dashdot vs Fenrus
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Fenrus
Personal home page with smart app widgets
| Feature | dashdot | Fenrus |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 85 · Excellent | 63 · Good |
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,545 | ★ 790 |
| First released | 2022 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Heimdall | Heimdall |
What are dashdot and Fenrus?
dashdot
dashdot is a simple, modern server dashboard that displays live system resource usage like CPU, memory, storage, and network. It targets users wanting a clean overview of one machine. It is deployed via Docker.
- Live CPU, RAM and storage graphs
- Clean modern interface
- Network and OS info
- Single-container deploy
Fenrus
Fenrus is a personal home page and dashboard for organizing applications with live widgets and per-user dashboards. It targets households wanting individual customized start pages. It is deployed via Docker.
- Per-user dashboards
- Smart app widgets
- Built-in search engines
- Guest and personal modes
dashdot vs Fenrus: key differences
Dashdot is written in TypeScript, while Fenrus is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — MIT for dashdot versus GPL-2.0 for Fenrus. Dashdot is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Fenrus. Dashdot has the considerably larger community, at 3,545 GitHub stars versus 790.
Why pick each one
Choose dashdot if…
- Attractive design
- Lightweight
- Zero config
Watch out for
- Single host only
- Resource view, not app launcher
Choose Fenrus if…
- Multi-user dashboards
- Live app data
- Simple to run
Watch out for
- Smaller community
- Fewer integrations
Frequently asked questions
Is dashdot or Fenrus better?
Neither is universally better. dashdot has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are dashdot and Fenrus free and open-source?
Yes. dashdot is licensed under MIT and Fenrus under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run dashdot and Fenrus with Docker?
dashdot: yes. Fenrus: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, dashdot or Fenrus?
dashdot has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Fenrus. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.