head to head · open source
operating-system vs home-assistant-glow
operating-system has 7,639 GitHub stars, 1,336 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped yesterday. home-assistant-glow has 1,279 stars, 179 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped yesterday. operating-system leads on adoption by 497% (7,639 vs 1,279 stars). operating-system is written in Python under Apache-2.0; home-assistant-glow is written in various languages under MIT. operating-system has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, home-assistant-glow 14%. operating-system was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (home-assistant, iot), 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
| operating-system | home-assistant-glow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.6K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | — |
| Last push | 2026-11-09 | 2026-11-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 179 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick operating-system if
- You weight community size — 7.6K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick home-assistant-glow if
- You want the home-assistant-glow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- You evaluated both and home-assistant-glow fits your workflow better
About operating-system
Home Assistant Operating System Home Assistant Operating System (formerly HassOS) is a Linux based operating system optimized to host Home Assistant and its Apps. Home Assistant Operating System uses Docker as its container engine. By default it deploys the Home Assistant Supervisor as a container. Home Assistant Supervisor in turn uses the Docker container engine to control Home Assistant Core and Apps in separate containers. Home Assistant Operating System is not based on a regular Linux distribution like Ubuntu. It is built using Buildroot and it is optimized to run Home Assistant. It targets single board…
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About home-assistant-glow
Home Assistant Glow 🌟 ![Project Maintenance][maintenance shield] [![License][license shield]](LICENSE) [![Forks][forks shield]][forks url] [![Stargazers][stars shield]][stars url] [![Issues][issues shield]][issues url] [![GitHub Activity][commits shield]][commits] [![GitHub Last Commit][last commit shield]][commits] [![Contributors][contributors shield]][contributors url] During my internship at [Nabu Casa][nc] in the first half of 2021, I focused on energy management for your house, how to collect all energy data and display it on a dashboard. Since Home Assistant release 2021.8 it's possible to use the [Home…
read the full home-assistant-glow overview →
More in Miscellaneous
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Compare either of these against the rest of the Internet of Things (IoT) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is operating-system or home-assistant-glow more popular?
operating-system has 7,639 GitHub stars and home-assistant-glow has 1,279. operating-system has the larger community by that measure.
Are operating-system and home-assistant-glow free?
Both are open source. operating-system is licensed under Apache-2.0 and home-assistant-glow under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between operating-system and home-assistant-glow?
operating-system is written in Python and home-assistant-glow in various languages. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, operating-system or home-assistant-glow?
Choose operating-system if you want the larger community (7,639 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose home-assistant-glow if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.