head to head · open source
frigate vs btw
frigate has 35,953 GitHub stars, 3,602 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped today. btw has 1,257 stars, 102 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. frigate leads on adoption by 2,760% (35,953 vs 1,257 stars). frigate is written in TypeScript under MIT; btw is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. frigate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, btw 8%. frigate was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| frigate | btw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 102 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick frigate if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick btw if
- You want the btw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and btw fits your workflow better
About frigate
Frigate NVR is a complete and local network video recorder built for Home Assistant, with AI object detection. It uses OpenCV and Tensorflow to run realtime object detection locally on IP cameras, so video analysis happens on your own hardware instead of a vendor cloud. Project lives in the Home Assistant home automation ecosystem, with tight integration through a custom component, and it talks over MQTT so other systems can consume its events. Written mainly in TypeScript, MIT licensed, 8 years old, 35,896 stars and 3,596 forks on GitHub.
read the full frigate overview →
About btw
btw btw is an open source personal website builder. You can sign up and use btw without installing anything. You can also use the open source version to self host. Demo blogs published using btw: deeptichopra.com siddg.com Table of contents Getting Started Pre requisites Installation Development Community Coming next License Getting started These instructions will help you to get a copy of the project up and running on your local machine Pre requisites Install the latest version of Docker, Docker compose on your system Working postgres instance SMTP credentials (Ex: from mailgun) Installation Set ADMIN EMAIL and …
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Frequently asked questions
Is frigate or btw more popular?
frigate has 35,953 GitHub stars and btw has 1,257. frigate has the larger community by that measure.
Are frigate and btw free?
Both are open source. frigate is licensed under MIT and btw under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frigate and btw?
frigate is written in TypeScript and btw in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, frigate or btw?
Choose frigate if you want the larger community (35,953 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose btw if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.