Family map
Live OpenStreetMap with photo avatars, battery, last-seen time, and WebSocket updates — on the phone and in the web panel.
Compared to
A self-hosted family GPS locator, not a calendar app.
OpenFamily is a self-hosted family location tracker — a Life360 alternative with a live map, SOS, places, and 90-day history on a server you run. It is built for a household, not for chores and shopping, and not for vehicle fleets.
Not the NexaFlow family organizer. NexaFlowFrance/OpenFamily is a different product (calendar, shopping, chores) that currently ranks first in GitHub search for the same name. This site is the GPS location tracker at wheresfrank/openfamily.
Feature comparison
The same table as the project README, restated here so search engines and operators can read it without leaving openfamily.app.
| OpenFamily | Life360-class apps | OwnTracks | Traccar | Dawarich | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Family map + SOS | Yes | Yes | No | Weak | No |
| Geofence UI | Yes | Yes | Limited | Yes (fleet) | No |
| Location history | 90-day trail | Vendor cloud | Recorder | Yes | Timeline-first |
| Android without Google | UnifiedPush / ntfy | FCM | MQTT | Optional | N/A |
| Built for | Families | Families (cloud) | Recorders | Fleets | Personal timeline |
Self-hosted Life360 alternative
Life360-class apps give families a live map, geofences, and SOS — and send those GPS coordinates to a vendor cloud. OpenFamily keeps the same household job (see where people are, get arrive/leave alerts, send help) on Docker you operate. There is no company location service, no analytics SDK, and no Google Play Services requirement on Android.
Use OpenFamily when you want the family-locator shape of Life360 without handing a third party your movements. History lives in PostgreSQL on your machine for 90 days. Sharing has an off switch on each device.
Safety
SOS with a discreet countdown, a non-emergency Help ping, and Check In. Optional SMS is off until you configure it.
Places
Named geofences you save (Home, School, Work) live on your server, not in Google Places. Arrive and leave alerts are server-side.
OpenFamily vs OwnTracks
OwnTracks is a self-hosted MQTT location recorder. It is excellent at publishing coordinates from a phone to a broker you run. It is not a polished family app: there is no built-in family map experience, no SOS flow, and geofencing UI is limited.
OpenFamily is the other way around. Phones talk to a Go API over HTTPS and a WebSocket. The product is the live family map, roles (admin / member / child), invite codes, places, and safety alerts. If you already run OwnTracks as a recorder, that is a different job than giving a household one shared locator.
OpenFamily vs Traccar
Traccar is a self-hosted GPS tracking server built for fleets, vehicles, and mixed device protocols. Real-time tracking is strong. Family UX, SOS, and privacy polish are not the point of that stack.
OpenFamily is deliberately not a fleet tracker. It is for a handful of people who share a home. There is no public location broadcasting, no asset registry, and no protocol zoo for trackers. If you need to follow vans or equipment, Traccar is the better fit. If you need a Life360-style family map on your own server, OpenFamily is.
vs Dawarich
Dawarich is a self-hosted personal timeline — a Google Timeline replacement. It is history-first, not a real-time family sharing app, and it does not ship SOS or a geofence UI for a household. OpenFamily keeps a 90-day trail, but the live family map is the product.
Source of this comparison: the Compared to table in the canonical repository.