Rhasspy vs Willow
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Rhasspy
Offline, private voice assistant for home automation
VS
Willow
Open-source privacy-focused voice assistant hardware platform
| Feature | Rhasspy | Willow |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Home Automation | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Shell | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,752 | ★ 3,086 |
| First released | 2019 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant | Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant |
Why pick each one
Choose Willow if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is Rhasspy or Willow better?
Neither is universally better. Willow has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Rhasspy and Willow free and open-source?
Yes. Rhasspy is licensed under MIT and Willow under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Rhasspy and Willow with Docker?
Rhasspy: yes. Willow: yes.