SHSelfHostIndex

Sighthound Surveillance Station vs Motion

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted video surveillance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
SI Sighthound Surveillance Station NVR with object detection for connected IP cameras VS MO Motion Lightweight motion-detection video surveillance daemon
FeatureSighthound Surveillance StationMotion
CategoryVideo SurveillanceVideo Surveillance
LicenseMITGPL-2.0
LanguagePythonC++
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB256 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 276★ 4,030
First released20202000
ReplacesNest CamNest Cam

Why pick each one

Choose Sighthound Surveillance Station if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Python
Sighthound Surveillance Station details

Choose Motion if…

  • Tiny footprint
  • Highly scriptable
Motion details

Frequently asked questions

Is Sighthound Surveillance Station or Motion better?

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

Are Sighthound Surveillance Station and Motion free and open-source?

Yes. Sighthound Surveillance Station is licensed under MIT and Motion under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Sighthound Surveillance Station and Motion with Docker?

Sighthound Surveillance Station: yes. Motion: yes.

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