head to head · open source
Home Assistant vs node-sonos
Home Assistant has 91,945 GitHub stars, 39,193 forks, 3,527 open issues and last shipped yesterday. node-sonos has 723 stars, 140 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Home Assistant leads on adoption by 12,617% (91,945 vs 723 stars). Home Assistant is written in Python under Apache-2.0; node-sonos is written in JavaScript under MIT. Home Assistant has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, node-sonos 19%. 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 | node-sonos | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 723 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-06-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 39K | ⑂ 140 |
| 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 node-sonos if
- You want the node-sonos feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and node-sonos 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 node-sonos
node sonos Control your Sonos devices with JavaScript (node.js) node sonos gives you the power to control all your Sonos devices from your own apps in JavaScript. Automatically discover your devices on the network and control the playback and queue with instant events announcing change. Features Device Discovery Queue Control Volume Control Spotify Support Radio Change Events Install Published versions (recommended) $ npm install sonos From the repo, living on the edge $ npm install git://github.com/bencevans/node sonos.git Quick Start Discovering Devices Discovering devices async Controlling Known Devices API…
read the full node-sonos overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Home Assistant or node-sonos more popular?
Home Assistant has 91,945 GitHub stars and node-sonos has 723. Home Assistant has the larger community by that measure.
Are Home Assistant and node-sonos free?
Both are open source. Home Assistant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and node-sonos under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Home Assistant and node-sonos?
Home Assistant is written in Python and node-sonos in JavaScript. 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 node-sonos?
Choose Home Assistant if you want the larger community (91,945 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose node-sonos if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.