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Best Free Home Automation for self-hosting

The 34 best Free home automation you can self-host, ranked by community traction.

EMQX

Home Automation

Scalable MQTT broker

Replaces HiveMQ

★ 16.8k Medium setup Apache-2.0

HACS

Home Automation

Community store for custom Home Assistant integrations and themes

Replaces SmartThings community add-ons

★ 7.8k Easy setup MIT

Mushroom

Home Automation

Modern minimalist card collection for Home Assistant dashboards

Replaces proprietary smart home apps

★ 5.2k Easy setup Apache-2.0

Bubble Card

Home Automation

Minimalist mobile-first card pack for Home Assistant

Replaces SmartThings app

★ 4.6k Easy setup MIT

OpenMQTTGateway

Home Automation

Bridge for RF, IR, BLE, and sensors to MQTT

Replaces SmartThings Hub

★ 4.1k Medium setup GPL-3.0

ESPEasy

Home Automation

Multifunctional firmware for ESP8266 and ESP32 sensors

Replaces Tuya

★ 3.6k Medium setup GPL-3.0

Button Card

Home Automation

Highly customizable button card for Home Assistant Lovelace

Replaces proprietary smart home dashboards

★ 2.5k Easy setup MIT

Awtrix Light

Home Automation

Open firmware for LED matrix smart home displays

Replaces LaMetric Time

★ 2.4k Medium setup MIT

OpenBeken

Home Automation

Tasmota-like firmware for non-ESP smart devices

Replaces Tuya Cloud

★ 2.3k Medium setup MIT

SmartApp Bridge

Home Automation

Self-hosted automation engine for IoT devices

Replaces SmartThings

★ 2.1k Medium setup Apache-2.0

OpenRemote

Home Automation

IoT Asset management, Flow Rules and WHEN-THEN rules, Data

★ 1.9k Medium setup AGPL-3.0

ApexCharts Card

Home Automation

Advanced graphing card for Home Assistant dashboards

Replaces Grafana panels

★ 1.9k Medium setup MIT

card-mod

Home Automation

Apply custom CSS styles to Home Assistant Lovelace cards

Replaces proprietary dashboard theming tools

★ 1.8k Medium setup MIT

TinyTuya Server

Home Automation

Local control library and server for Tuya devices

Replaces Tuya Smart app

★ 1.8k Medium setup MIT

Mini Media Player

Home Automation

Compact media player card for Home Assistant dashboards

Replaces Sonos app

★ 1.7k Easy setup MIT

HA-Bridge

Home Automation

Emulate Philips Hue to control devices by voice

Replaces Philips Hue Bridge

★ 1.5k Easy setup Apache-2.0

Govee2MQTT

Home Automation

Local MQTT bridge for Govee smart lights

Replaces Govee Home app

★ 1.5k Easy setup MIT

HASS.Agent

Home Automation

Windows companion for Home Assistant control

Replaces IFTTT

★ 1.3k Easy setup MIT

Frigate Cards

Home Automation

Advanced camera card for Home Assistant dashboards

Replaces Ring app

★ 1.2k Easy setup MIT

Ring-MQTT

Home Automation

Local MQTT bridge for Ring cameras and alarms

Replaces Ring app

★ 793 Medium setup MIT

EMHASS

Home Automation

Energy management optimization for Home Assistant

Replaces Tesla Energy app

★ 702 Hard setup MIT

Grott Growatt Monitor

Home Automation

Local monitoring proxy for Growatt solar inverters

Replaces Growatt ShinePhone

★ 537 Medium setup GPL-3.0

Zigbee2MQTT Assistant

Home Automation

Web management UI for Zigbee2MQTT networks

Replaces SmartThings Hub

★ 448 Easy setup MIT

SIP Irrigation Control

Home Automation

Open source software for sprinkler/irrigation control

★ 422 Medium setup GPL-3.0

Node-RED Dashboard 2.0

Home Automation

Modern data-driven dashboard for Node-RED flows

Replaces Home Assistant Lovelace

★ 355 Easy setup Apache-2.0

Theengs Gateway

Home Automation

BLE-to-MQTT gateway for hundreds of sensors

Replaces SmartThings Hub

★ 177 Easy setup GPL-3.0

SOLECTRUS

Home Automation

Photovoltaic dashboard that displays energy production and consumption

★ 166 Medium setup AGPL-3.0

SmartHomeNG

Home Automation

Modular home automation framework with KNX focus

Replaces Loxone

★ 128 Hard setup GPL-3.0

Calaos

Home Automation

Free home automation platform with touchscreen UI

Replaces Loxone

★ 73 Hard setup GPL-3.0

Habapp

Home Automation

Python rules engine for openHAB and MQTT

Replaces IFTTT

★ 57 Medium setup Apache-2.0

FHEM

Home Automation

Perl-based server for home automation tasks

Replaces SmartThings

★ 23 Hard setup GPL-2.0

LHA

Home Automation

Light Home Automation application that is fully extensible using

★ 13 Medium setup MIT

Onloc

Home Automation

Track and share your location in real time

★ 11 Medium setup AGPL-3.0

Find My Device

Home Automation

Server for saving location data send by FMD

Replaces Googles FindMyDevice

Easy setup GPL-3.0-or-later

At a glance

App	Deploy effort	Difficulty	Min. RAM	License	★ Stars
EMQX	Under-an-hour setup	Medium	512 MB	Apache-2.0	16,795
HACS	Read-the-docs project	Easy	64 MB	MIT	7,797
Mushroom	Read-the-docs project	Easy	32 MB	Apache-2.0	5,205
Bubble Card	Read-the-docs project	Easy	64 MB	MIT	4,642
OpenMQTTGateway	Read-the-docs project	Medium	64 MB	GPL-3.0	4,104
ESPEasy	Read-the-docs project	Medium	64 MB	GPL-3.0	3,619
Button Card	Read-the-docs project	Easy	32 MB	MIT	2,510
Awtrix Light	Read-the-docs project	Medium	64 MB	MIT	2,357
OpenBeken	Read-the-docs project	Medium	64 MB	MIT	2,322
SmartApp Bridge	Under-an-hour setup	Medium	512 MB	Apache-2.0	2,063

Quick picks

Most adopted: EMQX (16,795 GitHub stars).
Lightest footprint: Mushroom (from 32 MB RAM, against 512 MB for the heaviest here).
Licensing: 16 of 34 use MIT; check the rest individually if you plan to modify and redistribute.

Every option here is open-source and self-hostable, tagged Free within the home automation category. Deploy effort is graded from published container recipes, not vendor claims — see the methodology.

Keep exploring

All Home Automation Easiest Home Automation to self-host How to choose home automation platform: the Home Automation buyer's guide

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