head to head · open source
Home Assistant vs emhass
Home Assistant has 90,832 GitHub stars, 38,710 forks, 3,527 open issues and last shipped yesterday. emhass has 680 stars, 166 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Home Assistant leads on adoption by 13,258% (90,832 vs 680 stars). Home Assistant is written in Python under Apache-2.0; emhass is written in Python under MIT. Home Assistant has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, emhass 24%. Home Assistant 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
| Home Assistant | emhass | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 680 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 39K | ⑂ 166 |
| 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 emhass if
- You want the emhass feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and emhass 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 emhass
EMHASS (Energy Management for Home Assistant) is an MIT licensed Python module for residential households that optimizes home energy use around electricity prices, solar panel generation, and battery storage, and that interfaces with Home Assistant.
read the full emhass overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Home Assistant or emhass more popular?
Home Assistant has 90,832 GitHub stars and emhass has 680. Home Assistant has the larger community by that measure.
Are Home Assistant and emhass free?
Both are open source. Home Assistant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and emhass under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Home Assistant and emhass?
Home Assistant is written in Python and emhass 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, Home Assistant or emhass?
Choose Home Assistant if you want the larger community (90,832 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose emhass if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.