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Comparison · Infra & APIs
ZoneMinder vs Dashy
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ZoneMinder and Dashy — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
ZoneMinder vs Dashy: at a glance
What is ZoneMinder?
ZoneMinder 1.38 finally split capturing from analysing — and added roles to a system that had none.
ZoneMinder runs two lines in parallel. The 1.38 series, opened in February, brought role-based access control, WebRTC, Go2RTC and RTSP2Web streaming with hardware acceleration, a redesigned monitor model splitting Capturing, Analysing and Recording into separate settings, ONVIF events, MQTT and event tagging. The legacy 1.36 branch is still receiving fixes, including a stored SQL injection through event name and cause fields. The 1.38.1 release replaced four vendor-specific ONVIF implementations with a single control module.
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.
ZoneMinder vs Dashy: editorial side-by-side
ZoneMinder
0.0INFRA · APIS
ZoneMinder 1.38 finally split capturing from analysing — and added roles to a system that had none.
◆ Current state
ZoneMinder runs two lines in parallel. The 1.38 series, opened in February, brought role-based access control, WebRTC, Go2RTC and RTSP2Web streaming with hardware acceleration, a redesigned monitor model splitting Capturing, Analysing and Recording into separate settings, ONVIF events, MQTT and event tagging. The legacy 1.36 branch is still receiving fixes, including a stored SQL injection through event name and cause fields. The 1.38.1 release replaced four vendor-specific ONVIF implementations with a single control module.
◆ Where it's heading
The project is consolidating a decade of accumulated special cases: four ONVIF implementations become one, monitor function modes become independent toggles, and streaming moves onto standard components rather than bespoke paths. Meanwhile 1.36 keeps being patched for security and build compatibility, which means a substantial install base has not moved. Release engineering itself is visibly strained — 1.38.2 was abandoned mid-flight over a Debian packaging conflict.
◆ Prediction
Expect 1.38 patch releases to keep folding in security and memory-safety fixes while the 1.36 branch receives only vulnerability backports until it is retired. Whether the new streaming stack becomes the default rather than an option is not settled by these entries.
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 ZoneMinder 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 ZoneMinder or Dashy.
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.
Dokploy
A self-hosted PaaS spending its releases on secrets, injection fixes and plan limits.
See all ZoneMinder alternatives → · See all Dashy alternatives →
Recent activity from ZoneMinder and Dashy
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 22h 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
- 1mo agoZoneMinder1.38.3 supersedes an abandoned 1.38.2 build
- 5mo agoZoneMinderStored SQL injection patched on the 1.36 branch
- 5mo agoZoneMinderOne ONVIF module replaces four vendor implementations
- 6mo agoZoneMinder1.38 adds RBAC, WebRTC, and splits monitor functions ⚡
- 7mo agoZoneMinderFFmpeg 8.0 build fixes on the legacy branch
- 10mo agoZoneMinderPath handling and Debian trixie build support
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ZoneMinder and Dashy?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Dashy is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), 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 ZoneMinder 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 0.0), 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 ZoneMinder?
Top ZoneMinder alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ZoneMinder alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/zoneminder 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.