Flame

What is Flame?

Flame is a deliberately small start page: a list of links, optional bookmarks and a search bar, with no widgets to configure and no database to babysit. It does one thing quickly.

Best for

A no-frills launcher for a handful of services

Why choose Flame

Flame is the smallest useful dashboard: a list of links, optional bookmarks, a search bar and a weather line, with no widgets to configure and no database to babysit. Configuration is a single file, the interface is clean and modern, and it loads instantly. Because it does almost nothing, there is almost nothing to break, and it never becomes another service demanding attention. Its built-in editor means you can adjust the configuration from the browser without SSH-ing in, and it supports custom search engines so the search box can go to whatever you actually use. For a homelab with a manageable list of services, it hits the balance of useful and ignorable unusually well.

Replaces

• Homer
• Heimdall
• Dashy

Key features

• Simple app and bookmark management
• Built-in search bar
• Themes and custom CSS
• Very light resource use

What to watch out for

The restraint is real: there are no live statistics, no status checks for individual services, no user accounts and no layouts to speak of. If you want to see whether a container is running, Flame will not tell you. Customisation beyond the basics requires editing the config or supplying your own CSS. Its development pace is modest, so newer dashboard features will not arrive here. The built-in editor, convenient as it is, means the configuration can drift from whatever copy you keep in version control unless you are deliberate about exporting it.

How to deploy

• Single Docker container
• Add applications in the UI
• Store config in a mounted volume

Getting started

Deploy it with a persistent volume for its configuration and take a copy of the config file into version control so the edits you make in the browser are not the only copy. Set your preferred search engine and units early, since those are the settings most likely to annoy you later. Add your services in the order you actually use them rather than alphabetically. Enable the built-in password if it will be reachable by anyone else, and put it behind a reverse proxy for anything beyond the local network. Resist adding widgets it does not have — the point of Flame is that it stays small.

Typical setup

A container with the configuration on a persistent volume and a copy of that file in version control, so the edits made through the browser editor are not the only copy. Search engines and units are configured early, since those are the settings most likely to annoy later. Services are ordered by actual use rather than alphabetically. A password is enabled if anyone else can reach it, with a reverse proxy for anything beyond the local network. It is deliberately kept small, with no attempt to add the widgets it does not have.

Who should look elsewhere

Do not choose it if you want live status for your services, because it deliberately does not show any. Avoid it if you expect the dashboard to grow with your homelab into something elaborate — this is a launcher, and its ceiling arrives quickly. And if you need multiple users with different views, neither Flame nor any single-file dashboard will do that.

Project health

• GitHub stars: 6,559
• Last code push: 2026-06-25
• Open issues: 176
• Status: actively developed

Figures pulled from the GitHub API and refreshed periodically.