Frigate Cards vs Ring-MQTT
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted home automation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Frigate Cards | Ring-MQTT |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 78 · Good |
| Category | Home Automation | Home Automation |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,168 | ★ 789 |
| First released | 2021 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Ring app | Ring app |
What are Frigate Cards and Ring-MQTT?
Frigate Cards
The Frigate Card is an advanced Lovelace card for Home Assistant that displays live camera streams, event clips, and timelines from Frigate and other camera sources. It offers a media-rich surveillance view.
- Live camera streams
- Event clip browsing
- Timeline view
- Multi-camera support
Ring-MQTT
Ring-MQTT bridges Ring doorbells, cameras, and alarm systems to MQTT, enabling local home automation control and notifications. It supports live streaming and event triggers.
- Ring device bridging
- Doorbell and motion events
- Live stream support
- MQTT integration
Frigate Cards vs Ring-MQTT: key differences
Frigate Cards is written in TypeScript, while Ring-MQTT is built with JavaScript. Frigate Cards is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Ring-MQTT. Ring-MQTT is the more established project (first released 2019), while Frigate Cards arrived in 2021. Ring-MQTT lists first-class Docker deployment; Frigate Cards does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Frigate Cards if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Choose Ring-MQTT if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Frigate Cards or Ring-MQTT better?
Frigate Cards is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Ring-MQTT if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Frigate Cards and Ring-MQTT free and open-source?
Yes. Frigate Cards is licensed under MIT and Ring-MQTT under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Frigate Cards and Ring-MQTT with Docker?
Frigate Cards: check the project docs for container support. Ring-MQTT: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Frigate Cards or Ring-MQTT?
Frigate Cards has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Ring-MQTT. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.