Frigate Notify vs motionEye
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted video surveillance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
motionEye
Web frontend for the Motion video surveillance program
| Feature | Frigate Notify | motionEye |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 59 · Fair | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Video Surveillance | Video Surveillance |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 413 | ★ 4,685 |
| First released | 2023 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Nest Cam | Nest Cam |
What are Frigate Notify and motionEye?
Frigate Notify
Frigate Notify is a small standalone application that sends alerts for events detected by a Frigate NVR. It supports many notification channels and works without depending on Home Assistant.
- Notifications for Frigate events
- Many alert channels
- No Home Assistant needed
- Tiny footprint
motionEye
motionEye is a web-based frontend for the Motion surveillance daemon, making it easy to manage cameras and recordings. It is popular for building DIY surveillance systems on Raspberry Pi hardware.
- Web frontend for Motion
- Motion detection recording
- Raspberry Pi friendly
- Multiple camera support
Frigate Notify vs motionEye: key differences
Frigate Notify is written in Go, while motionEye is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Frigate Notify versus GPL-3.0 for motionEye. Frigate Notify is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 512 MB for motionEye. MotionEye is the more established project (first released 2013), while Frigate Notify arrived in 2023. MotionEye has the considerably larger community, at 4,685 GitHub stars versus 413.
Why pick each one
Choose Frigate Notify if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Watch out for
- Companion tool only
- Requires Frigate
Choose motionEye if…
- Easy to set up
- Great for DIY builds
Watch out for
- Aging codebase
- Limited modern AI detection
Frequently asked questions
Is Frigate Notify or motionEye better?
Neither is universally better. motionEye has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Frigate Notify and motionEye free and open-source?
Yes. Frigate Notify is licensed under MIT and motionEye under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Frigate Notify and motionEye with Docker?
Frigate Notify: yes. motionEye: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Frigate Notify or motionEye?
Frigate Notify has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for motionEye. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.