Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ThingSpeak VS OpenCV

Compare ThingSpeak VS OpenCV and see what are their differences

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ThingSpeak logo ThingSpeak

Open source data platform for the Internet of Things. ThingSpeak Features

OpenCV logo OpenCV

OpenCV is the world's biggest computer vision library
  • ThingSpeak Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-26
  • OpenCV Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-29

ThingSpeak features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    ThingSpeak provides a user-friendly interface and extensive documentation, making it suitable for users with varying levels of technical expertise.
  • Real-time Data Processing
    It allows real-time data collection, analysis, and visualization, which can be beneficial for applications that require immediate feedback.
  • Integration with MATLAB
    Seamless integration with MATLAB allows users to leverage MATLAB's powerful data analysis and visualization tools for more advanced analysis.
  • API Support
    ThingSpeak provides RESTful APIs, making it easier to collect, store, and retrieve data from IoT devices and other sources.
  • Free Tier
    Offers a free tier for users to start with basic usage, which is useful for small projects or initial experimentation.
  • Community Support
    A broad community of users means more available resources such as tutorials, forums, and shared projects for learning and troubleshooting.

Possible disadvantages of ThingSpeak

  • Limited Free Tier
    The free version has limitations on the number of channels and data storage, which might not be sufficient for larger projects.
  • Dependence on Internet
    Requires a constant internet connection to transmit data to the cloud, which could be a drawback in remote or unstable network environments.
  • Data Privacy
    As a cloud-based service, data control and privacy can be concerns, especially for sensitive or proprietary information.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    Advanced data analytics features are relatively basic compared to more comprehensive IoT platforms, which might limit its use for more complex requirements.
  • Cost for Pro Features
    To access more advanced features and larger data capacities, a paid plan is required, which may not be cost-effective for all users.
  • Latency
    For applications requiring ultra-low latency, using a cloud service can introduce delays that might be unacceptable.

OpenCV features and specs

  • Comprehensive Library
    OpenCV offers a wide range of tools for various aspects of computer vision, including image processing, machine learning, and video analysis.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    OpenCV is designed to run on multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS, which makes it versatile for development across different environments.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, OpenCV is freely available for use and allows developers to inspect, modify, and enhance the code according to their needs.
  • Large Community Support
    A large community of developers and researchers actively contributes to OpenCV, providing extensive support, tutorials, forums, and continuously updated documentation.
  • Real-Time Performance
    OpenCV is highly optimized for real-time applications, making it suitable for performance-critical tasks in various industries such as robotics and interactive installations.
  • Extensive Integration
    OpenCV can easily be integrated with other libraries and frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, and OpenCL, enhancing its capabilities in deep learning and GPU acceleration.
  • Rich Collection of examples
    OpenCV provides a large number of example codes and sample applications, which can significantly reduce the learning curve for beginners.

Possible disadvantages of OpenCV

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to the vast array of functionalities and the complexity of some of its advanced features, beginners may find it challenging to learn and use effectively.
  • Documentation Gaps
    While the documentation is extensive, it can sometimes be incomplete or outdated, requiring users to rely on community forums or external sources for solutions.
  • Resource Intensive
    Some functions and algorithms in OpenCV can be quite resource-intensive, requiring significant processing power and memory, which can be a limitation for low-end devices.
  • Limited High-Level Abstractions
    OpenCV provides a wealth of low-level functions, but it may lack higher-level abstractions and frameworks, necessitating more hands-on coding and algorithm development.
  • Dependency Management
    Setting up and managing dependencies can be cumbersome, especially when integrating OpenCV with other libraries or on certain operating systems.
  • Backward Compatibility Issues
    With frequent updates and new versions, backward compatibility can sometimes be problematic, potentially breaking existing code when updating.

Analysis of ThingSpeak

Overall verdict

  • Whether ThingSpeak is 'good' largely depends on user needs and project requirements. It is considered a good choice for those who require a straightforward, robust platform for IoT projects and appreciate its integration with MATLAB. However, users with very advanced or custom requirements might find its features limiting compared to other more extensive IoT platforms.

