head to head · open source
halo vs OrchardCore
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OrchardCore has 8,184 stars, 2,598 forks, 854 open issues and last shipped yesterday. halo leads on adoption by 386% (39,787 vs 8,184 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; OrchardCore is written in C# under BSD-3-Clause. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, OrchardCore 32%. OrchardCore 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 | OrchardCore | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 8.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Java | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| 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 OrchardCore if
- You want the OrchardCore feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and OrchardCore 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 OrchardCore
Orchard Core is an open source, modular, multi tenant application framework and content management system built on ASP.NET Core, for .NET teams that want to build or self host modular web applications and content driven sites under the BSD 3 Clause licence.
read the full OrchardCore overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or OrchardCore more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and OrchardCore has 8,184. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and OrchardCore free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and OrchardCore under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and OrchardCore?
halo is written in Java and OrchardCore 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 OrchardCore?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose OrchardCore if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.