head to head · open source
frigate vs button-card
frigate has 37,160 GitHub stars, 3,782 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped yesterday. button-card has 2,523 stars, 285 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. frigate leads on adoption by 1,373% (37,160 vs 2,523 stars). frigate is written in Python under MIT; button-card is written in TypeScript under MIT. frigate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, button-card 11%. frigate was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (home-assistant, home-automation), 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
| frigate | button-card | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 285 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick frigate if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the MIT 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 frigate
Frigate NVR™ Realtime Object Detection for IP Cameras \[English\] 简体中文 A complete and local NVR designed for Home Assistant with AI object detection. Uses OpenCV and Tensorflow to perform realtime object detection locally for IP cameras. Use of a GPU or AI accelerator is highly recommended. AI accelerators will outperform even the best CPUs with very little overhead. See Frigate's supported object detectors. Tight integration with Home Assistant via a custom component Designed to minimize resource use and maximize performance by only looking for objects when and where it is necessary Leverages multiprocessing…
read the full frigate 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 frigate or button-card more popular?
frigate has 37,160 GitHub stars and button-card has 2,523. frigate has the larger community by that measure.
Are frigate and button-card free?
Both are open source. frigate is licensed under MIT and button-card under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frigate and button-card?
frigate 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, frigate or button-card?
Choose frigate if you want the larger community (37,160 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose button-card if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.