head to head · open source
operating-system vs UI
operating-system has 7,618 GitHub stars, 1,329 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped yesterday. UI has 2,081 stars, 422 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. operating-system leads on adoption by 266% (7,618 vs 2,081 stars). operating-system is written in Python under Apache-2.0; UI is written in JavaScript under MIT. operating-system has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, UI 20%. operating-system 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 | UI | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.6K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 422 |
| 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 UI if
- You want the UI feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and UI 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…
read the full operating-system overview →
About UI
UI Lovelace Minimalist [!IMPORTANT] Looking for New Maintainers! This project is in need of new maintainers! The current maintainers are no longer actively working on it, and without fresh leadership, we may be forced to shut down the project and its associated Discord server. If you're passionate about this project and would like to take over its development and community management, we’d love to hear from you! Join us on Discord to discuss further: Thread Message Or reach out on GitHub Discussions: GitHub discussion Thank you for considering helping keep this project alive and thriving! 🙌 It's kind of hard to…
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Frequently asked questions
Is operating-system or UI more popular?
operating-system has 7,618 GitHub stars and UI has 2,081. operating-system has the larger community by that measure.
Are operating-system and UI free?
Both are open source. operating-system is licensed under Apache-2.0 and UI under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between operating-system and UI?
operating-system is written in Python and UI in JavaScript. 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 UI?
Choose operating-system if you want the larger community (7,618 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose UI if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.