Dashy vs Homer
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Homer
Static, fast and simple service dashboard
| Feature | Dashy | Homer |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 97 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Vue | Vue |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 26,548 | ★ 11,615 |
| First released | 2021 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Heimdall | Heimdall |
What are Dashy and Homer?
Dashy
Dashy is a highly configurable personal dashboard with status checks, widgets, themes, and authentication. It targets home labbers who want a feature-packed start page. It is deployed via Docker.
- Status checking for services
- Many widgets and themes
- Optional authentication
- Cloud backup option
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
Dashy vs Homer: key differences
Both projects are written in Vue. Licensing differs — MIT for Dashy versus Apache-2.0 for Homer. Homer is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Dashy. Homer is the more established project (first released 2019), while Dashy arrived in 2021. Dashy has the considerably larger community, at 26,548 GitHub stars versus 11,615.
Why pick each one
Choose Dashy if…
- Very feature-rich
- Lots of themes
- Built-in status checks
Watch out for
- Many options to configure
- Slower recent development
Choose Homer if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Trivial to host
- Fast
Watch out for
- No dynamic widgets
- Manual config edits
Frequently asked questions
Is Dashy or Homer better?
Neither is universally better. Dashy has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Dashy and Homer free and open-source?
Yes. Dashy is licensed under MIT and Homer under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dashy and Homer with Docker?
Dashy: yes. Homer: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Dashy or Homer?
Homer has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Dashy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.