dashdot vs Glance
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | dashdot | Glance |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 85 · Excellent | 99 · Excellent |
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,545 | ★ 37,187 |
| First released | 2022 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Heimdall | Heimdall |
What are dashdot and Glance?
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
Glance
Glance is a self-hosted dashboard that aggregates feeds, weather, calendars, and service widgets into a single page. It targets users who want an information-dense home page. It is deployed via Docker or a binary.
- Aggregates RSS, weather and more
- YAML configuration
- Lots of built-in widgets
- Single lightweight binary
dashdot vs Glance: key differences
Dashdot is written in TypeScript, while Glance is built with Go. Licensing differs — MIT for dashdot versus AGPL-3.0 for Glance. Dashdot is the more established project (first released 2022), while Glance arrived in 2024. Glance has the considerably larger community, at 37,187 GitHub stars versus 3,545.
Why pick each one
Choose dashdot if…
- Attractive design
- Lightweight
- Zero config
Watch out for
- Single host only
- Resource view, not app launcher
Choose Glance if…
- Information-dense layout
- Very lightweight
- Easy config
Watch out for
- YAML-only configuration
- Young project
Frequently asked questions
Is dashdot or Glance better?
Neither is universally better. Glance has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are dashdot and Glance free and open-source?
Yes. dashdot is licensed under MIT and Glance under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run dashdot and Glance with Docker?
dashdot: yes. Glance: yes.