head to head · open source
espectre vs ESPresense
espectre has 9,728 GitHub stars, 739 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ESPresense has 1,500 stars, 190 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped yesterday. espectre leads on adoption by 549% (9,728 vs 1,500 stars). espectre is written in Python under GPL-3.0; ESPresense is written in C under AGPL-3.0. espectre has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, ESPresense 13%. ESPresense 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| espectre | ESPresense | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.7K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 739 | ⑂ 190 |
| 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 ESPresense if
- You want the ESPresense feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and ESPresense 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 ESPresense
ESPresense An ESP32 based presence detection node for use with the Home Assistant mqtt room component or ESPresense companion for indoor positioning Documentation: Building: building. Release Notes: changelog. trigger CI
read the full ESPresense overview →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Internet of Things (IoT) projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Internet of Things (IoT) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is espectre or ESPresense more popular?
espectre has 9,728 GitHub stars and ESPresense has 1,500. espectre has the larger community by that measure.
Are espectre and ESPresense free?
Both are open source. espectre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ESPresense under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between espectre and ESPresense?
espectre is written in Python and ESPresense in C. 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 ESPresense?
Choose espectre if you want the larger community (9,728 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ESPresense if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.