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Comparison · Infra & APIs
Dashy vs ESPHome
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Dashy and ESPHome — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Dashy vs ESPHome: at a glance
What is Dashy?
After the 4.5.0 drag-and-drop release, Dashy has settled into translations and dependency patches
Dashy's 4.5.0 release was the substantive one — drag-and-drop editing of sections, items and widgets, a rebuilt GitHub stats widget on the official API, and richer number formatting in the custom-api widget. Everything since has been a single-PR patch release: two community translation contributions, three dependency bump batches, an out-of-memory fix from unclosed connection listeners, and OIDC post-logout redirect support. The tail is quiet by design rather than stalled.
What is ESPHome?
ESPHome's August beta opens while the July line keeps absorbing hardware fixes.
ESPHome runs a monthly train and this window covers the tail of 2026.7 plus the opening of the 2026.8 beta. The 2026.7 patches were dominated by field-reported hardware corrections — sensor readings on emc2101, haier and as3935, an ENC28J60 SPI chip-select hold time flagged as breaking, a locked git clone cache so device adoption stops failing on first attempt, and a double-free when the API overflow buffer drain is re-entered. Bundled device-builder and dependabot bumps make up most of the row count in every patch.
Dashy vs ESPHome: editorial side-by-side
Dashy
6.3INFRA · APIS
After the 4.5.0 drag-and-drop release, Dashy has settled into translations and dependency patches
◆ Current state
Dashy's 4.5.0 release was the substantive one — drag-and-drop editing of sections, items and widgets, a rebuilt GitHub stats widget on the official API, and richer number formatting in the custom-api widget. Everything since has been a single-PR patch release: two community translation contributions, three dependency bump batches, an out-of-memory fix from unclosed connection listeners, and OIDC post-logout redirect support. The tail is quiet by design rather than stalled.
◆ Where it's heading
The project is in the consolidation phase that follows a feature release, shipping one PR per version at a steady clip. Two threads still show forward motion: authentication is being rounded out, with OIDC post-logout redirects following the logout redirect option added in 4.5.0, and translation coverage is being filled in by contributors rather than maintainers. The widget system remains where the feature energy goes when it returns.
◆ Prediction
Expect the single-PR patch cadence to continue until enough widget or editing work accumulates for a 4.6 line. The OIDC additions suggest self-hosted single sign-on is the area most likely to see the next real feature.
ESPHome
5.0INFRA · APIS
ESPHome's August beta opens while the July line keeps absorbing hardware fixes.
◆ Current state
ESPHome runs a monthly train and this window covers the tail of 2026.7 plus the opening of the 2026.8 beta. The 2026.7 patches were dominated by field-reported hardware corrections — sensor readings on emc2101, haier and as3935, an ENC28J60 SPI chip-select hold time flagged as breaking, a locked git clone cache so device adoption stops failing on first attempt, and a double-free when the API overflow buffer drain is re-entered. Bundled device-builder and dependabot bumps make up most of the row count in every patch.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern is stable and worth reading as maturity rather than stagnation: a feature release lands, then three or four patch releases correct the hardware paths that only fail in the field, each one narrow and attributed to a specific board or component. Concurrency and shared-state bugs — the WiFi scan results shared with the captive portal task, the clone cache, the buffer drain — recur often enough to look like the project's current soft spot. The beta tags carry no notes of their own and point at the release changelog instead.
◆ Prediction
2026.8.0 should reach a stable tag within days given the beta cadence, followed by the usual run of patch releases correcting per-component regressions. What is in it is not visible from these entries, which link out rather than summarize.
Alternatives to Dashy and ESPHome
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Dashy or ESPHome.
Cronicle
Cronicle has spent 2026 hardening the paths that let a scheduler run arbitrary commands
Merge
Merge is turning its weekly integration digest into an agent control plane — the news is always at the bottom.
Knock
Knock is pulling every customer-data source into notifications, then putting an agent on top.
Jackett
Jackett ships daily, and every release is trackers chasing sites that moved.
k0s
k0s keeps four Kubernetes branches patched in lockstep, one backport at a time.
See all Dashy alternatives → · See all ESPHome alternatives →
Recent activity from Dashy and ESPHome
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 10h agoESPHome2026.8.0 beta 2 tagged
- 23h agoESPHome2026.8.0 beta 1 opens the August cycle
- 2d agoDashyTraditional Chinese UI translations completed
- 6d agoDashyNine grouped dependency updates
- 7d agoESPHomeDevice adoption and API buffer fixes land in 2026.7.4
- 7d agoDashySingle dependency bump for fast-uri
- 10d agoDashyMissing German translations added
- 12d agoDashyOut-of-memory crash from unclosed secureConnect listeners fixed
- 13d agoDashyTwo grouped dependency updates
- 16d agoESPHomeENC28J60 SPI timing fix, flagged as a breaking change
- 21d agoESPHomesen5x gains a model override; MIPI SPI partial update fixed
- 23d agoESPHomeSensor reading fixes across emc2101, haier and as3935
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Dashy and ESPHome?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Dashy is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Dashy better than ESPHome?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Dashy is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Dashy?
Top Dashy alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Dashy alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/dashy for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to ESPHome?
Top ESPHome alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ESPHome alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/esphome for the full list with editorial commentary on each.