head to head · open source
halo vs agency-os
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. agency-os has 973 stars, 178 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. halo leads on adoption by 3,989% (39,787 vs 973 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; agency-os is written in Vue under MIT. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, agency-os 18%. halo 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
| halo | agency-os | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 973 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-03-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 178 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick halo if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick agency-os if
- You want the agency-os feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and agency-os fits your workflow better
About halo
Halo is an open source, Java based website building tool licensed under GPL 3.0 that lets individuals and teams publish and run a blog, knowledge base, corporate website, or online store from infrastructure they control.
About agency-os
AgencyOS is an open source operating system for digital agencies — a Nuxt 3 website and application running on a Directus backend — built for agency owners and teams who need to run projects, client relationships, and invoicing without building internal tooling from scratch.
read the full agency-os overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or agency-os more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and agency-os has 973. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and agency-os free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and agency-os under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and agency-os?
halo is written in Java and agency-os in Vue. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, halo or agency-os?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose agency-os if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.