head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs HomeSpan
Lightpanda has 40,882 GitHub stars, 1,999 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. HomeSpan has 2,203 stars, 205 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 1,756% (40,882 vs 2,203 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; HomeSpan is written in C++ under MIT. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, HomeSpan 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 | HomeSpan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Zig | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 205 |
| 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 HomeSpan if
- You want the HomeSpan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and HomeSpan 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 HomeSpan
Welcome! Welcome to HomeSpan a robust and extremely easy to use Arduino library for creating your own ESP32 based HomeKit devices entirely within the Arduino IDE. HomeSpan provides a microcontroller focused implementation of Apple's HomeKit Accessory Protocol Specification Release R2 (HAP R2) designed specifically for the Espressif ESP32 microcontroller running within the Arduino IDE. HomeSpan pairs directly to HomeKit via your home WiFi network without the need for any external bridges or components. With HomeSpan you can use the full power of the ESP32's I/O functionality to create custom control software…
read the full HomeSpan overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or HomeSpan more popular?
Lightpanda has 40,882 GitHub stars and HomeSpan has 2,203. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and HomeSpan free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and HomeSpan under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and HomeSpan?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and HomeSpan 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 HomeSpan?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (40,882 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose HomeSpan if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.