SHSelfHostIndex

Home Assistant Operating System vs Bubble Card

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?
HO Home Assistant Operating System Embedded operating system optimized for Home Assistant VS BU Bubble Card Minimalist mobile-first card pack for Home Assistant
FeatureHome Assistant Operating SystemBubble Card
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguagePythonJavaScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM1,024 MB64 MB
Deploymentone-click, bare-metalbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 7,390★ 4,481
First released20192023
ReplacesSmartThings, HubitatSmartThings app

Why pick each one

Choose Home Assistant Operating System if…

  • Easiest full-featured HA install
  • Managed add-ons
Home Assistant Operating System details

Choose Bubble Card if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (4.5k GitHub stars)
  • Written in JavaScript
Bubble Card details

Frequently asked questions

Is Home Assistant Operating System or Bubble Card better?

Neither is universally better. Home Assistant Operating System has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Home Assistant Operating System and Bubble Card free and open-source?

Yes. Home Assistant Operating System is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Bubble Card under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Home Assistant Operating System and Bubble Card with Docker?

Home Assistant Operating System: check the project docs for container support. Bubble Card: check the project docs for container support.

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