head to head · open source
frigate vs shepherd
frigate has 35,953 GitHub stars, 3,602 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped today. shepherd has 2,430 stars, 210 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. frigate leads on adoption by 1,380% (35,953 vs 2,430 stars). frigate is written in TypeScript 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 | ★ 36K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 210 |
| 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 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 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 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 is…
read the full shepherd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frigate or shepherd more popular?
frigate has 35,953 GitHub stars and shepherd has 2,430. 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 TypeScript 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 (35,953 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose shepherd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.