I think he has’nt

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Sonoff and eWelink never mentioned the SonoffLan integration as an official part of the system, so I don’t think that can be used as a selling point.

However, I understand your point of view!
Nowadays I no longer use Home Assistant as my main system for many reasons.

I recognize that the SonoffLan implementation was great and continues to be great in my opinion.

However, it’s a lie to say that everything stopped working and that eWelink is a demon and nothing from them should be bought anymore!

As I said above, the LAN part was never fully implemented in either eWelink or SonoffLan plugins!

Something he corrected yesterday, if I’m not mistaken!

So everything is back to how it was before!

And nothing is broken!

Sonoff itself has been doing an incredible job with NSpanel Pro, updating its firmware and making it as open as possible, the same goes for the U-hub, etc…

That’s why I think it’s unfair to say that it’s a demon and that you shouldn’t buy anything from it, etc… Everyone is different and free to mix and match devices as they wish with Home Assistant.

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Well - no they dont mention it, because they sell Sonoff and HA is free, but to a previous point I would have bought far less Sonoff without the Sonoff/LAN integration

Yes Sonoff have definitely improved the NS Panel Pro. The product manager “MichaelLearnstoCode” has also done a great job …. and buried in one of his posts you will find where Ewelink offered a contract to AlexxIT and wanted to adopt the integration - for his own reasons he declined, but Ewelink obviously see it’s value ….

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As far as I know, this is nothing more than speculation and things like that. It makes no sense for eWeLink to offer a contract to the plugin creator, since it’s been in development for a long time without financial support from eWeLink!

What did happen, and as far as I know because I participated in the discussions, was the creation of an API, etc… not the hiring of the plugin creator!

As I said, I don’t think it’s a matter of not seeing value or anything like that!

The decision that eWelink made affected both itself and any third-party plugin!

The issue is that the user base using SonoffLan reported it faster!

The part that uses the official eWelink plugin received the answer about how the cloud server works now! It just needs to be corrected in the plugin for it to work correctly now!

Every third-party plugin will always suffer, whether it’s eWelink, Aqara, Tuya, TP-Link, etc… just changing one thing on the server side can cause everything to collapse!

The same thing happened with TP-Link’s vacuum cleaners, which stopped working in Home Assistant due to the change in encryption used in them!

I don’t know if it’s already been resolved in the official plugin, but I saw that a plugin just for vacuum cleaners has already been released!

The same thing happened with SonoffLan. Something on the server side changed.

He had to fix the code, etc… and now everything is back to normal!

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Presently, NSPanel Pro has no such ability. Whatever pops up on the NSPanel Pro screen — any dashboard you manage to slap on there — still doesn’t magically turn into an integration. If you opened the HA dashboard on your smart TV, you wouldn’t suddenly declare the TV ‘integrated’. Curb your enthusiasm! :slight_smile:

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Definition: Integrated (in the context of applications working together)

Integrated means that multiple applications are connected in a way that allows them to share data, processes, or functionality seamlessly, as if they were parts of a single system.

In other words, the apps don’t operate in isolation—they communicate, coordinate, and exchange information automatically to support a unified workflow.

What “integrated” usually implies in real systems -

  1. Data flows between applications
    • Information entered in one system appears in another without manual re-entry
    • Example: A CRM sends customer data directly to an invoicing system

  2. Processes are connected
    • One app can trigger actions in another
    • Example: Submitting a form automatically creates a task in a project management tool

  3. Shared logic or functionality
    • Applications reuse each other’s capabilities
    • Example: A website uses a payment provider’s API to process transactions

  4. Unified user experience
    • Users don’t feel like they’re switching between separate tools
    • Example: Single sign-on (SSO) across multiple apps

How integration is typically achieved

• APIs (the most common method)
• Webhooks
• Middleware / integration platforms
• Shared databases (less common today, but still used)
• Enterprise service buses (ESB)
• Event-driven architectures

NS Panel Pro is a sonoff device.
Sonoff/LAN integrates with HA such that a NSPanel Pro device and entities are visible in HA and behave in a manner as defined above

Ewelink went to the trouble of developing the NS Panel firmware to allow it to run the HA companion app directly and to the exclusion of their own frontend application sharing processes, logic and data - simplifying the user experience

Feels integrated to me.

But lets see how rude you can be if you “slap” an alternative facts answer to that