head to head · open source
halo vs filament
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. filament has 32,075 stars, 4,208 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped yesterday. halo leads on adoption by 24% (39,787 vs 32,075 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; filament is written in PHP under MIT. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, filament 13%. 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 | filament | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 32K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 4.2K |
| 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 filament if
- You want the filament feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and filament 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 filament
Filament is a free, MIT licensed UI framework for Laravel, built on Livewire, that gives PHP developers a cohesive set of components for building applications and admin panels quickly.
read the full filament overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or filament more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and filament has 32,075. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and filament free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and filament under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and filament?
halo is written in Java and filament 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 filament?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose filament if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.