Frigate 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?
Frigate
Local NVR with real-time AI object detection
VS
card-mod
Apply custom CSS styles to Home Assistant Lovelace cards
| Feature | Frigate | card-mod |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Home Automation | Home Automation |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker | source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 34,903 | ★ 1,773 |
| First released | 2020 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Google Home | proprietary dashboard theming tools |
Why pick each one
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
Frequently asked questions
Is Frigate or card-mod better?
Neither is universally better. Frigate has the larger community, while card-mod is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Frigate and card-mod free and open-source?
Yes. Frigate is licensed under MIT and card-mod under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Frigate and card-mod with Docker?
Frigate: yes. card-mod: check the project docs for container support.