head to head · open source
Home Assistant vs s&box
Home Assistant has 90,654 GitHub stars, 38,685 forks, 3,527 open issues and last shipped yesterday. s&box has 6,468 stars, 672 forks, 2,406 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Home Assistant leads on adoption by 1,302% (90,654 vs 6,468 stars). Home Assistant is written in Python under Apache-2.0; s&box is written in C# under a custom or non-standard licence. Home Assistant has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, s&box 10%. Home Assistant was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | s&box | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 6.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 39K | ⑂ 672 |
| 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 s&box if
- You want the s&box feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and s&box 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 s&box
s&box is a modern game engine built on Valve's Source 2 and the latest .NET technology, offering a modern intuitive editor for creating games, and it is aimed at game creators who want to build and play games inside an engine that runs live, alongside the contributors who compile the engine itself from source.
read the full s&box overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Home Assistant or s&box more popular?
Home Assistant has 90,654 GitHub stars and s&box has 6,468. Home Assistant has the larger community by that measure.
Are Home Assistant and s&box free?
Both are open source. Home Assistant is licensed under Apache-2.0, and s&box has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Home Assistant and s&box?
Home Assistant is written in Python and s&box 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 s&box?
Choose Home Assistant if you want the larger community (90,654 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose s&box if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.