head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs homeThing
Lightpanda has 40,882 GitHub stars, 1,999 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. homeThing has 548 stars, 42 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 7,360% (40,882 vs 548 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; homeThing is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, homeThing 8%. 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 | homeThing | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 548 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Zig | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 42 |
| 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 homeThing if
- You want the homeThing feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and homeThing 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 homeThing
homeThing Remote ⚙️ (esphome remote) homeThing is a collection of software and hardware for creating universal remotes that control smart home devices. There are 3 components that belong to homeThing: the case and circuit board, the menu system code, and the code to control smart home devices Hardware specific for smart home remotes that's open source, customizable, and 3D printable. Menu system for ESP32 devices focused on controlling smart home devices similar to an iPod's menu. ESPHome Components for controlling Home Assistant devices. Check out the next generation homeThing C6 Learn More Get Started Learn…
read the full homeThing overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or homeThing more popular?
Lightpanda has 40,882 GitHub stars and homeThing has 548. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and homeThing free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and homeThing under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and homeThing?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and homeThing 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 homeThing?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (40,882 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose homeThing if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.