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Comparison · Collab

Hive vs Komga

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

Hive vs Komga: at a glance

FeatureHiveKomga
SectorCollab, PMCollab
Velocity score10.06.3
Sparks · 30d01
Top themesproject-management, time-tracking, permissions, audit-trailself-hosted, frontend-rewrite, comics-manga, archive-formats
Last editorial update12h ago6d ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is Hive?

Hive ships in batches, and this one is all planning accuracy and admin control.

Hive publishes its changelog as clusters of single-feature entries dated the same day — seven on August 18, three on August 14. The current batch splits between planning integrity (time estimates surviving assignee changes, a rebuilt Unsubmitted Timesheets view, reorderable Gantt columns), governance (a default restricted-member role applied across every onboarding path, custom-field edits appearing in activity feeds), and small chat conveniences. Nothing in the batch is a new product area; it is the existing surface being tightened.

Read the full Hive trajectory →

What is Komga?

Komga is rewriting its web UI in the open, shipping the beta alongside the old one.

Komga's release cadence is dominated by NextUI, a ground-up rewrite of the web interface that landed in beta with 1.26.0 and is served next to the existing UI at /next rather than replacing it. The three patch releases that followed within 48 hours were almost entirely NextUI shakedown work — scroll restoration, selection behavior, stylesheets failing to load under Tomcat. Underneath the interface work the server keeps widening format support, with rar5 handling in plain Java and solid rar4 archives earlier in the summer.

Read the full Komga trajectory →

Hive vs Komga: editorial side-by-side

Hive logo
Hive
COLLABPM
10.0

Hive ships in batches, and this one is all planning accuracy and admin control.

◆ Current state

Hive publishes its changelog as clusters of single-feature entries dated the same day — seven on August 18, three on August 14. The current batch splits between planning integrity (time estimates surviving assignee changes, a rebuilt Unsubmitted Timesheets view, reorderable Gantt columns), governance (a default restricted-member role applied across every onboarding path, custom-field edits appearing in activity feeds), and small chat conveniences. Nothing in the batch is a new product area; it is the existing surface being tightened.

◆ Where it's heading

Two themes have been running through recent batches. The first is making planned time trustworthy — estimates that no longer vanish when work is reassigned, timesheet views built for scanning who has not submitted. The second is administrative control that scales: a least-privilege default that holds across SAML, SCIM, invite links and domain auto-join, and an audit trail that now covers custom-field edits. Both point at larger deployments, where the failure modes are silent data loss and inconsistent permissions rather than missing features.

◆ Prediction

The audit-trail and permissions work looks incomplete rather than finished — activity coverage for other object types and per-field visibility rules are the obvious next steps. Expect the same batched cadence, roughly twice a month.

K
Komga
COLLAB
6.3

Komga is rewriting its web UI in the open, shipping the beta alongside the old one.

◆ Current state

Komga's release cadence is dominated by NextUI, a ground-up rewrite of the web interface that landed in beta with 1.26.0 and is served next to the existing UI at /next rather than replacing it. The three patch releases that followed within 48 hours were almost entirely NextUI shakedown work — scroll restoration, selection behavior, stylesheets failing to load under Tomcat. Underneath the interface work the server keeps widening format support, with rar5 handling in plain Java and solid rar4 archives earlier in the summer.

◆ Where it's heading

The project is running a long, deliberately cautious frontend migration: both UIs ship in the same binary, the feature gap is tracked publicly in an issue, and users opt in by URL. That arrangement should persist across several minor versions before the old WebUI is retired. The parallel v2 referential API suggests the rewrite is also being used to revise the server contract rather than only restyle the client.

◆ Prediction

Near-term releases should keep closing the NextUI feature gap issue by issue, with patch releases landing within days of each other. The old WebUI is unlikely to be removed before NextUI reaches parity and browser refresh stops falling back to it.

Alternatives to Hive and Komga

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 Hive or Komga.

See all Hive alternatives → · See all Komga alternatives →

Recent activity from Hive and Komga

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

  1. 1d agoHiveDefault new members to a restricted role across every join path
  2. 1d agoHiveDashboard links unfurl as cards in chat
  3. 1d agoHiveGantt columns can be reordered and the order sticks
  4. 1d agoHiveChat statuses can expire automatically
  5. 1d agoHiveTime estimates survive an assignee change
  6. 1d agoHiveCustom-field edits now appear in activity feeds
  7. 6d agoKomgaTranslation updates and a release tooling fix
  8. 7d agoKomgaNextUI beta fixes: scroll, selection, and loading states
  9. 9d agoKomgaNextUI beta: a parallel rewrite of the Komga web interface
  10. 9d agoKomgaFix missing NextUI stylesheets when served from Tomcat
  11. 1mo agoKomgaSolid RAR4 archive support
  12. 3mo agoKomgaFixes for EPUB parsing, Kobo, KOReader, and OPDS2

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Hive and Komga?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Hive is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 10.0 vs 6.3), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Hive better than Komga?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Hive is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 10.0 vs 6.3), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Collab products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Hive?

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

What are the best alternatives to Komga?

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