Glance vs Homer
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Glance | Homer |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 99 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Vue |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 37,187 | ★ 11,617 |
| First released | 2024 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Heimdall | Heimdall |
What are Glance and Homer?
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
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
Glance vs Homer: key differences
Glance is written in Go, while Homer is built with Vue. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Glance versus Apache-2.0 for Homer. Homer is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Glance. Homer is the more established project (first released 2019), while Glance arrived in 2024. Glance has the considerably larger community, at 37,187 GitHub stars versus 11,617.
Why pick each one
Choose Glance if…
- Information-dense layout
- Very lightweight
- Easy config
Watch out for
- YAML-only configuration
- Young project
Choose Homer if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Trivial to host
- Fast
Watch out for
- No dynamic widgets
- Manual config edits
Frequently asked questions
Is Glance or Homer 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 Homer free and open-source?
Yes. Glance is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Homer under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Glance and Homer with Docker?
Glance: yes. Homer: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Glance or Homer?
Homer has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Glance. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.