head to head · open source
python-miio vs homie-esp8266
python-miio has 4,335 GitHub stars, 602 forks, 313 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. homie-esp8266 has 1,374 stars, 304 forks, 89 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. python-miio leads on adoption by 216% (4,335 vs 1,374 stars). python-miio is written in Python under GPL-3.0; homie-esp8266 is written in HTML under MIT. python-miio has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, homie-esp8266 22%. python-miio was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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.
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Side by side
| python-miio | homie-esp8266 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.3K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-07-25 | 2026-03-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 602 | ⑂ 304 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick python-miio if
- You weight community size — 4.3K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick homie-esp8266 if
- You want the homie-esp8266 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and homie-esp8266 fits your workflow better
About python-miio
python miio This library (and its accompanying cli tool, miiocli ) can be used to control devices using Xiaomi's miIO and MIoT protocols. This is a voluntary, community driven effort and is not affiliated with any of the companies whose devices are supported by this library. Issue reports and pull requests are welcome, see contributing! The full documentation is available at python miio.readthedocs.io. Installation Getting started Controlling modern (MIoT) devices Controlling older (miIO) devices Troubleshooting API usage Contributing Simulators Supported devices Projects using this library Other related…
read the full python-miio overview →
About homie-esp8266
Homie for ESP8266 / ESP32 An Arduino for ESP8266 / ESP32 implementation of Homie, an MQTT convention for the IoT. This branch of Homie for ESP8266 implements Homie 3.0.1 and adds support for ESP32. Download The Git repository contains the development version of Homie for ESP8266. Stable releases are available on the releases page. Using with PlatformIO PlatformIO is an open source ecosystem for IoT development with cross platform build system, library manager and full support for Espressif ESP8266 development. It works on the popular host OS: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux 32/64, Linux ARM (like Raspberry Pi…
read the full homie-esp8266 overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is python-miio or homie-esp8266 more popular?
python-miio has 4,335 GitHub stars and homie-esp8266 has 1,374. python-miio has the larger community by that measure.
Are python-miio and homie-esp8266 free?
Both are open source. python-miio is licensed under GPL-3.0 and homie-esp8266 under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between python-miio and homie-esp8266?
python-miio is written in Python and homie-esp8266 in HTML. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, python-miio or homie-esp8266?
Choose python-miio if you want the larger community (4,335 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose homie-esp8266 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.