HomeioCosmos is built around a security gateway: a reverse proxy, single sign-on and SmartShield in front of every app. Homeio is built around the server itself: a desktop with files, disks, Samba shares, scheduled tasks and backups. If exposing apps safely is the job, Cosmos is ahead. If running and looking after the machine is, Homeio does more of it.
| Need | In Homeio |
|---|---|
| Browse and edit files | A file manager with previews, uploads and downloads, zip, search and a Monaco editor for compose files and configs. USB drives appear live. Cosmos: no file manager. Network storages through rclone. |
| Share folders on the network | Share local folders over Samba and mount SMB shares from a NAS or another PC, from Settings. Cosmos shares network storages through rclone, including NFS and FTP. |
| Disks | Partition, format and mount disks, with filesystems from ext4 and Btrfs to exFAT and NTFS. Cosmos pools disks with MergerFS and protects them with parity disks, which Homeio does not do. |
| Put an app on your own domain | Publish it through Cloudflare Tunnel: Homeio writes the DNS record and ingress rule, Cloudflare handles HTTPS, and no router ports open. Cosmos: built-in reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS, its strongest area. |
| One login for every app | Not available. Homeio's login, with TOTP two-factor and rate limits, protects Homeio itself. Cosmos is an OpenID Connect provider with multi-factor login. Pick Cosmos for this. |
| Accounts for family and friends | Not yet. One account today; multi-user with roles is planned for 2.0. Cosmos has users, invitations and password reset by email. |
| Reach the server from anywhere | Tailscale, configured in Settings → Integrations. Cosmos has Constellation, a peer-to-peer VPN built on Nebula, with a lighthouse for CGNAT. |
| Backups | Weekly archives of the database, /DATA and your compose stacks, seven kept, restored from Settings. They sit on the same disk; copy them off. Cosmos uses restic: incremental, encrypted, with remote destinations. Cosmos is ahead here. |
| Scheduled jobs | Cron tasks for commands, scripts, app restarts, backups and image pulls, with a notification when one fails. Cosmos also has a cron scheduler, on the host or inside containers. |
| Monitoring | Live CPU, memory, disk and network for the host and each container. No alert rules yet. Cosmos keeps history and sends alerts. |
Only for some people. If you use Cosmos mainly as an app store and container manager on a server you reach over a VPN, Homeio covers that and adds a file manager, disk tools and Samba shares. If you rely on Cosmos's reverse proxy, single sign-on, multiple users or SmartShield to expose apps to the internet, Homeio does not replace those today.
Everything about exposing apps safely. Cosmos is a reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS, an OpenID Connect provider with multi-factor login for all your apps, a user system with invitations, anti-bot and anti-DDoS protection, a peer-to-peer VPN, restic-based incremental and remote backups, and monitoring with history and alerts. Homeio has none of the first four, simpler backups, and live monitoring without alert rules.
A desktop-style interface with a file manager: browse, upload, preview and edit files with a Monaco editor, zip and unzip, handle USB drives, share folders over Samba and mount SMB shares from other machines. Cosmos's own comparison table lists no file manager. Homeio also partitions and formats disks, uses the CasaOS app store, and sets up Tailscale and Cloudflare Tunnel from Settings.
Yes, with one adjustment. Cosmos runs on the host network and wants ports 80 and 443 for its reverse proxy, and Homeio's script install also serves on port 80. Install Homeio with HOMEIO_PUBLIC_PORT=8080, or use its Docker install on port 12026, and you can even route Homeio through Cosmos. Homeio shows the containers Cosmos manages, read-only.
Cosmos runs as a privileged Docker container with the Docker socket and the host's root filesystem mounted, on x86-64 or ARM64. Homeio's install script sets it up as systemd services on Debian, Ubuntu or Raspberry Pi OS, behind Nginx and with fail2ban, or you can run it with Docker Compose instead.
Not yet. Homeio has one account, with TOTP two-factor login and backup codes, and it protects Homeio itself rather than the apps behind it. Multi-user with roles is planned for 2.0. If you need several people signing in to several apps with one account, Cosmos is the better fit.
Both are free for a home server. Cosmos is licensed Apache 2.0 with the Commons Clause, which allows use and modification but not selling it; its paid Pro tier, from $16 a month, is for businesses running several servers. Homeio is MIT licensed with no paid tier.
For yourself, Tailscale: Homeio sets it up from Settings, and nothing is exposed to the internet. For an app you share with other people, Homeio publishes it through Cloudflare Tunnel on your own domain, creating the DNS record and ingress rule for you; Cloudflare terminates HTTPS, and no ports are opened on your router.
curl -fsSL https://get.homeio.app | sudo bash on Debian, Ubuntu or Raspberry Pi OS (UI on port 80, or the port in HOMEIO_PUBLIC_PORT), or docker compose up -d from a clone of the repository (UI on 12026). The first account you create is the only one; registration closes behind it.
The demo needs no install. On a spare machine or a VM, the Docker install takes a few minutes and listens on port 12026, so it does not fight your current setup for port 80.