Frigate vs openHAB

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?
FeatureFrigateopenHAB
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseMITEPL-2.0
LanguageTypeScriptJava
Setup difficultyHardHard
Min. RAM2,048 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 34,903★ 1,134
First released20202010
ReplacesGoogle HomeSmartThings, Google Home

Why pick each one

Choose Frigate if…

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

Choose openHAB if…

  • Very flexible
  • Vendor neutral
  • Mature project
openHAB details

Frequently asked questions

Is Frigate or openHAB better?

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

Are Frigate and openHAB free and open-source?

Yes. Frigate is licensed under MIT and openHAB under EPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Frigate and openHAB with Docker?

Frigate: yes. openHAB: yes.

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