head to head · open source
halo vs terminusdb
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. terminusdb has 3,417 stars, 153 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. halo leads on adoption by 1,064% (39,787 vs 3,417 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; terminusdb is written in Prolog under Apache-2.0. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, terminusdb 4%. halo 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 | terminusdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Prolog |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 153 |
| 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 terminusdb if
- You want the terminusdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Prolog
- You evaluated both and terminusdb 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 terminusdb
TerminusDB is a distributed, collaborative database designed for building, sharing, versioning, and reasoning on structured data. It lives in the open source database and headless content management ecosystem as a system of record for JSON and JSON LD documents. The project connects documents into a semantic knowledge graph while keeping an immutable history.
read the full terminusdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or terminusdb more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and terminusdb has 3,417. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and terminusdb free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and terminusdb under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and terminusdb?
halo is written in Java and terminusdb in Prolog. 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 terminusdb?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose terminusdb if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.