head to head · open source
frigate vs ESPresense
frigate has 37,160 GitHub stars, 3,782 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ESPresense has 1,500 stars, 190 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped yesterday. frigate leads on adoption by 2,377% (37,160 vs 1,500 stars). frigate is written in Python under MIT; ESPresense is written in C under AGPL-3.0. frigate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, ESPresense 13%. 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 | ESPresense | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 190 |
| 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 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 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 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frigate or ESPresense more popular?
frigate has 37,160 GitHub stars and ESPresense has 1,500. frigate has the larger community by that measure.
Are frigate and ESPresense free?
Both are open source. frigate is licensed under MIT and ESPresense under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frigate and ESPresense?
frigate 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, frigate or ESPresense?
Choose frigate if you want the larger community (37,160 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ESPresense if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.