head to head · open source
Home Assistant vs node-sonos
Home Assistant has 90,832 GitHub stars, 38,710 forks, 3,527 open issues and last shipped yesterday. node-sonos has 724 stars, 143 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Home Assistant leads on adoption by 12,446% (90,832 vs 724 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 20%. 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 | ★ 91K | ★ 724 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-06-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 39K | ⑂ 143 |
| 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 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 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 node-sonos
node sonos is a JavaScript (Node.js) client library, published on npm as sonos , that lets developers discover Sonos speakers on a local network and control playback, queues, volume, groups and alarms from their own applications.
read the full node-sonos overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Home Assistant or node-sonos more popular?
Home Assistant has 90,832 GitHub stars and node-sonos has 724. 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 (90,832 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.