head to head · open source
halo vs sveltia-cms
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sveltia-cms has 2,845 stars, 212 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped yesterday. halo leads on adoption by 1,298% (39,787 vs 2,845 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; sveltia-cms is written in JavaScript under MIT. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, sveltia-cms 7%. sveltia-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, 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 | sveltia-cms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 212 |
| 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 sveltia-cms if
- You want the sveltia-cms feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and sveltia-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 sveltia-cms
Sveltia CMS is Git based headless CMS for Jamstack sites. It is open source, MIT licensed, JavaScript single page web application served from CDN. Registry metadata lists JavaScript, MIT license, 2,837 stars, 208 forks, and four year repository age. Project positions itself as complete modern rewrite of Netlify CMS, now Decap CMS, and as successor to Netlify/Decap CMS. It targets content editors and developers.
read the full sveltia-cms overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or sveltia-cms more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and sveltia-cms has 2,845. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and sveltia-cms free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and sveltia-cms under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and sveltia-cms?
halo is written in Java and sveltia-cms in JavaScript. 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 sveltia-cms?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose sveltia-cms if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.