head to head · open source
frigate vs ha-mcp
frigate has 37,326 GitHub stars, 3,805 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ha-mcp has 5,486 stars, 267 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. frigate leads on adoption by 580% (37,326 vs 5,486 stars). frigate is written in Python under MIT; ha-mcp is written in Python under MIT. frigate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, ha-mcp 5%. ha-mcp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai, 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 | ha-mcp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 5.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-07 | 2026-11-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 267 |
| 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 ha-mcp if
- You want the ha-mcp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ha-mcp 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 ha-mcp
Breaking change (v7.3.0): ha config set yaml has been moved to beta. HA MCP — Manage Home Assistant with AI Configure and automate Home Assistant with Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI assistants. 🚀 Get Started The recommended way to run ha mcp is the HA MCP integration . It installs into Home Assistant through HACS (the built in Marketplace on Home Assistant 2026.11+), runs the full server in process , and works on every Home Assistant installation type — Home Assistant OS, Supervised, Container, and Core — with full feature parity. It is the easiest setup in every case: setup asks for an administrator access…
read the full ha-mcp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frigate or ha-mcp more popular?
frigate has 37,326 GitHub stars and ha-mcp has 5,486. frigate has the larger community by that measure.
Are frigate and ha-mcp free?
Both are open source. frigate is licensed under MIT and ha-mcp under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frigate and ha-mcp?
frigate is written in Python and ha-mcp 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, frigate or ha-mcp?
Choose frigate if you want the larger community (37,326 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ha-mcp if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.