head to head · open source
glance vs Smithereen
glance has 37,981 GitHub stars, 1,506 forks, 318 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Smithereen has 548 stars, 37 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped yesterday. glance leads on adoption by 6,831% (37,981 vs 548 stars). glance is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; Smithereen is written in Java under Unlicense. glance has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Smithereen 7%. 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 | Smithereen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 548 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Unlicense |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 37 |
| 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 Smithereen if
- You want the Smithereen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Unlicense license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Smithereen 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 Smithereen
Federated, ActivityPub compatible social network with friends, walls, and groups. If you have any questions or feedback, there's a Telegram chat you can join. Building/installation Running directly on your server Recommended: use the installation script 1. Install JRE or JDK 21 or newer from your distribution's package manager, here, here or here 2. Install MySQL. Note: on Debian, apt get install mysql server would instead install MariaDB, which is known to be incompatible with Smithereen. 3. Download a prebuilt bundle for your CPU architecture from the latest release to your server and unpack it somewhere 4…
read the full Smithereen overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is glance or Smithereen more popular?
glance has 37,981 GitHub stars and Smithereen has 548. glance has the larger community by that measure.
Are glance and Smithereen free?
Both are open source. glance is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Smithereen under Unlicense. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between glance and Smithereen?
glance is written in Go and Smithereen 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 Smithereen?
Choose glance if you want the larger community (37,981 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Smithereen if its feature set, stack or Unlicense licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.