Halo: A Docker Friendly Open Source CMS That Doesn't Get in Your Way
You know that feeling when you just want a CMS that works out of the box, but also lets you customize everything when you need to? That's what Halo aims to be. It's open source, it's Docker friendly, and it comes in both a free community edition and a paid edition for those who need extra features or support.
I stumbled across this while looking for alternatives to the usual heavy hitters like WordPress or Ghost. The GitHub repo is active, the docs are clean, and the whole thing feels refreshingly modern.
What It Does
Halo is a content management system built with Java and Spring Boot. It gives you a dashboard to manage posts, pages, comments, themes, and users. You can write in Markdown or use a rich text editor. It supports plugins, custom themes, and a REST API for headless CMS setups.
The community edition is free and open source under the GPL v3 license. The paid edition adds features like a media library, more storage options, priority support, and advanced theming tools.
Why It's Cool
A few things stood out to me:
Docker first approach
The official Docker image is tiny and works with a single docker run command. No complicated setup, no messing with PHP or databases manually. Perfect for devs who just want to spin something up fast.
Plugin system
You can extend Halo with plugins written in Java or even JavaScript (via a built in GraalVM polyglot runtime). This means you can write plugins in a language you're comfortable with.
Theme engine
Themes use a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can override default templates easily. There's also a theme marketplace where the community shares designs.
API first
Halo exposes a full REST API. So you can use it purely as a backend while building a frontend in React, Vue, or whatever you prefer. Great for JAMstack or static site generators.
No lock in
Data is stored in a database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, or H2 for testing), but you can export it as JSON or Markdown files anytime. The admin panel also lets you backup and restore with one click.
How to Try It
The fastest way to test Halo is with Docker. Open a terminal and run:
docker run -d --name halo -p 8090:8090 halohub/halo
Then open http://localhost:8090 in your browser. Follow the setup wizard to create your admin account and pick a theme. That's it.
If you want persistence, mount a volume for the data:
docker run -d --name halo -p 8090:8090 -v ~/halo-data:/root/.halo halohub/halo
There's also a one click install for DigitalOcean, a manual install for Linux servers, and a Windows installer if that's your thing. All linked from the GitHub repo below.
Final Thoughts
Halo feels like it was built by developers who got tired of wrestling with other CMSes. It's not trying to do everything, but it does the core job really well. If you need a simple blog or a company site, and you want to avoid the bloat of WordPress or the learning curve of Strapi, give Halo a spin.
The community edition is genuinely useful for most projects. The paid edition exists for people who need commercial support or specific features, but you won't hit a paywall while exploring.
It's on GitHub, it's under active development, and the docs are solid. Worth a look.
Find this interesting? Follow us on Twitter via @githubprojects for more open source discoveries.