head to head · open source
room-assistant vs steve
room-assistant has 1,350 GitHub stars, 125 forks, 76 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. steve has 1,128 stars, 500 forks, 91 open issues and last shipped yesterday. room-assistant leads on adoption by 20% (1,350 vs 1,128 stars). room-assistant is written in TypeScript under MIT; steve is written in Java under GPL-3.0. room-assistant has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, steve 44%. steve was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (smart-home), 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
| room-assistant | steve | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.4K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 125 | ⑂ 500 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick room-assistant if
- You weight community size — 1.4K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick steve if
- You want the steve feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and steve fits your workflow better
About room-assistant
room assistant is an MIT licensed, TypeScript based tool that brings presence detection and room level occupancy tracking to home automation, aimed at self hosters and smart home tinkerers who want automations keyed to which room a person is actually in.
read the full room-assistant overview →
About steve
SteVe is an open source OCPP server implementation in Java: a charging station management system (CSMS, also described as a CPMS) that lets charge point operators, manufacturers and developers administer charge points, user data and RFID authentication cards on infrastructure they control.
read the full steve overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is room-assistant or steve more popular?
room-assistant has 1,350 GitHub stars and steve has 1,128. room-assistant has the larger community by that measure.
Are room-assistant and steve free?
Both are open source. room-assistant is licensed under MIT and steve under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between room-assistant and steve?
room-assistant is written in TypeScript and steve in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, room-assistant or steve?
Choose room-assistant if you want the larger community (1,350 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose steve if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.