Heimdall vs Homer: Simple Dashboards Compared

Quick Verdict

Homer if you want the lightest possible dashboard. Heimdall if you want a GUI for managing your bookmarks. Both are minimal startpages — neither has the widget depth of Homepage or the customization of Dashy. Homer is a single static HTML page generated from YAML; Heimdall is a PHP app with a database. For a bookmark page, Homer is the more elegant solution. Heimdall adds convenience features (enhanced app tiles with status info, drag-and-drop ordering) at the cost of more complexity.

What These Actually Are

Both Heimdall and Homer predate the current wave of feature-rich dashboards. They were among the first self-hosted dashboard solutions, and their design reflects a simpler era: give people a page with links to their services, styled nicely.

Homer is a static site generated from a YAML file. No database, no backend logic, no authentication. You edit config.yml, and Homer renders a clean page with grouped service links, search, and optional health checks. The entire app is client-side JavaScript and CSS.

Heimdall is a PHP application (Laravel) with a SQLite database. You add and organize applications through a web UI. It has “enhanced” app tiles for common services — Sonarr, Radarr, Pi-hole, etc. — that show basic status information within the tile (download count, DNS queries). The UI supports drag-and-drop for reordering.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Heimdall	Homer
Configuration	Web UI	YAML file
Enhanced app tiles	Yes (~90 supported apps)	No
Status checks	Via enhanced tiles	Basic HTTP status
Theme	Light/dark, custom backgrounds	Multiple themes, custom CSS
Authentication	Basic (pin/password per user)	None
Search	Yes	Yes
Icon support	Font Awesome, custom upload	Font Awesome, Dashboard Icons, custom
Drag-and-drop ordering	Yes	No (YAML ordering)
Multi-user	Yes (user-specific dashboards)	No
Categories / groups	Tags	Groups with headers
Database	SQLite	None
Docker socket	No	No
API	No	No
Framework	Laravel (PHP)	Vue.js (static)
License	MIT	Apache-2.0
Active development	Minimal (last update 2023)	Minimal (last update 2023)

Docker Setup

Homer

services:
  homer:
    image: b4bz/homer:v25.11.1
    container_name: homer
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./homer/assets:/www/assets    # Config, icons, and custom CSS
    environment:
      - INIT_ASSETS=1                 # Initialize default config on first run

Homer creates a default config.yml in the assets directory on first start. Edit it to add your services:

# homer/assets/config.yml
title: "Dashboard"
services:
  - name: "Media"
    icon: "fas fa-film"
    items:
      - name: "Jellyfin"
        logo: "assets/tools/jellyfin.png"
        url: "http://your-server:8096"
      - name: "Sonarr"
        logo: "assets/tools/sonarr.png"
        url: "http://your-server:8989"
  - name: "Infrastructure"
    icon: "fas fa-server"
    items:
      - name: "Portainer"
        logo: "assets/tools/portainer.png"
        url: "http://your-server:9000"

Heimdall

services:
  heimdall:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/heimdall:2.6.3
    container_name: heimdall
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
      - "8443:443"      # HTTPS (self-signed)
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=UTC
    volumes:
      - heimdall_config:/config

volumes:
  heimdall_config:

Open http://your-server:8080, and add apps through the web UI. Select an app from the built-in list for enhanced tiles, or add a generic bookmark.

The Enhanced Tiles Argument

Heimdall’s main differentiator is “enhanced” app tiles. When you add Sonarr, for example, the tile shows the number of monitored series and upcoming episodes without opening Sonarr’s UI. Pi-hole tiles show query counts and blocked percentages.

This sounds appealing, but there are limitations:

• Only ~90 apps have enhanced tiles (the list hasn’t grown much since 2022)
• The information shown is basic — a number or two, not a full widget
• Each enhanced tile requires an API key, configured per-app
• Some enhanced tiles break when apps update their APIs

For deeper service integration, Homepage has 100+ widgets with significantly more data per widget. Heimdall’s enhanced tiles are a halfway measure — more than Homer’s plain links, but far less than a modern dashboard widget.

Performance

Metric	Heimdall	Homer
RAM (idle)	~80 MB	~15 MB
CPU	Very low	Negligible
Docker image size	~200 MB	~30 MB
Startup time	~5 seconds	~1 second
Page load	Fast	Instant (static)

Homer is dramatically lighter. A 15 MB RAM footprint and 30 MB image make it one of the lightest self-hosted applications available. On a Raspberry Pi running multiple services, this difference matters.

Development Status

Both projects are in maintenance mode — functional and stable, but not actively receiving new features. This is worth considering if you’re setting up a new dashboard today.

Metric	Heimdall	Homer
GitHub stars	8K+	9K+
Last significant release	2023	2024
Active PRs	Few	Few
Alternatives gaining ground	Homepage, Homarr	Homepage, Homarr

The dashboard landscape has moved toward Homepage and Homarr — both actively developed with richer feature sets. Heimdall and Homer still work fine but represent an earlier generation.

Use Cases

Choose Homer If…

• You want the absolute lightest dashboard available
• You prefer YAML configuration that you can version control
• Authentication is handled elsewhere (reverse proxy, VPN)
• You just need organized links — no status info, no widgets
• Server resources are extremely constrained

Choose Heimdall If…

• You prefer adding and organizing apps through a web UI
• Enhanced tiles for common apps add value to your workflow
• You want per-user dashboards with basic authentication
• You don’t want to edit YAML files for configuration

Choose Neither — Consider Modern Alternatives

Both Homer and Heimdall were great for their time. For new setups in 2026:

• Homepage: YAML config like Homer, but with 100+ service widgets and active development
• Homarr: GUI setup like Heimdall, but with deeper integrations and modern architecture
• Dashy: Feature-rich with 50+ themes, if customization is your priority

Final Verdict

Homer is the better minimal dashboard. It’s lighter, faster, simpler, and its YAML configuration is more maintainable than Heimdall’s database. If you want a bookmark page and nothing more, Homer does the job elegantly.

Heimdall’s enhanced tiles don’t justify the complexity for most setups. If you want status information from your services, you need a dashboard that takes integration seriously — and that’s Homepage or Homarr, not Heimdall.

Between these two specifically: Homer. But consider Homepage or Homarr for a new setup.

Related

• How to Self-Host Homarr
• How to Self-Host Homepage
• How to Self-Host Dashy
• Homarr vs Homepage
• Homepage vs Dashy
• Best Self-Hosted Dashboards
• Docker Compose Basics