HACS, the community store most Home Assistant owners use for custom integrations and dashboard cards, is being built into Home Assistant itself under the name Marketplace. The details below come from a video by Simon of Byte of Geek, which is embedded in this post. He says he has not tested Marketplace, because it is not in a stable release yet, and neither have we.
What happened
According to the video, a Home Assistant developer known as Frank submitted a pull request to core on 28 September. The code was merged into the development branch on 1 October, and Marketplace is currently expected in Home Assistant 2026.11, due in November. Instead of installing HACS yourself, you would find Marketplace under Settings and browse, install and update community content from there.
Community integrations stay community-maintained. Being listed in an official menu does not mean Home Assistant has reviewed the code. Per the video, the implementation shows warnings you must acknowledge before installing or updating community content, with extra warnings when a custom integration replaces a built-in one.
What should carry over
- Home Assistant is meant to detect an existing HACS install and migrate it automatically, including downloaded integrations, custom repositories and dashboard resources.
- You should no longer need a GitHub account to browse and download from the standard catalogue. GitHub sign-in is still needed for custom repositories and alternative versions.
- Container (Docker) installs are not expected to be excluded, since Marketplace sits in core rather than the supervisor. The video’s creator has not verified that on a running container.
What to check before you update
- Custom repositories without a HACS JSON file. They should stay installed after migration, but Marketplace will not manage their updates.
- AppDaemon apps and Python scripts installed through HACS. Marketplace will stop managing them. They should not stop working, but you will need another way to update them. Home Assistant is meant to raise a repair notification if you are affected.
- Backup. Take a full backup first, as you should before any major release that changes how integrations are managed.
- Wait a release if your setup is critical. Migration is the part nobody has been able to test on a stable build yet. Let early adopters report in before you move a system people depend on.
What owners are asking
Will integrations become paid? This is the loudest worry. As things stand, the video says there has been no announcement of paid integrations, a payment system or a commercial app store, and nothing in the confirmed changes points that way. The name is what is stirring the rumour. There is no confirmed answer beyond that, and an official statement would settle it.
Will my custom repositories still work? Ones with a HACS JSON file should migrate. Ones without stay installed but unmanaged, as above. The video does not say whether Home Assistant will keep allowing arbitrary GitHub repositories to be added, so that is worth watching in the release notes.
Does this affect Docker users? Nothing in the implementation suggests it depends on Home Assistant OS. Supervisor-managed apps are a separate system and are not changing here.
Could official integrations move into Marketplace? The video says Frank floated that as a possible long-term direction, not part of the first release, and not a sign that built-in integrations are being removed or charged for.
Our take
Putting discovery inside Settings removes a setup step for new users, and automatic migration is the right goal. We would still treat 2026.11 like any major update: back up, read the release notes, and check your custom repositories and AppDaemon items first. If you rely on those, that is the reason to hold back a few days.