Fenrus vs Flame
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Fenrus | Flame |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 63 · Good | 83 · Excellent |
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 790 | ★ 6,551 |
| First released | 2022 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Heimdall | Heimdall |
What are Fenrus and Flame?
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
Flame
Flame is a minimalist, self-hosted start page for organizing applications and bookmarks with a clean interface. It targets users who want a fast, simple home page. It is deployed via Docker.
- Clean minimalist interface
- App and bookmark management
- Docker label integration
- Built-in weather widget
Fenrus vs Flame: key differences
Fenrus is written in JavaScript, while Flame is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Fenrus versus MIT for Flame. Flame is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Fenrus. Flame has the considerably larger community, at 6,551 GitHub stars versus 790.
Why pick each one
Choose Fenrus if…
- Multi-user dashboards
- Live app data
- Simple to run
Watch out for
- Smaller community
- Fewer integrations
Choose Flame if…
- Simple and fast
- Lightweight
- Easy to set up
Watch out for
- Few advanced features
- Limited active development
Frequently asked questions
Is Fenrus or Flame better?
Neither is universally better. Flame has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Fenrus and Flame free and open-source?
Yes. Fenrus is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Flame under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Fenrus and Flame with Docker?
Fenrus: yes. Flame: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Fenrus or Flame?
Flame 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.