head to head · open source
android vs homie-esp8266
android has 3,903 GitHub stars, 1,067 forks, 458 open issues and last shipped yesterday. homie-esp8266 has 1,374 stars, 305 forks, 89 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. android leads on adoption by 184% (3,903 vs 1,374 stars). android is written in Kotlin under Apache-2.0; homie-esp8266 is written in HTML under MIT. android has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, homie-esp8266 22%. android was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (home-automation), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| android | homie-esp8266 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.9K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Kotlin | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-03-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 305 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick android if
- You weight community size — 3.9K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick homie-esp8266 if
- You want the homie-esp8266 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and homie-esp8266 fits your workflow better
About android
The Home Assistant Companion for Android is the official Android application for Home Assistant, an open source home automation platform. It is written in Kotlin, released under the Apache 2.0 license, and distributed as an open source app for Android devices. The project sits inside the Home Assistant ecosystem and connects a mobile client to a user's Home Assistant instance.
read the full android overview →
About homie-esp8266
homie esp8266 is an MIT licensed Arduino framework that implements the Homie MQTT convention on ESP8266 and ESP32 boards, for developers building self hosted home automation and IoT devices that report to an MQTT broker.
read the full homie-esp8266 overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is android or homie-esp8266 more popular?
android has 3,903 GitHub stars and homie-esp8266 has 1,374. android has the larger community by that measure.
Are android and homie-esp8266 free?
Both are open source. android is licensed under Apache-2.0 and homie-esp8266 under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between android and homie-esp8266?
android is written in Kotlin and homie-esp8266 in HTML. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, android or homie-esp8266?
Choose android if you want the larger community (3,903 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose homie-esp8266 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.