SHSelfHostIndex

WLED vs card-mod

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?
WL WLED Firmware for controlling addressable LED strips VS CA card-mod Apply custom CSS styles to Home Assistant Lovelace cards
FeatureWLEDcard-mod
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageC++TypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM16 MB32 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcesource
GitHub stars★ 18,518★ 1,773
First released20162019
ReplacesPhilips Hueproprietary dashboard theming tools

Why pick each one

Choose WLED if…

  • Easy to flash and use
  • Vibrant effects
WLED details

Choose card-mod if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Active community (1.8k GitHub stars)
  • Written in TypeScript
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
card-mod details

Frequently asked questions

Is WLED or card-mod better?

WLED is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider card-mod if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are WLED and card-mod free and open-source?

Yes. WLED is licensed under MIT and card-mod under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run WLED and card-mod with Docker?

WLED: check the project docs for container support. card-mod: check the project docs for container support.

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