head to head · open source
Home Assistant vs frigate
Home Assistant has 91,945 GitHub stars, 39,193 forks, 3,527 open issues and last shipped yesterday. frigate has 37,205 stars, 3,790 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Home Assistant leads on adoption by 147% (91,945 vs 37,205 stars). Home Assistant is written in Python under Apache-2.0; frigate is written in Python under MIT. Home Assistant has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, frigate 10%. Home Assistant was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (home-automation, mqtt), 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
| Home Assistant | frigate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 37K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 39K | ⑂ 3.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Home Assistant if
- You weight community size — 92K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick frigate if
- You want the frigate feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and frigate fits your workflow better
About Home Assistant
Home Assistant Chat Status ================================================================================= Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Check out home assistant.io for a demo , installation instructions , tutorials and documentation . Featured integrations The system is built using a modular approach so support for other devices or actions can be implemented easily. See also the section on architecture and the section on creating your own components…
read the full Home Assistant overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Home Assistant or frigate more popular?
Home Assistant has 91,945 GitHub stars and frigate has 37,205. Home Assistant has the larger community by that measure.
Are Home Assistant and frigate free?
Both are open source. Home Assistant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and frigate under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Home Assistant and frigate?
Home Assistant is written in Python and frigate 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, Home Assistant or frigate?
Choose Home Assistant if you want the larger community (91,945 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose frigate if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.