Glance vs Homarr
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Glance
Self-hosted feeds and info dashboard
VS
Homarr
Customizable dashboard for your self-hosted services
| Feature | Glance | Homarr |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 99 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 37,187 | ★ 4,778 |
| First released | 2024 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Heimdall | Heimdall |
What are Glance and Homarr?
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
Homarr
Homarr is a sleek, customizable dashboard that organizes links and widgets for your self-hosted services with deep integrations. It targets home labbers wanting a polished start page. It is deployed via Docker.
- Drag-and-drop layout editor
- Service status integrations
- Built-in widgets and search
- Theming support
Glance vs Homarr: key differences
Glance is written in Go, while Homarr is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Glance versus Apache-2.0 for Homarr. Glance is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Homarr. Homarr 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 4,778.
Why pick each one
Choose Glance if…
- Information-dense layout
- Very lightweight
- Easy config
Watch out for
- YAML-only configuration
- Young project
Choose Homarr if…
- Beautiful modern UI
- Easy drag-and-drop config
- Good integrations
Watch out for
- Newer with evolving features
- Mostly single-dashboard focus
Frequently asked questions
Is Glance or Homarr 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 Glance and Homarr free and open-source?
Yes. Glance is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Homarr under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Glance and Homarr with Docker?
Glance: yes. Homarr: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Glance or Homarr?
Glance has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Homarr. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.