head to head · open source
Home Assistant vs CrateDB
Home Assistant has 90,654 GitHub stars, 38,685 forks, 3,527 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CrateDB has 4,436 stars, 617 forks, 332 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Home Assistant leads on adoption by 1,944% (90,654 vs 4,436 stars). Home Assistant is written in Python under Apache-2.0; CrateDB is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Home Assistant has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, CrateDB 14%. CrateDB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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
| Home Assistant | CrateDB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 39K | ⑂ 617 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Home Assistant if
- You weight community size — 91K 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 CrateDB if
- You want the CrateDB feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and CrateDB fits your workflow better
About Home Assistant
Home Assistant is an open source home automation platform that runs locally on devices such as Raspberry Pi or a personal server. It enables users to control and automate smart home devices—including lights, thermostats, locks, and sensors—without relying on cloud services. Built in Python with an asyncio event loop, it emphasizes local processing and data sovereignty, ensuring all device data remains under the user’s control.
read the full Home Assistant overview →
About CrateDB
CrateDB is a distributed, scalable SQL database built for storing and analyzing massive amounts of data in near real time, including complex queries. It is written in Java, licensed under Apache 2.0, and based on Lucene. The project combines the benefits of an SQL database with the scalability and flexibility typically associated with NoSQL databases, and it is PostgreSQL compatible, speaking the PostgreSQL wire protocol as well as offering an HTTP API. It lives in the analytics, big data, and IoT ecosystem, and the topic list places it alongside distributed SQL databases, Elasticsearch, industrial IoT, and IoT a…
read the full CrateDB overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Home Assistant or CrateDB more popular?
Home Assistant has 90,654 GitHub stars and CrateDB has 4,436. Home Assistant has the larger community by that measure.
Are Home Assistant and CrateDB free?
Both are open source. Home Assistant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and CrateDB under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Home Assistant and CrateDB?
Home Assistant is written in Python and CrateDB in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Home Assistant or CrateDB?
Choose Home Assistant if you want the larger community (90,654 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose CrateDB if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.