head to head · open source
espectre vs button-card
espectre has 9,728 GitHub stars, 739 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. button-card has 2,523 stars, 285 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. espectre leads on adoption by 286% (9,728 vs 2,523 stars). espectre is written in Python under GPL-3.0; button-card is written in TypeScript under MIT. espectre has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, button-card 11%. espectre was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (home-assistant), 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
| espectre | button-card | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.7K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 739 | ⑂ 285 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick espectre if
- You weight community size — 9.7K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick button-card if
- You want the button-card feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and button-card fits your workflow better
About espectre
ESPectre Turn an ESP32 into a private, local Wi Fi motion sensor. When someone moves through a room, they change the way Wi Fi signals travel through it. ESPectre reads those changes and reports motion in real time. No camera, no microphone, no wearable, and no dedicated radar hardware: just a supported ESP32 and the Wi Fi network already in the room. ESPectre is an open source platform that brings together ready to flash firmware, an embeddable C++ SDK, a MicroPython implementation, browser tools, a host CLI, an open dataset, open model weights, and the research workflow used to build and validate the…
read the full espectre overview →
About button-card
Button Card by @RomRider [![Stable][releases shield]][releases] [![Beta][releases dev shield]][releases dev] [![HACS Badge][hacs badge]][hacs link] ![Project Maintenance][maintenance shield] ![Downloads][downloads] [![GitHub Activity][commits shield]][commits] [![License][license shield]](LICENSE.md) [![Discord][discord shield]][discord] [![Community Forum][forum shield]][forum] [commits shield]: [commits]: [discord]: [discord shield]: [forum shield]: [forum]: [license shield]: [maintenance shield]: [releases shield]: [releases]: [releases dev shield]: [releases dev]: [hacs badge]: [downloads]: [hacs link]…
read the full button-card overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is espectre or button-card more popular?
espectre has 9,728 GitHub stars and button-card has 2,523. espectre has the larger community by that measure.
Are espectre and button-card free?
Both are open source. espectre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and button-card under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between espectre and button-card?
espectre is written in Python and button-card in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, espectre or button-card?
Choose espectre if you want the larger community (9,728 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose button-card if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.