head to head · open source
halo vs engineercms
halo has 39,797 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped today. engineercms has 1,419 stars, 420 forks, 88 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. halo leads on adoption by 2,705% (39,797 vs 1,419 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; engineercms is written in Go under Apache-2.0. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, engineercms 30%. halo 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 | engineercms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-07-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 420 |
| 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 engineercms if
- You want the engineercms feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and engineercms 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 engineercms
EngineerCMS ————工程师知识管理系统 Demo ——基于engineercms的设代资料管理平台（真实应用环境） 一 特性： 1. 本系统采用go语言（基于beego框架）开发，运行文件为编译后的二进制可执行文件，所以无需像其他语言（php、nodejs、java等语言）编写的web应用那样，需要配置运行服务环境。 2. 数据库采用sqlite嵌入式数据库，所以也无需配置数据库服务环境。 3. 开箱即用，无需网络开发知识。 4. 对onlyoffice document server的二次开发，实现企业的实时文档协作，非常方便，避免了文档的汇总等繁琐事物，效率大大提高，协作更加优雅有趣。除了支持office的docx，xlsx及pptx格式外，还支持国产wps，et和dps格式。 5. 在线直接预览dwg文件，避免了图纸转换成pdf的麻烦，也避免了先下载附件然后用本机电脑打开图纸的麻烦，方便设计人员查阅图纸。 6. 采用最新的froala富文本编辑器，支持word图文直接粘贴发布，word中的图片自动上传，发布文章轻松快捷，文章支持视频和文件附件。 7. 微信小程序客户端访问和添加图文，打开微信，搜索“设计与管理”即可，小程序端也开源。 8. web端和微信小程序多项目切换。 9. 可在conf里定制9个快捷导航条菜单。 10. 后台查看日志。 11. 通用的文档流程设置。文档审批，文档校审，合同评审流程，…
read the full engineercms overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or engineercms more popular?
halo has 39,797 GitHub stars and engineercms has 1,419. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and engineercms free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and engineercms under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and engineercms?
halo is written in Java and engineercms 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 engineercms?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,797 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose engineercms if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.