Frigate Cards vs Zigbee2MQTT
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?
Frigate Cards
Advanced camera card for Home Assistant dashboards
VS
Zigbee2MQTT
Bridge Zigbee devices to MQTT without vendor hubs
| Feature | Frigate Cards | Zigbee2MQTT |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Home Automation | Home Automation |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,117 | ★ 15,477 |
| First released | 2021 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Ring app | SmartThings |
Why pick each one
Choose Frigate Cards if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Choose Zigbee2MQTT if…
- Frees devices from vendor hubs
- Wide device support
- Local control
Frequently asked questions
Is Frigate Cards or Zigbee2MQTT better?
Neither is universally better. Zigbee2MQTT has the larger community, while Frigate Cards is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Frigate Cards and Zigbee2MQTT free and open-source?
Yes. Frigate Cards is licensed under MIT and Zigbee2MQTT under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Frigate Cards and Zigbee2MQTT with Docker?
Frigate Cards: check the project docs for container support. Zigbee2MQTT: yes.