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Comparison · Collab

HumHub vs Prowlarr

A side-by-side editorial comparison of HumHub and Prowlarr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

HumHub vs Prowlarr: at a glance

FeatureHumHubProwlarr
SectorCollabCollab
Velocity score5.05.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themessocial intranet, beta releases, upgrade migrations, permissionsindexer-management, maintenance-cadence, self-hosted, translations
Last editorial update3h ago13d ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is HumHub?

HumHub's public feed carries only betas, and 1.19's is still about surviving the upgrade.

The four releases visible here are all pre-release: 1.19.0-beta.2 and beta.1, and 1.18.0-beta.6 and beta.5 before them. The 1.19 line is dominated by upgrade-path and data-integrity repair — a foreign key violation aborting the comment content_id migration on databases with orphaned rows, fatal errors when purging content whose underlying record was gone, and in beta.2 a fatal SCSS build loop left behind when the 1.19 move of static/themes into protected/humhub stranded an empty theme skeleton. Beta.2 also fixes a real leak: activities from private spaces appearing in the summary mail and dashboard of users holding only a pending invite or join request.

Read the full HumHub trajectory →

What is Prowlarr?

A steady indexer-maintenance cadence: fixes, definitions, translations, repeat.

Prowlarr ships every week or two off the develop branch, and the entries are consistently small: indexer definition corrections, parsing fixes, dependency bumps and Weblate translation batches. The only user-facing addition in this window is showing indexer-specific categories in search. Every entry opens with the same boilerplate about switching update branches, which is the feed's own shape rather than news.

Read the full Prowlarr trajectory →

HumHub vs Prowlarr: editorial side-by-side

H
HumHub
COLLAB
5.0

HumHub's public feed carries only betas, and 1.19's is still about surviving the upgrade.

◆ Current state

The four releases visible here are all pre-release: 1.19.0-beta.2 and beta.1, and 1.18.0-beta.6 and beta.5 before them. The 1.19 line is dominated by upgrade-path and data-integrity repair — a foreign key violation aborting the comment content_id migration on databases with orphaned rows, fatal errors when purging content whose underlying record was gone, and in beta.2 a fatal SCSS build loop left behind when the 1.19 move of static/themes into protected/humhub stranded an empty theme skeleton. Beta.2 also fixes a real leak: activities from private spaces appearing in the summary mail and dashboard of users holding only a pending invite or join request.

◆ Where it's heading

The 1.19 cycle is being spent making the migration survivable on real installations rather than adding capability, which is the usual shape when a schema and directory-layout change meets databases and webroots that have accumulated years of drift. Beta.2 extends that into the installer itself, where an unreachable database was offering to re-set-up a live instance during a transient outage. The permission and visibility fixes point the same way: tightening authorisation and content boundaries is cleanup of an existing model, not an extension of it.

◆ Prediction

Only beta tags appear in this feed, so a 1.19.0 stable is the obvious next milestone, but nothing here dates it. The beta.1-to-beta.2 gap of about a month is a faster rhythm than the roughly six months between the 1.18 and 1.19 betas.

P
Prowlarr
COLLAB
5.0

A steady indexer-maintenance cadence: fixes, definitions, translations, repeat.

◆ Current state

Prowlarr ships every week or two off the develop branch, and the entries are consistently small: indexer definition corrections, parsing fixes, dependency bumps and Weblate translation batches. The only user-facing addition in this window is showing indexer-specific categories in search. Every entry opens with the same boilerplate about switching update branches, which is the feed's own shape rather than news.

◆ Where it's heading

The value being shipped is upkeep of the indexer catalogue — PreToMe categories, M-Team category updates, MyAnonamouse author name handling, IPTorrents query parameters. That is the actual product for an indexer manager, but it means the release history reads flat: no architectural change, no new integration surface, no shift in what Prowlarr does. Version numbers move faster than capability.

◆ Prediction

Expect the same rhythm — per-indexer definition fixes and dependency bumps cut every one to two weeks — with any notable change arriving as a small search or UI addition rather than a release theme.

Alternatives to HumHub and Prowlarr

Other Collab products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either HumHub or Prowlarr.

See all HumHub alternatives → · See all Prowlarr alternatives →

Recent activity from HumHub and Prowlarr

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 15h agoHumHubPrivate-space activity leak, installer 503 handling and the stranded theme skeleton
  2. 17d agoProwlarr2.6.1.5509 shows indexer-specific categories in search
  3. 24d agoProwlarr2.6.0.5494 fixes non-ASCII Basic Auth credentials
  4. 28d agoProwlarr2.5.2.5491: logging endpoint and task status icon fixes
  5. 29d agoHumHub1.19 upgrade migration and orphaned content fixes
  6. 1mo agoProwlarr2.5.2.5483 improves byte-size parsing precision
  7. 1mo agoProwlarr2.5.1.5464 corrects categories for three indexers
  8. 1mo agoProwlarr2.5.1.5460 adds leecher sorting for IPTorrents
  9. 7mo agoHumHubLogin screen, theming and validator fixes
  10. 9mo agoHumHubGroup manager options and assorted UI fixes

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between HumHub and Prowlarr?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. HumHub and Prowlarr are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is HumHub better than Prowlarr?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. HumHub and Prowlarr are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Collab products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to HumHub?

Top HumHub alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "HumHub alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/humhub for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to Prowlarr?

Top Prowlarr alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Prowlarr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/prowlarr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.