Bubble Card vs Piper
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?
Bubble Card
Minimalist mobile-first card pack for Home Assistant
VS
Piper
Fast, local neural text-to-speech for voice assistants
| Feature | Bubble Card | Piper |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Home Automation | Home Automation |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,481 | ★ 5,066 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | SmartThings app | Amazon Polly, Google TTS |
Why pick each one
Choose Bubble Card if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (4.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Bubble Card or Piper better?
Neither is universally better. Piper has the larger community, while Bubble Card is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Bubble Card and Piper free and open-source?
Yes. Bubble Card is licensed under MIT and Piper under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bubble Card and Piper with Docker?
Bubble Card: check the project docs for container support. Piper: yes.