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Home Assistant Supervisor vs Mozilla WebThings Gateway

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 Supervisor Manages the Home Assistant add-on ecosystem VS MO Mozilla WebThings Gateway Open gateway for the decentralized web of things
FeatureHome Assistant SupervisorMozilla WebThings Gateway
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score86 · Excellent81 · Excellent
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseApache-2.0MPL-2.0
LanguagePythonTypeScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metalbare-metal, docker
GitHub stars★ 2,226★ 2,646
First released20172018
ReplacesSmartThingsSmartThings, Google Home

What are Home Assistant Supervisor and Mozilla WebThings Gateway?

Home Assistant Supervisor

Home Assistant Supervisor is the component that manages the Home Assistant Core installation, add-ons, backups, and updates. It enables the add-on store that extends a Home Assistant system.

  • Add-on store management
  • Automated backups
  • Update orchestration
  • System health checks

Read the full Home Assistant Supervisor guide →

Mozilla WebThings Gateway

WebThings Gateway is an open-source gateway for monitoring and controlling smart home devices over the web using open standards. Originating at Mozilla, it now continues as a community project.

  • Web of Things standards
  • Add-on device support
  • Rules engine
  • Local web interface

Read the full Mozilla WebThings Gateway guide →

Home Assistant Supervisor vs Mozilla WebThings Gateway: key differences

Home Assistant Supervisor is written in Python, while Mozilla WebThings Gateway is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Home Assistant Supervisor versus MPL-2.0 for Mozilla WebThings Gateway.

Why pick each one

Choose Home Assistant Supervisor if…

  • Enables one-click add-ons
  • Simplifies maintenance

Watch out for

  • Tied to supervised installs
  • Not standalone
Home Assistant Supervisor details

Choose Mozilla WebThings Gateway if…

  • Open standards-based
  • Privacy-focused

Watch out for

  • Smaller community after Mozilla
  • Fewer integrations than HA
Mozilla WebThings Gateway details

Frequently asked questions

Is Home Assistant Supervisor or Mozilla WebThings Gateway better?

Neither is universally better. Mozilla WebThings Gateway has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Home Assistant Supervisor and Mozilla WebThings Gateway free and open-source?

Yes. Home Assistant Supervisor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Mozilla WebThings Gateway under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Home Assistant Supervisor and Mozilla WebThings Gateway with Docker?

Home Assistant Supervisor: yes. Mozilla WebThings Gateway: yes.

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