head to head · open source
glance vs MaterialAbout
glance has 37,086 GitHub stars, 1,463 forks, 318 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. MaterialAbout has 1,511 stars, 208 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. glance leads on adoption by 2,354% (37,086 vs 1,511 stars). glance is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; MaterialAbout is written in Java under MIT. glance has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, MaterialAbout 14%. glance 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 | MaterialAbout | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-05 | 2026-03-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 208 |
| 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 MaterialAbout if
- You want the MaterialAbout feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and MaterialAbout 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 MaterialAbout
MaterialAbout is an Android library written in Java and released under the MIT license. It provides a material design about screen for Android apps, combining a developer profile and application information. The project lives in the Android ecosystem and is intended for mobile developers.
read the full MaterialAbout overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is glance or MaterialAbout more popular?
glance has 37,086 GitHub stars and MaterialAbout has 1,511. glance has the larger community by that measure.
Are glance and MaterialAbout free?
Both are open source. glance is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and MaterialAbout under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between glance and MaterialAbout?
glance is written in Go and MaterialAbout in Java. 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 MaterialAbout?
Choose glance if you want the larger community (37,086 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose MaterialAbout if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.