head to head · open source
halo vs Craft CMS
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Craft CMS has 3,608 stars, 705 forks, 529 open issues and last shipped yesterday. halo leads on adoption by 1,003% (39,787 vs 3,608 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; Craft CMS is written in PHP under a custom or non-standard licence. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, Craft CMS 20%. Craft CMS was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cms), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Craft CMS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Java | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 705 |
| 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 Craft CMS if
- You want the Craft CMS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Craft CMS 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 Craft CMS
Craft CMS is a content management system written in PHP for building custom digital experiences on the web and beyond. It lives in the PHP ecosystem and is distributed as a self hosted application, with official documentation covering templates, GraphQL, installation, and extension development.
read the full Craft CMS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or Craft CMS more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and Craft CMS has 3,608. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and Craft CMS free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0, and Craft CMS has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between halo and Craft CMS?
halo is written in Java and Craft CMS 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, halo or Craft CMS?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Craft CMS if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.