head to head · open source
halo vs winter
halo has 39,797 GitHub stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped today. winter has 1,518 stars, 246 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. halo leads on adoption by 2,522% (39,797 vs 1,518 stars). halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0; winter is written in PHP under MIT. halo has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, winter 16%. 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 | winter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 246 |
| 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 winter if
- You want the winter feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and winter 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 winter
Winter is a free, open source content management system based on the Laravel PHP framework. Developers and agencies all around the world rely upon Winter for its quick prototyping and development, safe and secure codebase and dedication to simplicity. No matter how large or small your project is, Winter provides a rich development environment, regardless of your level of experience. Installing Winter Winter can be installed in several ways for both new users and experienced developers see our Installation page for more information. Quick start with Composer For advanced users, run the following command in your te…
read the full winter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is halo or winter more popular?
halo has 39,797 GitHub stars and winter has 1,518. halo has the larger community by that measure.
Are halo and winter free?
Both are open source. halo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and winter under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between halo and winter?
halo is written in Java and winter 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 winter?
Choose halo if you want the larger community (39,797 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose winter if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.