head to head · open source
glance vs deltachat-desktop
glance has 37,981 GitHub stars, 1,506 forks, 318 open issues and last shipped yesterday. deltachat-desktop has 1,631 stars, 253 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped yesterday. glance leads on adoption by 2,229% (37,981 vs 1,631 stars). glance is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; deltachat-desktop is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. glance has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, deltachat-desktop 16%. deltachat-desktop was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | deltachat-desktop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 253 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick glance if
- You weight community size — 38K 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 deltachat-desktop if
- You want the deltachat-desktop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and deltachat-desktop fits your workflow better
About glance
Glance Install • Configuration • Discord • Sponsor Community widgets • Preconfigured pages • Themes A lightweight, highly customizable dashboard that displays your feeds in a beautiful, streamlined interface Features Various widgets RSS feeds Subreddit posts Hacker News posts Weather forecasts YouTube channel uploads Twitch channels Market prices Docker containers status Server stats Custom widgets and many more... Fast and lightweight Low memory usage Few dependencies Minimal vanilla JS Single Configuration Configuration is done through YAML files, to learn more about how the layout works, how to add more pages…
read the full glance overview →
About deltachat-desktop
Delta Chat Desktop Desktop Application for delta.chat Editions There is a third, WIP edition based on Tauri instead of Electron. It lives in its own repository — deltachat tauri — and consumes this repository's frontend through a pinned upstream/ submodule. See Fediverse Thread and Delta Tauri nlnet project. Documentation Links For Users Troubleshooting CLI flags Keybindings How to make custom Themes For Developers Contribution Guidelines Logging Documentation for Developers Styling Guidelines How to update core How to do end to end testing How to do a release Table of Contents Click to expand Delta Chat Desktop…
read the full deltachat-desktop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is glance or deltachat-desktop more popular?
glance has 37,981 GitHub stars and deltachat-desktop has 1,631. glance has the larger community by that measure.
Are glance and deltachat-desktop free?
Both are open source. glance is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and deltachat-desktop under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between glance and deltachat-desktop?
glance is written in Go and deltachat-desktop in TypeScript. 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 deltachat-desktop?
Choose glance if you want the larger community (37,981 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose deltachat-desktop if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.