head to head · open source
operating-system vs ha-mcp
operating-system has 7,634 GitHub stars, 1,335 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. ha-mcp has 5,486 stars, 267 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. operating-system leads on adoption by 39% (7,634 vs 5,486 stars). operating-system is written in Python under Apache-2.0; ha-mcp is written in Python under MIT. operating-system has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, ha-mcp 5%. ha-mcp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (home-assistant), 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
| operating-system | ha-mcp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.6K | ★ 5.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-06 | 2026-11-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 267 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick operating-system if
- You weight community size — 7.6K 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 ha-mcp if
- You want the ha-mcp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ha-mcp fits your workflow better
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…
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About ha-mcp
Breaking change (v7.3.0): ha config set yaml has been moved to beta. HA MCP — Manage Home Assistant with AI Configure and automate Home Assistant with Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI assistants. 🚀 Get Started The recommended way to run ha mcp is the HA MCP integration . It installs into Home Assistant through HACS (the built in Marketplace on Home Assistant 2026.11+), runs the full server in process , and works on every Home Assistant installation type — Home Assistant OS, Supervised, Container, and Core — with full feature parity. It is the easiest setup in every case: setup asks for an administrator access…
read the full ha-mcp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is operating-system or ha-mcp more popular?
operating-system has 7,634 GitHub stars and ha-mcp has 5,486. operating-system has the larger community by that measure.
Are operating-system and ha-mcp free?
Both are open source. operating-system is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ha-mcp under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between operating-system and ha-mcp?
operating-system is written in Python and ha-mcp 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, operating-system or ha-mcp?
Choose operating-system if you want the larger community (7,634 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ha-mcp if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.