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Comparison · Infra & APIs
ESPEasy vs Dashy
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ESPEasy and Dashy — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
ESPEasy vs Dashy: at a glance
What is ESPEasy?
One release a year, each one a filesystem or networking rewrite you must plan for.
ESPEasy publishes rarely — five builds across two years — and each one accumulates hundreds of commits. The July 2026 mega build reworked how networking is handled and added support for Espressif's newer silicon: ESP32-P4, -C5 and C61. The 2025 build was the last to ship SPIFFS for ESP32, forcing a LittleFS conversion on everyone who upgrades past it. Release notes are raw commit lists grouped by contributor.
What is Dashy?
Dashy ships a release per merged PR — the real 4.5 features are already scrolling off the feed.
The self-hosted dashboard cuts a version for essentially every merged pull request, so the recent window is a mix of dependabot bumps, German translations, an out-of-memory fix from unclosed secureConnect listeners, OIDC post-logout redirect support, and new sorting by provider and item ID. The 4.5.0 release that carries the substance — drag-and-drop editing of sections, items and widgets, a rebuilt GitHub stats widget on the official API, and number formatting in the custom-api widget — sits just outside this window.
ESPEasy vs Dashy: editorial side-by-side
ESPEasy
3.8INFRA · APIS
One release a year, each one a filesystem or networking rewrite you must plan for.
◆ Current state
ESPEasy publishes rarely — five builds across two years — and each one accumulates hundreds of commits. The July 2026 mega build reworked how networking is handled and added support for Espressif's newer silicon: ESP32-P4, -C5 and C61. The 2025 build was the last to ship SPIFFS for ESP32, forcing a LittleFS conversion on everyone who upgrades past it. Release notes are raw commit lists grouped by contributor.
◆ Where it's heading
The project's pattern is long test cycles followed by a build that changes something foundational — filesystem, networking, MCU support — and asks users to back up settings before upgrading. Between those, only hotfixes appear. Development is heavily concentrated in one maintainer's commit stream, with the rest of the contributor list handling docs, build scripts and individual plugins.
◆ Prediction
Given the cadence, the next build is likely months out and shaped by whatever the current test-build issue accumulates; the newly added MCU families are the obvious place for follow-up plugin and peripheral work.
Dashy
6.3INFRA · APIS
Dashy ships a release per merged PR — the real 4.5 features are already scrolling off the feed.
◆ Current state
The self-hosted dashboard cuts a version for essentially every merged pull request, so the recent window is a mix of dependabot bumps, German translations, an out-of-memory fix from unclosed secureConnect listeners, OIDC post-logout redirect support, and new sorting by provider and item ID. The 4.5.0 release that carries the substance — drag-and-drop editing of sections, items and widgets, a rebuilt GitHub stats widget on the official API, and number formatting in the custom-api widget — sits just outside this window.
◆ Where it's heading
Development is steady and community-driven, with a maintainer handling auth and stability while contributors add widgets, sorting and translations. The direction after 4.5.0 is refinement rather than expansion: fix what the new editing surface exposed, round out OIDC, keep dependencies current. The per-PR release cadence makes the feed noisy relative to how much actually changes.
◆ Prediction
Expect the 4.5.x patch stream to continue at roughly a release every few days, dominated by dependency bumps and follow-up fixes to the drag-and-drop editor. Larger features will land in a 4.6 cut rather than trickling through patches.
Alternatives to ESPEasy and Dashy
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 ESPEasy or Dashy.
werf
Three release channels at once as werf 3 takes shape beside a still-shipping 2.75.
Volatility
Volatility 3 caught up with Volatility 2, then started reorganising itself.
GLAuth
A small LDAP server that grew OpenTelemetry tracing, embedded plugins and RISC-V builds.
OctoPrint
OctoPrint 2.0 turns serial into one connector among several, and breaks plugins doing it.
CRI-O
Patch tags land monthly with release notes that itemize nothing.
See all ESPEasy alternatives → · See all Dashy alternatives →
Recent activity from ESPEasy and Dashy
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 23h agoDashy4.5.6 bumps fast-uri
- 3d agoDashy4.5.5 adds missing German translations
- 5d agoDashy4.5.4 fixes an OOM crash from leaked listeners
- 6d agoDashy4.5.3 bumps minor and patch dependencies
- 8d agoDashy4.5.2 adds OIDC post-logout redirect support
- 10d agoDashy4.5.1 adds sorting by provider and item ID
- 16d agoESPEasymega-20260720 reworks networking and adds ESP32-P4, C5 and C61 support ⚡
- 6mo agoESPEasymega-20260121 hotfixes four issues from the 20260108 build
- 7mo agoESPEasymega-20260108 re-cuts the failed 20260107 build
- 7mo agoESPEasymega-20260107 lands eight months of accumulated work
- 1y agoESPEasymega-20250430 is the last ESP32 build with SPIFFS ⚡
- 1y agoESPEasymega-20241222 adds MQTT TLS with loadable CA certificates
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ESPEasy and Dashy?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Dashy is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 3.8), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is ESPEasy better than Dashy?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Dashy is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 3.8), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to ESPEasy?
Top ESPEasy alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ESPEasy alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/espeasy for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
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.