SHSelfHostIndex

Home 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.

Not the right match-up?
HO Home Assistant Open-source home automation that puts privacy first VS MO Mosquitto Lightweight MQTT message broker
FeatureHome AssistantMosquitto
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseApache-2.0EPL-2.0
LanguagePythonC
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM1,024 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, one-clickdocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 89,795★ 11,101
First released20132009
ReplacesSmartThings, Google HomeSmartThings

Why pick each one

Choose Home Assistant if…

  • Huge device support
  • Local control and privacy
  • Very active community
Home Assistant details

Choose Mosquitto if…

  • Extremely lightweight
  • Rock-solid reliability
  • Ubiquitous in smart homes
Mosquitto details

Frequently asked questions

Is Home Assistant or Mosquitto better?

Neither is universally better. Home Assistant has the larger community, while Mosquitto is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Home Assistant and Mosquitto free and open-source?

Yes. Home 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 Home Assistant and Mosquitto with Docker?

Home Assistant: yes. Mosquitto: yes.

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