Fenrus vs Heimdall
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Fenrus
Personal home page with smart app widgets
VS
Heimdall
Simple application dashboard and launcher
| Feature | Fenrus | Heimdall |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 63 · Good | 92 · Excellent |
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 790 | ★ 9,331 |
| First released | 2022 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Heimdall | Heimdall |
What are Fenrus and Heimdall?
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
Heimdall
Heimdall is a simple dashboard for organizing all your web applications and links in one place with enhanced app tiles. It targets users who want an easy, no-frills start page. It is deployed via Docker.
- Simple app tile dashboard
- Enhanced tiles with live data
- Search bar integration
- Easy to use
Fenrus vs Heimdall: key differences
Fenrus is written in JavaScript, while Heimdall is built with PHP. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Fenrus versus MIT for Heimdall. Heimdall is the more established project (first released 2017), while Fenrus arrived in 2022. Heimdall has the considerably larger community, at 9,331 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 Heimdall if…
- Very simple to set up
- Clean look
- Low maintenance
Watch out for
- Limited widgets
- Slow development pace
Frequently asked questions
Is Fenrus or Heimdall better?
Neither is universally better. Heimdall has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Fenrus and Heimdall free and open-source?
Yes. Fenrus is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Heimdall under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Fenrus and Heimdall with Docker?
Fenrus: yes. Heimdall: yes.