head to head · open source
Home Assistant vs frigate
Home Assistant has 90,832 GitHub stars, 38,710 forks, 3,527 open issues and last shipped yesterday. frigate has 36,005 stars, 3,611 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Home Assistant leads on adoption by 152% (90,832 vs 36,005 stars). Home Assistant is written in Python under Apache-2.0; frigate is written in TypeScript under MIT. Home Assistant has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, frigate 10%. Home Assistant was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (home-automation, mqtt), 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 | frigate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 36K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 39K | ⑂ 3.6K |
| 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 frigate if
- You want the frigate feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and frigate 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 frigate
Frigate NVR is a complete and local network video recorder built for Home Assistant, with AI object detection. It uses OpenCV and Tensorflow to run realtime object detection locally on IP cameras, so video analysis happens on your own hardware instead of a vendor cloud. Project lives in the Home Assistant home automation ecosystem, with tight integration through a custom component, and it talks over MQTT so other systems can consume its events. Written mainly in TypeScript, MIT licensed, 8 years old, 35,896 stars and 3,596 forks on GitHub.
read the full frigate overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Home Assistant or frigate more popular?
Home Assistant has 90,832 GitHub stars and frigate has 36,005. Home Assistant has the larger community by that measure.
Are Home Assistant and frigate free?
Both are open source. Home Assistant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and frigate under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Home Assistant and frigate?
Home Assistant is written in Python and frigate in TypeScript. 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 frigate?
Choose Home Assistant if you want the larger community (90,832 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose frigate if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.