head to head · open source
espectre vs supervisor
espectre has 9,728 GitHub stars, 739 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. supervisor has 2,252 stars, 822 forks, 109 open issues and last shipped yesterday. espectre leads on adoption by 332% (9,728 vs 2,252 stars). espectre is written in Python under GPL-3.0; supervisor is written in Python under Apache-2.0. espectre has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, supervisor 37%. supervisor 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 | supervisor | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.7K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 739 | ⑂ 822 |
| 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 supervisor if
- You want the supervisor feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and supervisor 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 supervisor
Home Assistant Supervisor First private cloud solution for home automation Home Assistant (former Hass.io) is a container based system for managing your Home Assistant Core installation and related applications. The system is controlled via Home Assistant which communicates with the Supervisor. The Supervisor provides an API to manage the installation. This includes changing network settings or installing and updating software. Installation Installation instructions can be found at Development For small changes and bugfixes you can just follow this, but for significant changes open a RFC first. Development…
read the full supervisor overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is espectre or supervisor more popular?
espectre has 9,728 GitHub stars and supervisor has 2,252. espectre has the larger community by that measure.
Are espectre and supervisor free?
Both are open source. espectre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and supervisor under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between espectre and supervisor?
espectre is written in Python and supervisor in Python. 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 supervisor?
Choose espectre if you want the larger community (9,728 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose supervisor if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.