head to head · open source
glance vs core
glance has 37,086 GitHub stars, 1,463 forks, 318 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. core has 8,833 stars, 2,059 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. glance leads on adoption by 320% (37,086 vs 8,833 stars). glance is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; core is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. glance has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, core 23%. core was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (self-hosted), 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
| glance | core | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 8.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-05 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick glance if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick core if
- You want the core feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and core fits your workflow better
About glance
Glance is a self hosted dashboard application written in Go and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It gathers feeds and status information from many sources into a single customizable page, so that a user can read news, follow channels and watch server health from one interface instead of opening a separate tab or application for each source. It lives in the self hosted and homelab ecosystem, alongside other Docker packaged services that users run on their own hardware. The project has been on GitHub for about two years, holds roughly 37,000 stars and 1,454 forks, and its topic list places it among aggregators,…
read the full glance overview →
About core
ownCloud Core is the server side component of ownCloud Classic, an open source file platform written in PHP and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It provides file storage, synchronization, and sharing, and it ships WebDAV, CalDAV, and CardDAV servers alongside a plugin architecture that other ownCloud apps extend. The repository is the main one for ownCloud Classic and serves as the foundation for apps such as Activity, Calendar, and Contacts. Development is stewarded by the Kiteworks Open Source Program Office under the ownCloud brand.
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Frequently asked questions
Is glance or core more popular?
glance has 37,086 GitHub stars and core has 8,833. glance has the larger community by that measure.
Are glance and core free?
Both are open source. glance is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and core under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between glance and core?
glance is written in Go and core in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, glance or core?
Choose glance if you want the larger community (37,086 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose core if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.