Button Card vs Tasmota
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted home automation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Button Card
Highly customizable button card for Home Assistant Lovelace
VS
Tasmota
Open-source firmware for ESP-based smart devices
| Feature | Button Card | Tasmota |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Home Automation | Home Automation |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | C |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 16 MB |
| Deployment | source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,476 | ★ 24,662 |
| First released | 2019 | 2016 |
| Replaces | proprietary smart home dashboards | Tuya Cloud |
Why pick each one
Choose Button Card if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Button Card or Tasmota better?
Neither is universally better. Tasmota has the larger community, while Button Card is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Button Card and Tasmota free and open-source?
Yes. Button Card is licensed under MIT and Tasmota under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Button Card and Tasmota with Docker?
Button Card: check the project docs for container support. Tasmota: check the project docs for container support.