head to head · open source
espectre vs tesserae
espectre has 9,811 GitHub stars, 742 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tesserae has 1,186 stars, 65 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. espectre leads on adoption by 727% (9,811 vs 1,186 stars). espectre is written in Python under GPL-3.0; tesserae is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. espectre has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, tesserae 5%. 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 | tesserae | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.8K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-12 | 2026-11-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 742 | ⑂ 65 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick espectre if
- You weight community size — 9.8K 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 tesserae if
- You want the tesserae feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and tesserae 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 tesserae
Nine panels, one Tesserae server. Self hosted dashboard companion for e ink displays. Compose tile based dashboards in a browser, render the frame headless, push it to one or more panels over MQTT or HTTP. [!NOTE] Available for contract work. I'm Kayden. I created Tesserae and maintain it, with help from a growing group of contributors. I take on contracts building with AI: custom agents, MCP servers that connect AI models to your tools and data, and AI assisted development workflows for teams. I also take on full stack, embedded and Home Assistant projects, the same work Tesserae is built from. If Tesserae is…
read the full tesserae overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is espectre or tesserae more popular?
espectre has 9,811 GitHub stars and tesserae has 1,186. espectre has the larger community by that measure.
Are espectre and tesserae free?
Both are open source. espectre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and tesserae under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between espectre and tesserae?
espectre is written in Python and tesserae 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 tesserae?
Choose espectre if you want the larger community (9,811 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose tesserae if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.