head to head · open source
Home Assistant vs ESPresense
Home Assistant has 91,945 GitHub stars, 39,193 forks, 3,527 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ESPresense has 1,502 stars, 190 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Home Assistant leads on adoption by 6,022% (91,945 vs 1,502 stars). Home Assistant is written in Python under Apache-2.0; ESPresense is written in C under AGPL-3.0. Home Assistant has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, ESPresense 13%. Home Assistant was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (hacktoberfest, home-automation, 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 | ESPresense | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 39K | ⑂ 190 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Home Assistant if
- You weight community size — 92K 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 ESPresense if
- You want the ESPresense feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and ESPresense fits your workflow better
About Home Assistant
Home Assistant Chat Status ================================================================================= Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Check out home assistant.io for a demo , installation instructions , tutorials and documentation . Featured integrations The system is built using a modular approach so support for other devices or actions can be implemented easily. See also the section on architecture and the section on creating your own components…
read the full Home Assistant overview →
About ESPresense
ESPresense An ESP32 based presence detection node for use with the Home Assistant mqtt room component or ESPresense companion for indoor positioning Documentation: Building: building. Release Notes: changelog. trigger CI
read the full ESPresense overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Home Assistant or ESPresense more popular?
Home Assistant has 91,945 GitHub stars and ESPresense has 1,502. Home Assistant has the larger community by that measure.
Are Home Assistant and ESPresense free?
Both are open source. Home Assistant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ESPresense under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Home Assistant and ESPresense?
Home Assistant is written in Python and ESPresense in C. 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 ESPresense?
Choose Home Assistant if you want the larger community (91,945 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ESPresense if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.