head to head · open source
frigate vs shepherd
frigate has 37,160 GitHub stars, 3,782 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped yesterday. shepherd has 2,503 stars, 219 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. frigate leads on adoption by 1,385% (37,160 vs 2,503 stars). frigate is written in Python under MIT; shepherd is written in Python under MIT. frigate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, shepherd 9%. frigate was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | shepherd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 219 |
| 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 shepherd if
- You want the shepherd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and shepherd 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 shepherd
Shepherd: Programmable Meta Agents via Reversible Execution Traces [!IMPORTANT] Shepherd is in early alpha and under active development. APIs may still change between releases. Feedback and issues are very welcome! Install Quickstart Permissions Examples Docs Citation Shepherd is a runtime substrate for agent work that needs inspection, reversibility, and supervision. It records agent runs as durable, inspectable execution traces, with retained workspace outputs that can be reviewed before they are selected, applied, released, or discarded. Platforms. Shepherd requires Python 3.11+ . OS level grant enforcement…
read the full shepherd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frigate or shepherd more popular?
frigate has 37,160 GitHub stars and shepherd has 2,503. frigate has the larger community by that measure.
Are frigate and shepherd free?
Both are open source. frigate is licensed under MIT and shepherd under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frigate and shepherd?
frigate is written in Python and shepherd 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 shepherd?
Choose frigate if you want the larger community (37,160 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose shepherd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.