head to head · open source
halo vs textpattern
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. textpattern has 880 stars, 110 forks, 86 open issues and last shipped yesterday. halo leads on adoption by 4,421% (39,787 vs 880 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; textpattern is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, textpattern 13%. textpattern 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 | textpattern | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 880 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 110 |
| 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 textpattern if
- You want the textpattern feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and textpattern 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 textpattern
Textpattern is a free and open source content management system written in PHP that installs on a web server with PHP and MySQL, and it is aimed at people who want to publish and organise web content on infrastructure they control.
read the full textpattern overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or textpattern more popular?
halo has 39,787 GitHub stars and textpattern has 880. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and textpattern free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and textpattern under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and textpattern?
halo is written in Java and textpattern in PHP. 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 textpattern?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose textpattern if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.