Fenrus 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 | Fenrus | Glance |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 63 · Good | 99 · Excellent |
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 790 | ★ 37,187 |
| First released | 2022 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Heimdall | Heimdall |
What are Fenrus and Glance?
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
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
Fenrus vs Glance: key differences
Fenrus is written in JavaScript, while Glance is built with Go. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Fenrus versus AGPL-3.0 for Glance. Glance is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Fenrus. Fenrus 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 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 Glance if…
- Information-dense layout
- Very lightweight
- Easy config
Watch out for
- YAML-only configuration
- Young project
Frequently asked questions
Is Fenrus 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 Fenrus and Glance free and open-source?
Yes. Fenrus is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Glance under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Fenrus and Glance with Docker?
Fenrus: yes. Glance: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Fenrus or Glance?
Glance 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.