head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs HomeKey-ESP32
Lightpanda has 40,882 GitHub stars, 1,999 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. HomeKey-ESP32 has 1,116 stars, 100 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 3,563% (40,882 vs 1,116 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; HomeKey-ESP32 is written in C++ under MIT. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, HomeKey-ESP32 9%. Lightpanda 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
| Lightpanda | HomeKey-ESP32 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Zig | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 100 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lightpanda if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Zig
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick HomeKey-ESP32 if
- You want the HomeKey-ESP32 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and HomeKey-ESP32 fits your workflow better
About Lightpanda
Lightpanda Browser The headless browser built from scratch for AI agents and automation. Not a Chromium fork. Not a WebKit patch. A new browser, written in Zig.   Benchmarks Requesting 933 real web pages over the network on a AWS EC2 m5.large instance. See benchmark details. Quick start Install Package Managers Latest nightly from Homebrew: Latest nightly from Arch Linux User Repository: Download from the nightly builds You can download the last binary from the nightly builds for Linux and MacOS for both x86 64 and aarch64. For Linux Verify the binary before running anything: Linux aarch64 is also available…
read the full Lightpanda overview →
About HomeKey-ESP32
HomeKey ESP32 Apple HomeKey functionality for the rest of us Documentation What is HomeKey ESP32? The project aims to be the easy DIY solution for using Apple's HomeKey feature without the need to purchase a compatible smart lock that you probably don't want. HomeKey ESP32 brings Apple's secure NFC based unlocking to an ESP32 module near you, enabling you to unlock doors and whatnot with a simple tap of your iPhone or Apple Watch. No proprietary hardware required – just an ESP32 and one of the supported NFC modules [!WARNING] The flash memory is not encrypted as this kinda started as a pet project of mine but a…
read the full HomeKey-ESP32 overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or HomeKey-ESP32 more popular?
Lightpanda has 40,882 GitHub stars and HomeKey-ESP32 has 1,116. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and HomeKey-ESP32 free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and HomeKey-ESP32 under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and HomeKey-ESP32?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and HomeKey-ESP32 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, Lightpanda or HomeKey-ESP32?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (40,882 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose HomeKey-ESP32 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.