Why this product is good

  • ThingSpeak is a popular IoT (Internet of Things) platform that allows users to collect, visualize, and analyze live data streams from devices or sensors over the internet. It is favored for its ease of use, integration capabilities, and support for MATLAB analytics, which provides advanced data analysis and visualization tools. It is also compatible with various hardware platforms like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and more, making it accessible for both hobbyists and professionals.

Recommended for

  • Students and educators looking to learn and teach IoT concepts
  • Hobbyists interested in creating simple IoT projects
  • Developers seeking an easy-to-use platform for quick prototyping
  • Professionals who require MATLAB's analytical features for data analysis
  • Organizations looking for reliable data logging and visualization solutions

Analysis of OpenCV

Overall verdict

  • Yes, OpenCV is considered a good and reliable choice for computer vision tasks, particularly due to its extensive functionality, active community, and flexibility.

Why this product is good

  • OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision Library) is widely regarded as a robust and versatile library for computer vision applications. It offers a comprehensive collection of functions and algorithms for image processing, video capture, machine learning, and more. Its open-source nature encourages community involvement, making it highly adaptable and continuously improving. OpenCV's cross-platform support and ease of integration with other libraries and languages further enhance its appeal.

Recommended for

  • Developers and researchers working on computer vision projects
  • People looking to implement real-time video analysis
  • Individuals exploring machine learning applications related to image and video processing
  • Anyone interested in experimenting with or learning computer vision concepts

ThingSpeak videos

How to Analyze IoT Data in ThingSpeak

More videos:

  • Review - Review Higrow Board ESP32 and Aplication on Thingspeak #IoT #ESP32
  • Tutorial - How to Use ThingSpeak with Arduino

OpenCV videos

AI Courses by OpenCV.org

More videos:

  • Review - Practical Python and OpenCV

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ThingSpeak and OpenCV)
Data Dashboard
100 100%
0% 0
Data Science And Machine Learning
IoT Platform
100 100%
0% 0
Data Science Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare ThingSpeak and OpenCV

ThingSpeak Reviews

Best IoT Platforms in 2022 for Small Business
ThingSpeak is an IoT platform that uses channels to store data sent from apps or devices. A special feature of ThingSpeak is that you can create your own channel to collect the analyzed data hence giving a great level of flexibility to the users. You can also collect the data from the public (for example, ThingSpeak channel 12397 – Weather Station) and configure to write...
Source: www.fogwing.io
Open Source Internet of Things (IoT) Platforms
Known as the cloud IoT platform with MATLAB analytics, ThingSpeak allows you to aggregate, analyze, and visualize live data streams. IoT devices send their live data directly to ThingSpeak. From there, you create instant visualizations and can send alerts using web services. Essentially, however, you write and execute MATLAB code to do your data preparation, visualization...
14 of the Best IoT Platforms to Watch in 2021
ThingSpeak is a 100% analytics platform which supports advanced developer applications in environmental monitoring, energy, and smart farming. All the analysis is done on Matlab, and you can utilize the data insights for really cool stuff. For example, connecting an IoT device to Twitter and sending alerts. The best part is that using data for a certain interval is free....

