head to head · open source
tagreader vs home-assistant-glow
tagreader has 1,623 GitHub stars, 219 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. home-assistant-glow has 1,278 stars, 180 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. tagreader leads on adoption by 27% (1,623 vs 1,278 stars). tagreader is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; home-assistant-glow is written in various languages under MIT. tagreader has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, home-assistant-glow 14%. home-assistant-glow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (esphome), 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
| tagreader | home-assistant-glow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.6K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | — |
| Last push | 2026-04-27 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 219 | ⑂ 180 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick tagreader if
- You weight community size — 1.6K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick home-assistant-glow if
- You want the home-assistant-glow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- You evaluated both and home-assistant-glow fits your workflow better
About tagreader
Tag Reader for Home Assistant The tag reader is a simple to build/use NFC tag reader, specially created for Home Assistant. It is using a D1 mini ESP 8266 and the PN532 NFC module. The firmware is built using ESPhome. I am selling a pre built version, a DIY version (assembly required), or just the case (use with own components). Check it out on my website. Building the tag reader To build your own tag reader, you need the following components: ESP8266 D1 Mini PN532 NFC Reader WS2812 Buzzer The 3D models for the case are here. WARNING regarding AZdelivery D1. We have had several users contacting us with different…
read the full tagreader overview →
About home-assistant-glow
Home Assistant Glow 🌟 ![Project Maintenance][maintenance shield] [![License][license shield]](LICENSE) [![Forks][forks shield]][forks url] [![Stargazers][stars shield]][stars url] [![Issues][issues shield]][issues url] [![GitHub Activity][commits shield]][commits] [![GitHub Last Commit][last commit shield]][commits] [![Contributors][contributors shield]][contributors url] During my internship at [Nabu Casa][nc] in the first half of 2021, I focused on energy management for your house, how to collect all energy data and display it on a dashboard. Since Home Assistant release 2021.8 it's possible to use the [Home…
read the full home-assistant-glow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tagreader or home-assistant-glow more popular?
tagreader has 1,623 GitHub stars and home-assistant-glow has 1,278. tagreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are tagreader and home-assistant-glow free?
Both are open source. tagreader is licensed under GPL-3.0 and home-assistant-glow under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between tagreader and home-assistant-glow?
tagreader is written in Shell and home-assistant-glow in various languages. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, tagreader or home-assistant-glow?
Choose tagreader if you want the larger community (1,623 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose home-assistant-glow if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.