head to head · open source
frigate vs second-brain
frigate has 35,953 GitHub stars, 3,602 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped today. second-brain has 641 stars, 77 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped today. frigate leads on adoption by 5,509% (35,953 vs 641 stars). frigate is written in TypeScript under MIT; second-brain is written in Python under MIT. frigate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, second-brain 12%. second-brain was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai), 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 | second-brain | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 641 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 77 |
| 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 TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick second-brain if
- You want the second-brain feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and second-brain 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 second-brain
Quick install Sponsor Atlas Cloud is a full modal AI inference platform that gives developers a single AI API to access video generation, image generation, and LLM APIs. Instead of managing multiple vendor integrations, you connect once and get unified access to 300+ curated models across all modalities. Check out Atlas Cloud's new coding plan promotion for more budget friendly API access: Second Brain Example For an example of what Second Brain can do, visit It's an interactive art exhibition. Head to Head Evaluation Second Brain performs higher than OpenClaw and Hermes on harness bench, which measures "model ha…
read the full second-brain overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frigate or second-brain more popular?
frigate has 35,953 GitHub stars and second-brain has 641. frigate has the larger community by that measure.
Are frigate and second-brain free?
Both are open source. frigate is licensed under MIT and second-brain under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frigate and second-brain?
frigate is written in TypeScript and second-brain 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 second-brain?
Choose frigate if you want the larger community (35,953 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose second-brain if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.