EMQX 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?
FeatureEMQXTasmota
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseApache-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguageErlangC
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB16 MB
Deploymentdockerbinary, source
GitHub stars★ 16,599★ 24,662
First released20262016
ReplacesTuya Cloud

Why pick each one

Choose EMQX if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 16.6k GitHub stars
  • Written in Erlang
EMQX details

Choose Tasmota if…

  • Total local control
  • Huge device support
Tasmota details

Frequently asked questions

Is EMQX or Tasmota better?

Neither is universally better. Tasmota has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are EMQX and Tasmota free and open-source?

Yes. EMQX is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Tasmota under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run EMQX and Tasmota with Docker?

EMQX: yes. Tasmota: check the project docs for container support.

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