head to head · open source
halo vs decap-cms
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. decap-cms has 19,386 stars, 3,129 forks, 593 open issues and last shipped yesterday. halo leads on adoption by 105% (39,787 vs 19,386 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; decap-cms is written in JavaScript under MIT. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, decap-cms 16%. decap-cms was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, content-management-system), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| halo | decap-cms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 19K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick halo if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick decap-cms if
- You want the decap-cms feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and decap-cms fits your workflow better
About halo
Halo is an open source, Java based website building tool licensed under GPL 3.0 that lets individuals and teams publish and run a blog, knowledge base, corporate website, or online store from infrastructure they control.
About decap-cms
Decap CMS is a Git based content management system for static site generators, distributed as an npm package and released under the MIT License. It is a single page application that a site owner pulls into the /admin part of an existing site, where it presents a clean interface for editing content stored in a Git repository. The project lives in the JavaScript ecosystem and is built with React, and it is the software formerly known as Netlify CMS, renamed in February 2023. It carries the jamstack , headless cms , git based cms , and static site generator topics, and its documentation lives at decapcms.org.…
read the full decap-cms overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or decap-cms more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and decap-cms has 19,386. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and decap-cms free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and decap-cms under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and decap-cms?
halo is written in Java and decap-cms in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, halo or decap-cms?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose decap-cms if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.