head to head · open source
glance vs Smithereen
glance has 37,086 GitHub stars, 1,463 forks, 318 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. Smithereen has 546 stars, 36 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped yesterday. glance leads on adoption by 6,692% (37,086 vs 546 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%. Smithereen 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 | ★ 37K | ★ 546 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Unlicense |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-05 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 36 |
| 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 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 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 Smithereen
Smithereen is a federated, ActivityPub compatible social network server written in Java that gives a self hosted instance friends, walls, and groups, and it is aimed at administrators who want to run their own social space that talks to the wider fediverse rather than renting one from a platform.
read the full Smithereen overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is glance or Smithereen more popular?
glance has 37,086 GitHub stars and Smithereen has 546. 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 (37,086 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Smithereen if its feature set, stack or Unlicense licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.