DashMachine vs Web-Portal
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | DashMachine | Web-Portal |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 55 · Fair |
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | Unlicense | MIT |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,264 | ★ 260 |
| First released | 2020 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Google homepage | Google homepage |
What are DashMachine and Web-Portal?
DashMachine
DashMachine is a self-hosted application dashboard for organizing and accessing your services. It supports widgets, platform integrations, and themes to build a personalized homelab landing page.
- Application tiles and widgets
- Platform integrations
- Theming support
- Search functionality
Web-Portal
Web-Portal is a simple, configurable startpage and link organizer for homelabs and bookmarks. It provides a clean grid of services and applications that can be themed and grouped.
- Configurable link grid
- Plugin support
- Theme customization
- Lightweight footprint
DashMachine vs Web-Portal: key differences
Both projects are written in Python. Licensing differs — Unlicense for DashMachine versus MIT for Web-Portal. Web-Portal is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for DashMachine. DashMachine has the considerably larger community, at 1,264 GitHub stars versus 260.
Why pick each one
Choose DashMachine if…
- Flexible widget system
- Simple deployment
Watch out for
- Development has slowed
- Smaller community
Choose Web-Portal if…
- Simple to configure
- Low resource use
Watch out for
- Smaller community
- Basic feature set
Frequently asked questions
Is DashMachine or Web-Portal better?
Neither is universally better. DashMachine has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are DashMachine and Web-Portal free and open-source?
Yes. DashMachine is licensed under Unlicense and Web-Portal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run DashMachine and Web-Portal with Docker?
DashMachine: yes. Web-Portal: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, DashMachine or Web-Portal?
Web-Portal has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for DashMachine. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.