Mini Media Player 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?
Mini Media Player
Compact media player card for Home Assistant dashboards
VS
ThingsBoard
Open-source IoT platform for device management and data
| Feature | Mini Media Player | ThingsBoard |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Home Automation | Home Automation |
| License | MIT | 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 | ★ 1,714 | ★ 22,200 |
| First released | 2018 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Sonos app | AWS IoT, Azure IoT |
Why pick each one
Choose Mini Media Player if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Mini Media Player or ThingsBoard better?
Neither is universally better. ThingsBoard has the larger community, while Mini Media Player is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Mini Media Player and ThingsBoard free and open-source?
Yes. Mini Media Player is licensed under MIT and ThingsBoard under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mini Media Player and ThingsBoard with Docker?
Mini Media Player: check the project docs for container support. ThingsBoard: yes.