head to head · open source
glance vs Loops
glance has 37,086 GitHub stars, 1,463 forks, 318 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. Loops has 453 stars, 59 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped yesterday. glance leads on adoption by 8,087% (37,086 vs 453 stars). glance is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; Loops is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. glance has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Loops 13%. Loops 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 | Loops | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 453 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-05 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 59 |
| 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 Loops if
- You want the Loops 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 Loops 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 Loops
Loops is a federated, open source short video sharing platform, licensed under AGPL 3.0, that lets creators and communities run their own video server while connecting across the open social web via ActivityPub, and it is aimed at server operators, community moderators, and creators who want short form video without centralized platform control.
read the full Loops overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is glance or Loops more popular?
glance has 37,086 GitHub stars and Loops has 453. glance has the larger community by that measure.
Are glance and Loops free?
Both are open source. glance is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Loops under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between glance and Loops?
glance is written in Go and Loops 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 Loops?
Choose glance if you want the larger community (37,086 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Loops if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.