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Gladys Assistant 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?
GL Gladys Assistant Privacy-first home automation platform for everyone VS TH ThingsBoard Open-source IoT platform for device management and data
FeatureGladys AssistantThingsBoard
CategoryHome AutomationHome Automation
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageJavaScriptJava
Setup difficultyEasyHard
Min. RAM512 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, kubernetes, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 3,098★ 22,200
First released20172017
ReplacesSmartThings, Google HomeAWS IoT, Azure IoT

Why pick each one

Choose Gladys Assistant if…

  • Strong privacy focus
  • Beginner-friendly
Gladys Assistant details

Choose ThingsBoard if…

  • Powerful IoT platform
  • Highly customizable dashboards
ThingsBoard details

Frequently asked questions

Is Gladys Assistant or ThingsBoard better?

Neither is universally better. ThingsBoard has the larger community, while Gladys Assistant is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Gladys Assistant and ThingsBoard free and open-source?

Yes. Gladys Assistant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ThingsBoard under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Gladys Assistant and ThingsBoard with Docker?

Gladys Assistant: yes. ThingsBoard: yes.

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