Gladys Assistant vs Mosquitto
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted home automation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Mosquitto
Lightweight MQTT message broker
| Feature | Gladys Assistant | Mosquitto |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 88 · Excellent | 92 · Excellent |
| Category | Home Automation | Home Automation |
| License | Apache-2.0 | EPL-2.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | C |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,201 | ★ 11,221 |
| First released | 2017 | 2009 |
| Replaces | SmartThings, Google Home | SmartThings |
What are Gladys Assistant and Mosquitto?
Gladys Assistant
Gladys Assistant is a privacy-first, open-source home automation program that runs locally on your hardware. It controls smart devices, scenes, and schedules through a clean web and mobile interface.
- Runs fully locally
- Device, scene, and schedule control
- Clean web and mobile UI
- Energy monitoring
Mosquitto
Eclipse Mosquitto is a lightweight, open-source MQTT broker widely used as the messaging backbone for smart home setups. It targets users connecting IoT devices and automation tools. It is deployed via Docker or packages.
- Standards-compliant MQTT broker
- Tiny resource footprint
- TLS and authentication
- Bridges between brokers
Gladys Assistant vs Mosquitto: key differences
Gladys Assistant is written in JavaScript, while Mosquitto is built with C. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Gladys Assistant versus EPL-2.0 for Mosquitto. Mosquitto is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Gladys Assistant. Mosquitto is the more established project (first released 2009), while Gladys Assistant arrived in 2017. Mosquitto has the considerably larger community, at 11,221 GitHub stars versus 3,201.
Why pick each one
Choose Gladys Assistant if…
- Strong privacy focus
- Beginner-friendly
Watch out for
- Smaller integration catalog
- Less powerful automations than HA
Choose Mosquitto if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Rock-solid reliability
- Ubiquitous in smart homes
Watch out for
- Just a broker, not automation
- Minimal management UI
Frequently asked questions
Is Gladys Assistant or Mosquitto better?
Neither is universally better. Mosquitto has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Gladys Assistant and Mosquitto free and open-source?
Yes. Gladys Assistant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Mosquitto under EPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gladys Assistant and Mosquitto with Docker?
Gladys Assistant: yes. Mosquitto: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Gladys Assistant or Mosquitto?
Mosquitto has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Gladys Assistant. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.