head to head · open source
ProxmoxVE vs ESPresense
ProxmoxVE has 30,010 GitHub stars, 2,938 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ESPresense has 1,500 stars, 190 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ProxmoxVE leads on adoption by 1,901% (30,010 vs 1,500 stars). ProxmoxVE is written in Shell under MIT; ESPresense is written in C under AGPL-3.0. ProxmoxVE has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, ESPresense 13%. ProxmoxVE was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (home-assistant, home-automation), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| ProxmoxVE | ESPresense | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Shell | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 190 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ProxmoxVE if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ESPresense if
- You want the ESPresense feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and ESPresense fits your workflow better
About ProxmoxVE
Proxmox VE Helper Scripts One command installations for services, containers, and VMs on Proxmox VE A community project — built on the foundation of @tteck 's original work What is this? Simplify your Proxmox VE setup with community driven automation scripts. Install and configure popular self hosted services with a single command — no manual package hunting, no config file archaeology. Paste a command into your Proxmox shell, answer a few prompts, and your container or VM is up and running. The collection covers hundreds of services across categories like home automation, media servers, networking tools…
read the full ProxmoxVE overview →
About ESPresense
ESPresense An ESP32 based presence detection node for use with the Home Assistant mqtt room component or ESPresense companion for indoor positioning Documentation: Building: building. Release Notes: changelog. trigger CI
read the full ESPresense overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Automation projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Automation field.
Frequently asked questions
Is ProxmoxVE or ESPresense more popular?
ProxmoxVE has 30,010 GitHub stars and ESPresense has 1,500. ProxmoxVE has the larger community by that measure.
Are ProxmoxVE and ESPresense free?
Both are open source. ProxmoxVE is licensed under MIT and ESPresense under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ProxmoxVE and ESPresense?
ProxmoxVE is written in Shell and ESPresense 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, ProxmoxVE or ESPresense?
Choose ProxmoxVE if you want the larger community (30,010 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ESPresense if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.