Frigate vs ThingsBoard

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?
FeatureFrigateThingsBoard
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguageTypeScriptJava
Setup difficultyHardHard
Min. RAM2,048 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, kubernetes, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 34,903★ 22,200
First released20202017
ReplacesGoogle HomeAWS IoT, Azure IoT

Why pick each one

Choose Frigate if…

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

Choose ThingsBoard if…

  • Powerful IoT platform
  • Highly customizable dashboards
ThingsBoard details

Frequently asked questions

Is Frigate or ThingsBoard 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 ThingsBoard free and open-source?

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

Can I run Frigate and ThingsBoard with Docker?

Frigate: yes. ThingsBoard: yes.

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