SHSelfHostIndex

Home Assistant Operating System vs ioBroker

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 IO ioBroker Integration platform for the Internet of Things
FeatureHome Assistant Operating SystemioBroker
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguagePythonShell
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentone-click, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 7,390★ 1,373
First released20192014
ReplacesSmartThings, HubitatSmartThings, Hubitat

Why pick each one

Choose Home Assistant Operating System if…

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

Choose ioBroker if…

  • Extremely flexible
  • Huge adapter ecosystem
ioBroker details

Frequently asked questions

Is Home Assistant Operating System or ioBroker better?

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

Are Home Assistant Operating System and ioBroker free and open-source?

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

Can I run Home Assistant Operating System and ioBroker with Docker?

Home Assistant Operating System: check the project docs for container support. ioBroker: yes.

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