Self-hosted alternatives to Google Nest
Cloud-dependent by design: no internet, no thermostat schedule, no camera history.
Below are 10 open-source projects that cover the same ground, each scored 0–100 on how actively it is actually maintained — commit volume, release cadence and recent trend. 9 of the 10 are currently rated healthy or better. Ordering reflects that score, not sponsorship.
| Project | Health | Activity (11 mo) | Stars | Licence | Last release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home Assistant Home automation platform. | Thriving · 97 | 91k | Apache-2.0 | 27 Sept 2026 | |
| EMQX Scalable MQTT broker. Connect 100M+ IoT devices in one single cluster, move and process real-time IoT data wit | Thriving · 96 | 17k | Apache-2.0 | 18 Sept 2026 | |
| evcc Extensible Electric Vehicle Charge Controller and home energy management system. | Thriving · 92 | 7.3k | MIT | 27 Sept 2026 | |
| Thingsboard IoT Platform - Device management, data collection, processing and visualization. | Thriving · 85 | 22k | Apache-2.0 | 11 Sept 2026 | |
| Tasmota Open source firmware for ESP devices. Total local control with quick setup and updates. Control using MQTT, We | Healthy · 80 | 25k | GPL-3.0 | 25 Aug 2026 | |
| Gladys Privacy-first home assistant. | Healthy · 78 | 3.2k | Apache-2.0 | 22 Sept 2026 | |
| Node RED Browser-based flow editor that helps you wiring hardware devices, APIs and online services to create IoT solut | Healthy · 76 | 24k | Apache-2.0 | 9 Sept 2026 | |
| Domoticz Home Automation System that lets you monitor and configure various devices like: Lights, Switches, various sen | Healthy · 76 | 3.8k | GPL-3.0 | 2 Aug 2026 | |
| OpenRemote IoT Asset management, Flow Rules and WHEN-THEN rules, Data visualization, Edge Gateway. | Healthy · 76 | 1.9k | AGPL-3.0 | 24 Sept 2026 | |
| openHAB Vendor and technology agnostic open source software for home automation. | Steady · 54 | 1.1k | EPL-2.0 | — |
How these were picked
Every project listed here is open source and can run entirely on hardware you control. We start from the categories that match Google Nest's job — Internet of Things (IoT), Automation — then rank by health score so that a popular-but-abandoned project never appears above a smaller one that is actively shipping. The scoring method is documented in full.
The scores are recomputed from repository data on every rebuild, so this page reflects the state of these projects as of 1 Oct 2026 — not the day it was written.
Home Assistant
Home automation platform.
Best fit: It is a strong fit for technical users who want to manage smart home devices locally, ensuring privacy and operability without an internet connection.
Worth knowing: The platform requires significant configuration effort, and maintaining stability across diverse hardware integrations can demand ongoing administrative oversight.
EMQX
Scalable MQTT broker. Connect 100M+ IoT devices in one single cluster, move and process real-time IoT data with 1M msg/s throughput at 1ms latency.
Best fit: Deploying in industrial or enterprise environments that need to manage millions of concurrent MQTT client connections and high message throughput.
Worth knowing: Running large Erlang-based clusters requires deep expertise in distributed systems tuning, memory management, and network troubleshooting under high loads.
evcc
Extensible Electric Vehicle Charge Controller and home energy management system.
Best fit: Self-hosters who want to integrate electric vehicle charging with local home energy monitoring and automation hardware.
Worth knowing: Requires specific hardware integration and configuration for your meters, inverters, and vehicle APIs to function correctly.
Thingsboard
IoT Platform - Device management, data collection, processing and visualization.
Best fit: It suits developers and organisations building self-hosted IoT monitoring pipelines that require structured telemetry ingestion and dashboarding.
Worth knowing: The enterprise stack is built with Java and containerised orchestration tools, which implies a significant operational baseline and memory footprint compared to lighter single-binary alternatives.
Tasmota
Open source firmware for ESP devices. Total local control with quick setup and updates. Control using MQTT, Web UI, HTTP or serial. Automate using timers, rules or scripts. Integration with home automation solutions.
Best fit: You should use this if you want to run local-only IoT devices without relying on external cloud services or vendor-locked smartphone applications.
Worth knowing: Flashing alternative firmware onto ESP devices typically requires physical access to the hardware or specific serial wiring procedures initially, which can be time-consuming for large deployments.