OpenCV Reviews

7 Best Computer Vision Development Libraries in 2024
From the widespread adoption of OpenCV with its extensive algorithmic support to TensorFlow's role in machine learning-driven applications, these libraries play a vital role in real-world applications such as object detection, facial recognition, and image segmentation.
10 Python Libraries for Computer Vision
OpenCV is the go-to library for computer vision tasks. It boasts a vast collection of algorithms and functions that facilitate tasks such as image and video processing, feature extraction, object detection, and more. Its simple interface, extensive documentation, and compatibility with various platforms make it a preferred choice for both beginners and experts in the field.
Source: clouddevs.com
Top 8 Alternatives to OpenCV for Computer Vision and Image Processing
OpenCV is an open-source computer vision and machine learning software library that was first released in 2000. It was initially developed by Intel, and now it is maintained by the OpenCV Foundation. OpenCV provides a set of tools and software development kits (SDKs) that help developers create computer vision applications. It is written in C++, but it supports several...
Source: www.uubyte.com
Top 8 Image-Processing Python Libraries Used in Machine Learning
These are some of the most basic operations that can be performed with the OpenCV on an image. Apart from this, OpenCV can perform operations such as Image Segmentation, Face Detection, Object Detection, 3-D reconstruction, feature extraction as well.
Source: neptune.ai
5 Ultimate Python Libraries for Image Processing
Pillow is an image processing library for Python derived from the PIL or the Python Imaging Library. Although it is not as powerful and fast as openCV it can be used for simple image manipulation works like cropping, resizing, rotating and greyscaling the image. Another benefit is that it can be used without NumPy and Matplotlib.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, OpenCV should be more popular than ThingSpeak. It has been mentiond 60 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

ThingSpeak mentions (9)

  • Kotlin/ Thingspeak Interfacing.
    First of all, you need to ask yourself how familiar you are with MatLab. Then from a dev point of view, could you use an API to reference cloud data then apply analytics. Great intro to IoT. I can see that company going far in 5-10 and may invest based on trajectory. Https://thingspeak.com. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Google sheets and esp32
    You can use solutions like thingspeak https://thingspeak.com/. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Help me check my circuit for my self-sustaining water meter
    I'm not sure yet. Maybe something custom, but probably not. I was thinking about Thingspeak before. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Displaying readings to website?
    I haven't got around to MQTT yet, but as an easy interim solution I recommend ThingSpeak https://thingspeak.com/ as you can set up an account for free and getting an ESP to send data to it is trivial. Plus you can access it via the web, or embed their graphs and dials into a webpage. The graphics are a bit meh though. Source: over 2 years ago
  • i have an idea for a database+arduino+matlab, i need some help plz
    ThingSpeak for IoT Projects Data collection in the cloud with advanced data analysis using MATLAB Https://thingspeak.com/. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

OpenCV mentions (60)

  • Grasping Computer Vision Fundamentals Using Python
    To aspiring innovators: Dive into open-source frameworks like OpenCV or PyTorch, experiment with custom object detection models, or contribute to projects tackling bias mitigation in training datasets. Computer vision isn’t just a tool, it’s a bridge between the physical and digital worlds, inviting collaborative solutions to global challenges. The next frontier? Systems that don’t just interpret visuals, but... - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Top Programming Languages for AI Development in 2025
    Ideal For: Computer vision, NLP, deep learning, and machine learning. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Why 2024 Was the Best Year for Visual AI (So Far)
    Almost everyone has heard of libraries like OpenCV, Pytorch, and Torchvision. But there have been incredible leaps and bounds in other libraries to help support new tasks that have helped push research even further. It would be impossible to thank each and every project and the thousands of contributors who have helped make the entire community better. MedSAM2 has been helping bring the awesomeness of SAM2 to the... - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • 20 Open Source Tools I Recommend to Build, Share, and Run AI Projects
    OpenCV is an open-source computer vision and machine learning software library that allows users to perform various ML tasks, from processing images and videos to identifying objects, faces, or handwriting. Besides object detection, this platform can also be used for complex computer vision tasks like Geometry-based monocular or stereo computer vision. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • F1 FollowLine + HSV filter + PID Controller
    This library is used for image and video processing, offering functions for tasks like object detection, filtering, and transformations in computer vision. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing ThingSpeak and OpenCV, you can also consider the following products

AWS IoT - Easily and securely connect devices to the cloud.

Scikit-learn - scikit-learn (formerly scikits.learn) is an open source machine learning library for the Python programming language.

Blynk.io - We make internet of things simple

NumPy - NumPy is the fundamental package for scientific computing with Python

Azure IoT Hub - Manage billions of IoT devices with Azure IoT Hub, a cloud platform that lets you easily connect, monitor, provision, and configure IoT devices.

Pandas - Pandas is an open source library providing high-performance, easy-to-use data structures and data analysis tools for the Python.