head to head · open source
halo vs mix.core
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mix.core has 888 stars, 224 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. halo leads on adoption by 4,381% (39,787 vs 888 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; mix.core is written in C# under MIT. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, mix.core 25%. halo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, content-management-system), 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 | mix.core | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 888 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-01-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 224 |
| 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 mix.core if
- You want the mix.core feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and mix.core 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 mix.core
Mix.core is an MIT licensed, open source enterprise web content management system built on ASP.NET Core / .NET Core that supports both headless and decoupled delivery, aimed at teams building multi purpose web apps, mobile backends, and application services who want customizable APIs rather than a fixed product.
read the full mix.core overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or mix.core more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and mix.core has 888. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and mix.core free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and mix.core under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and mix.core?
halo is written in Java and mix.core 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 mix.core?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose mix.core if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.