dashdot vs Homer
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | dashdot | Homer |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 85 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Vue |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,547 | ★ 11,615 |
| First released | 2022 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Heimdall | Heimdall |
What are dashdot and Homer?
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
Homer
Homer is a very simple static dashboard for your services, configured with a single YAML file and served as static assets. It targets users wanting the lightest possible start page. It is deployed via Docker or any static host.
- Single YAML configuration
- Pure static, no backend
- Themes and search
- Tiny resource use
dashdot vs Homer: key differences
Dashdot is written in TypeScript, while Homer is built with Vue. Licensing differs — MIT for dashdot versus Apache-2.0 for Homer. Homer is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for dashdot. Homer is the more established project (first released 2019), while dashdot arrived in 2022. Homer has the considerably larger community, at 11,615 GitHub stars versus 3,547.
Why pick each one
Choose dashdot if…
- Attractive design
- Lightweight
- Zero config
Watch out for
- Single host only
- Resource view, not app launcher
Choose Homer if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Trivial to host
- Fast
Watch out for
- No dynamic widgets
- Manual config edits
Frequently asked questions
Is dashdot or Homer better?
Neither is universally better. Homer has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are dashdot and Homer free and open-source?
Yes. dashdot is licensed under MIT and Homer under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run dashdot and Homer with Docker?
dashdot: yes. Homer: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, dashdot or Homer?
Homer has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for dashdot. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.