head to head · open source
frigate vs tesserae
frigate has 37,427 GitHub stars, 3,824 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tesserae has 1,186 stars, 65 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. frigate leads on adoption by 3,056% (37,427 vs 1,186 stars). frigate is written in Python under MIT; tesserae is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. frigate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, tesserae 5%. 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 | tesserae | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-12 | 2026-11-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 65 |
| 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 tesserae if
- You want the tesserae feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and tesserae 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 tesserae
Nine panels, one Tesserae server. Self hosted dashboard companion for e ink displays. Compose tile based dashboards in a browser, render the frame headless, push it to one or more panels over MQTT or HTTP. [!NOTE] Available for contract work. I'm Kayden. I created Tesserae and maintain it, with help from a growing group of contributors. I take on contracts building with AI: custom agents, MCP servers that connect AI models to your tools and data, and AI assisted development workflows for teams. I also take on full stack, embedded and Home Assistant projects, the same work Tesserae is built from. If Tesserae is…
read the full tesserae overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frigate or tesserae more popular?
frigate has 37,427 GitHub stars and tesserae has 1,186. frigate has the larger community by that measure.
Are frigate and tesserae free?
Both are open source. frigate is licensed under MIT and tesserae under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frigate and tesserae?
frigate is written in Python and tesserae 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 tesserae?
Choose frigate if you want the larger community (37,427 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose tesserae if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.