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head to head · open source

halo vs sanity

halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sanity has 6,324 stars, 553 forks, 221 open issues and last shipped yesterday. halo leads on adoption by 529% (39,787 vs 6,324 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; sanity is written in TypeScript under MIT. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, sanity 9%. sanity 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.

halo ★ 40K sanity ★ 6.3K category Content & Publishing

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Side by side

halo sanity
GitHub stars ★ 40K ★ 6.3K
License GPL-3.0 MIT
Written in Java TypeScript
Last push 2026-09-17 2026-09-17
Forks ⑂ 10K ⑂ 553
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

full halo profile →

pick sanity if

  • You want the sanity feature set and don't need the biggest community
  • You prefer the MIT license terms
  • Your stack matches TypeScript
  • You evaluated both and sanity fits your workflow better

full sanity profile →

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.

read the full halo overview →

About sanity

Sanity Studio is an open source, MIT licensed single page application written in TypeScript that gives developers and content teams a fast to configure, real time workspace for editing structured content, with that content hosted in Sanity's Content Lake.

read the full sanity overview →

More in Content & Publishing

next.js ★ 142K storybook ★ 91K hugo ★ 90K Understand-Anything ★ 83K Strapi ★ 73K nuxt ★ 61K

Related comparisons

hugo vs halo strapi vs halo hugo vs strapi hugo vs payload hugo vs filament strapi vs payload hugo vs wagtail hugo vs decap-cms next-js vs nuxt next-js vs gatsby next-js vs ghost next-js vs jekyll next-js vs hexo next-js vs nextra next-js vs kit next-js vs vike storybook vs understand-anything storybook vs devdocs storybook vs docsify understand-anything vs devdocs storybook vs wiki storybook vs mkdocs-material understand-anything vs docsify understand-anything vs wiki

More Content Management Systems (CMS) projects

Compare either of these against the rest of the Content Management Systems (CMS) field.

halo vs hugo halo vs Strapi halo vs Payload halo vs filament halo vs wagtail halo vs decap-cms halo vs TinaCMS halo vs frappe halo vs Instatic halo vs OrchardCore halo vs Publii halo vs luban-h5

Frequently asked questions

Is halo or sanity more popular?

halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and sanity has 6,324. halo has the larger community by that measure.

Are halo and sanity free?

Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and sanity under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between halo and sanity?

halo is written in Java and sanity in TypeScript. 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 sanity?

Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose sanity if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.