head to head · open source
frigate vs home-assistant-glow
frigate has 36,060 GitHub stars, 3,626 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped yesterday. home-assistant-glow has 1,270 stars, 182 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. frigate leads on adoption by 2,739% (36,060 vs 1,270 stars). frigate is written in Python under MIT; home-assistant-glow is written in various languages under MIT. frigate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, home-assistant-glow 14%. frigate was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (home-assistant), 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 | home-assistant-glow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 182 |
| 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 Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick home-assistant-glow if
- You want the home-assistant-glow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- You evaluated both and home-assistant-glow 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 home-assistant-glow
Home Assistant Glow is an open source firmware and hardware project that reads the pulse LED on an electricity meter and sends those measurements to Home Assistant, built for home automation users whose meter has no P1 port and who are willing to assemble a small ESP based sensor themselves.
read the full home-assistant-glow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frigate or home-assistant-glow more popular?
frigate has 36,060 GitHub stars and home-assistant-glow has 1,270. frigate has the larger community by that measure.
Are frigate and home-assistant-glow free?
Both are open source. frigate is licensed under MIT and home-assistant-glow under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frigate and home-assistant-glow?
frigate is written in Python and home-assistant-glow in various languages. 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 home-assistant-glow?
Choose frigate if you want the larger community (36,060 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose home-assistant-glow if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.