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Open source internet of things (iot)

Internet of Things describes physical objects with sensors, processing ability, software, and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices over the Internet. Repoly tracks 20 open-source internet of things tools, each scored nightly from its repository activity and ranked by that score alone. Home Assistant leads at 100/100 with 8,098 commits in the last 90 days and 92k stars, followed by Node RED (98) and EMQX (97). 13 of the 20 score 70 or above, 11 publish a Docker image, and the median health is 89. Apache-2.0 is the most common licence, carried by 6 of them. Between them they stand in for Home Assistant Cloud, Zapier, Nest and Life360.

updated Oct 2026 20 tools ★ 203k stars 11 with Docker median 89

Best for…

  • Most starred

    Home Assistant

    91,841 stars on GitHub, the largest community in the category.

  • Most active

    EMQX

    3,110 commits in the last 90 days, the fastest-moving codebase here.

  • Most permissive

    Node RED

    Apache-2.0 licence with health 98/100: the strongest option if you need to embed or fork commercially.

Ranked by health

Table view

How the internet of things tools compare

Home Assistant edges Node RED 100 to 98, and most of the difference is stars: 92k stars against 24k stars.

The most recent release is ioBroker 2026-10-29, published yesterday. openHAB publishes no tagged releases, which costs up to 25 of the 100 points. LHA scores under 40, so check recent activity before adopting it. By stack, Nodejs (5), Java (3) and C (2) are the most common. Home Assistant, Node RED, EMQX and 8 more are permissively licensed; Domoticz, FMD Server, SOLECTRUS and 6 more are copyleft. FHEM is not hosted on a forge Repoly can read, so it has no measured score yet.

Internet of Things (IoT): common questions

What is the best open source internet of things tool?

By Repoly's GitHub health score, Home Assistant at 100/100 (8,098 commits in 90 days, 2026.10.4 from 6 days ago). Node RED is next at 98; Home Assistant's lead comes mostly from stars. The score measures maintenance, not features, so shortlist the top few and try them.

Which internet of things tools are the most actively developed?

Home Assistant (8,098 commits in 90 days), EMQX (3,110 commits in 90 days) and SOLECTRUS (969 commits in 90 days). Commit activity is 35 of the 100 health points, the largest single term.

Which internet of things tools can I run in Docker?

11 of 20 publish a Docker image or Compose file, led by Home Assistant, Node RED, EMQX, Thingsboard, evcc and 6 more.

Which internet of things tools have a permissive licence?

11 of 20: Home Assistant (Apache-2.0), Node RED (Apache-2.0), EMQX (Apache-2.0), Thingsboard (Apache-2.0), evcc (MIT) and 6 more. 9 are copyleft.

Which paid products can open source internet of things tools replace?

Home Assistant Cloud (Home Assistant ranks highest here), Zapier (Node RED ranks highest here), Nest (Home Assistant ranks highest here) and Life360 (FMD Server ranks highest here).