head to head · open source
frontend vs homie-esp8266
frontend has 5,778 GitHub stars, 3,932 forks, 383 open issues and last shipped yesterday. homie-esp8266 has 1,374 stars, 304 forks, 89 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. frontend leads on adoption by 321% (5,778 vs 1,374 stars). frontend is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; homie-esp8266 is written in HTML under MIT. frontend has attracted 68% as many forks as stars, homie-esp8266 22%. frontend was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (home-automation), 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
| frontend | homie-esp8266 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.8K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-03-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.9K | ⑂ 304 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick frontend if
- You weight community size — 5.8K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick homie-esp8266 if
- You want the homie-esp8266 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and homie-esp8266 fits your workflow better
About frontend
Home Assistant Frontend This is the repository for the official Home Assistant frontend. View demo of Home Assistant More information about Home Assistant Frontend development instructions Development Initial setup: script/setup Development: Instructions Production build: pnpm build Gallery: cd gallery && script/develop gallery Frontend development Classic environment A complete guide can be found at the following link. It describes a short guide for the build of project. License Home Assistant is open source and Apache 2 licensed. Feel free to browse the repository, learn and reuse parts in your own projects…
read the full frontend overview →
About homie-esp8266
Homie for ESP8266 / ESP32 An Arduino for ESP8266 / ESP32 implementation of Homie, an MQTT convention for the IoT. This branch of Homie for ESP8266 implements Homie 3.0.1 and adds support for ESP32. Download The Git repository contains the development version of Homie for ESP8266. Stable releases are available on the releases page. Using with PlatformIO PlatformIO is an open source ecosystem for IoT development with cross platform build system, library manager and full support for Espressif ESP8266 development. It works on the popular host OS: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux 32/64, Linux ARM (like Raspberry Pi…
read the full homie-esp8266 overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frontend or homie-esp8266 more popular?
frontend has 5,778 GitHub stars and homie-esp8266 has 1,374. frontend has the larger community by that measure.
Are frontend and homie-esp8266 free?
Both are open source. frontend is licensed under Apache-2.0 and homie-esp8266 under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frontend and homie-esp8266?
frontend is written in TypeScript and homie-esp8266 in HTML. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, frontend or homie-esp8266?
Choose frontend if you want the larger community (5,778 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose homie-esp8266 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.