Frigate is a specialist component for Docker and Home Assistant power users. Agent DVR is a complete, standalone surveillance application that works on Windows, macOS, Linux, Docker, and Raspberry Pi — no scripting, container knowledge, or additional infrastructure required.
Platform Support
| Feature |
Agent DVR |
Frigate |
| Windows | ✔ | ✘ (Docker only) |
| macOS | ✔ | ✘ (Docker only) |
| Linux | ✔ | ✔ (Docker only) |
| Docker | ✔ | ✔ (required) |
| Raspberry Pi / ARM | ✔ | ✔ (Docker) |
| Home Assistant integration | ✔ | ✔ (native add-on) |
| Standalone (no container) | ✔ | ✘ |
| Browser-based UI | ✔ | ✔ |
| Native mobile apps | ✔ iOS & Android | ✘ |
Pricing
| Feature |
Agent DVR |
Frigate |
| Free for local private use | ✔ Unlimited | ✔ Open source |
| Frigate+ (enhanced models) | N/A | ✔ $5/mo |
| Remote access subscription | ✔ from $7.95/mo | ✘ (self-managed) |
| Third-party cloud uploads | ✔ (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox) | ✘ |
| Commercial use | ✔ | ✘ (AGPL licence) |
Remote Access
| Feature |
Agent DVR |
Frigate |
| Built-in relay (no port forwarding) | ✔ | ✘ |
| Remote access out of the box | ✔ | ✘ (VPN / reverse proxy) |
| Push notifications | ✔ | ✔ (via Home Assistant) |
AI & Detection
| Feature |
Agent DVR |
Frigate |
| Object / person detection (AI) | ✔ Built-in + OpenVINO, ONNX, DeepStack, CodeProject, Blue Onyx & others | ✔ Built-in (YOLOv8 / MobileNet) |
| Learns from your feedback | ✔ On-device, instant | ✘ (Frigate+ requires uploading your camera images to the cloud, $5/mo) |
| Coral TPU support | ✘ | ✔ |
| LLM integrations | ✔ (ChatGPT, Ollama, Gemini…) | ✘ |
| Facial recognition | ✔ | ✘ |
| License plate recognition | ✔ | ✔ (Frigate+) |
| Audio recognition | ✔ | ✘ |
AI That Learns — Without Sending Your Images Anywhere
Both platforms can detect people, cars and other objects — but when the AI gets it wrong, the fix is very different.
To improve detection accuracy, Frigate offers Frigate+: a paid cloud service where you upload
snapshots from your cameras so a custom model can be trained on remote servers and downloaded back.
Agent DVR learns on your machine. Open any AI alert, and Agent asks
"Did we get this right?" — mark a detection as wrong and Agent learns its appearance, automatically
suppressing similar false alerts on that camera from then on. Confirm a detection and it's protected. The
learning is instant, reversible, per-camera, and completely private: no images, snapshots or data
ever leave your network.
Summary: Frigate is an excellent choice for Home Assistant power users who are comfortable
with Docker and want a dedicated, open-source NVR. Agent DVR is a complete, standalone application that
requires no container knowledge, runs on every platform, and includes built-in remote access, native
mobile apps, LLM-powered analysis, and AI that learns from your feedback entirely on-device without cloud
uploads.