SHSelfHostIndex

Frigate vs HACS

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?
FR Frigate Local NVR with real-time AI object detection VS HA HACS Community store for custom Home Assistant integrations and themes
FeatureFrigateHACS
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageTypeScriptPython
Setup difficultyHardEasy
Min. RAM2,048 MB64 MB
Deploymentdockersource
GitHub stars★ 34,903★ 7,603
First released20202019
ReplacesGoogle HomeSmartThings community add-ons

Why pick each one

Choose Frigate if…

  • Smart local NVR
  • Great with Home Assistant
  • Privacy-friendly
Frigate details

Choose HACS if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 7.6k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
HACS details

Frequently asked questions

Is Frigate or HACS better?

Neither is universally better. Frigate has the larger community, while HACS is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Frigate and HACS free and open-source?

Yes. Frigate is licensed under MIT and HACS under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Frigate and HACS with Docker?

Frigate: yes. HACS: check the project docs for container support.

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