Secure Home Assistant Remote Access with DuckDNS and NGINX (Step-by-Step)

Want to access your Home Assistant setup securely from anywhere — without relying on Nabu Casa? In this step-by-step guide, I’ll show you how to set up remote access using DuckDNS and NGINX, all from within Home Assistant. 🔐 By the end of this video, you'll have secure HTTPS access to your Home Assistant instance using your own free DuckDNS domain. 🔧 What You'll Learn: - Whether Nabu Casa is worth it for beginners (and when DuckDNS makes more sense) - How to set up a DuckDNS domain from scratch - Installing and configuring both the DuckDNS and NGINX add-ons - Setting up port forwarding on your router for remote access - Fixing the annoying ESPHome connection issue when using HTTPS 📌 Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:23 Why Nabu Casa is Recommended Over DuckDNS 00:54 Creating a DuckDNS Domain 01:35 Installing and Configuring the DuckDNS Add-on 04:17 Installing and Configuring the NGINX Add-on 08:11 Port Forwarding to the NGINX Add-on 10:55 Testing External Access to Home Assistant 11:17 Adding External URL to Home Assistant Settings 12:34 ESPHome External Access Warning and Fix 15:07 Outro 🔗 ESPHome issue fix: https://github.com/esphome/issues/issues/1035 NGINX Config Snippet: location /api/hassio_ingress { proxy_pass http://homeassistant.local.hass.io:8123/api/hassio_ingress; proxy_set_header Host $host:8123; proxy_redirect http:// https://; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade; } 🎵 MUSIC USED IN THIS VIDEO Intro Track: Powerful Action Rock Trailer 🎤 Artist: RocknStock 🎧 Source: Pixabay 🔗 Link: https://pixabay.com/users/rocknstock-28545072/ 💬 Questions or stuck on a step? Drop a comment below or join our Discord community for help! 🔗 https://discord.gg/jEaremqDJd 👍 Enjoyed the video? Give it a like, leave a comment, and subscribe for more Home Assistant tutorials & automations! 🔔 Subscribe here!: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyTechGeek?sub_confirmation=1