Mushroom vs ThingsBoard
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?
Mushroom
Modern minimalist card collection for Home Assistant dashboards
VS
ThingsBoard
Open-source IoT platform for device management and data
| Feature | Mushroom | ThingsBoard |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Home Automation | Home Automation |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | source | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,098 | ★ 22,200 |
| First released | 2022 | 2017 |
| Replaces | proprietary smart home apps | AWS IoT, Azure IoT |
Why pick each one
Choose Mushroom if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 5.1k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Mushroom or ThingsBoard better?
Neither is universally better. ThingsBoard has the larger community, while Mushroom is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Mushroom and ThingsBoard free and open-source?
Yes. Mushroom is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ThingsBoard under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mushroom and ThingsBoard with Docker?
Mushroom: check the project docs for container support. ThingsBoard: yes.