SHSelfHostIndex

HACS vs ESPEasy

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?
HA HACS Community store for custom Home Assistant integrations and themes VS ES ESPEasy Multifunctional firmware for ESP8266 and ESP32 sensors
FeatureHACSESPEasy
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonC++
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB64 MB
Deploymentsourcebare-metal, binary
GitHub stars★ 7,603★ 3,536
First released20192015
ReplacesSmartThings community add-onsTuya

Why pick each one

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

Choose ESPEasy if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Active community (3.5k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C++
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
ESPEasy details

Frequently asked questions

Is HACS or ESPEasy better?

HACS is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider ESPEasy if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are HACS and ESPEasy free and open-source?

Yes. HACS is licensed under MIT and ESPEasy under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run HACS and ESPEasy with Docker?

HACS: check the project docs for container support. ESPEasy: check the project docs for container support.

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