head to head · open source
Home Assistant vs operating-system
Home Assistant has 92,054 GitHub stars, 39,226 forks, 3,527 open issues and last shipped yesterday. operating-system has 7,634 stars, 1,335 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Home Assistant leads on adoption by 1,106% (92,054 vs 7,634 stars). Home Assistant is written in Python under Apache-2.0; operating-system is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Home Assistant has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, operating-system 17%. 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 (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 | operating-system | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-08 | 2026-11-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 39K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 operating-system if
- You want the operating-system feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and operating-system 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 operating-system
Home Assistant Operating System Home Assistant Operating System (formerly HassOS) is a Linux based operating system optimized to host Home Assistant and its Apps. Home Assistant Operating System uses Docker as its container engine. By default it deploys the Home Assistant Supervisor as a container. Home Assistant Supervisor in turn uses the Docker container engine to control Home Assistant Core and Apps in separate containers. Home Assistant Operating System is not based on a regular Linux distribution like Ubuntu. It is built using Buildroot and it is optimized to run Home Assistant. It targets single board…
read the full operating-system overview →
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Compare either of these against the rest of the Internet of Things (IoT) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Home Assistant or operating-system more popular?
Home Assistant has 92,054 GitHub stars and operating-system has 7,634. Home Assistant has the larger community by that measure.
Are Home Assistant and operating-system free?
Both are open source. Home Assistant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and operating-system under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Home Assistant and operating-system?
Home Assistant is written in Python and operating-system 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 operating-system?
Choose Home Assistant if you want the larger community (92,054 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose operating-system if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.