head to head · open source
halo vs joomla-cms
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. joomla-cms has 5,137 stars, 3,867 forks, 928 open issues and last shipped yesterday. halo leads on adoption by 675% (39,787 vs 5,137 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; joomla-cms is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, joomla-cms 75%. joomla-cms was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, website-builder), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| halo | joomla-cms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 3.9K |
| 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 joomla-cms if
- You want the joomla-cms feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and joomla-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 joomla-cms
Joomla! CMS is a free, open source content management system written in PHP that lets people build websites and online applications, and this repository is the source code home of the Joomla! 5.x line for developers, integrators, and site builders.
read the full joomla-cms 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 joomla-cms more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and joomla-cms has 5,137. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and joomla-cms free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and joomla-cms under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and joomla-cms?
halo is written in Java and joomla-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 joomla-cms?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose joomla-cms if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.