head to head · open source
halo vs daptin
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. daptin has 1,896 stars, 122 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped yesterday. halo leads on adoption by 1,998% (39,787 vs 1,896 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; daptin is written in Go under LGPL-3.0. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, daptin 6%. daptin 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| halo | daptin | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 122 |
| 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 daptin if
- You want the daptin feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and daptin 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 daptin
Daptin is a self hosted application server built in Go. It lives in the backend as a service and headless CMS ecosystem, and it organizes behavior around schema files that describe records, fields, relationships, validation, and optional flags. Each configured table becomes a permission aware JSON:API resource at /api/{entity}, and the server attaches identity, files, automation, integrations, realtime delivery, metering, and protocol surfaces around that runtime.
read the full daptin overview →
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Content Management Systems (CMS) projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Content Management Systems (CMS) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is halo or daptin more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and daptin has 1,896. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and daptin free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and daptin under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and daptin?
halo is written in Java and daptin in Go. 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 daptin?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose daptin if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.