head to head · open source
halo vs FluentCMS
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. FluentCMS has 566 stars, 107 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. halo leads on adoption by 6,930% (39,787 vs 566 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; FluentCMS is written in C# under MIT. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, FluentCMS 19%. 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 | FluentCMS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 566 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-03-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 107 |
| 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 FluentCMS if
- You want the FluentCMS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and FluentCMS 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 FluentCMS
FluentCMS is an open source, MIT licensed content management system built on ASP.NET Core and Blazor, intended for .NET developers and content teams that want a self hosted CMS which can also act as a headless content backend.
read the full FluentCMS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or FluentCMS more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and FluentCMS has 566. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and FluentCMS free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and FluentCMS under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and FluentCMS?
halo is written in Java and FluentCMS in C#. 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 FluentCMS?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose FluentCMS if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.