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Comparison · Collab

HumHub vs Passbolt

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

HumHub vs Passbolt: at a glance

FeatureHumHubPassbolt
SectorCollabCollab
Velocity score5.05.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themessocial intranet, beta releases, upgrade migrations, permissionspassword-manager, shared-permissions, browser-extensions, editions
Last editorial update14h 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 Passbolt?

Passbolt made shared-resource permissions explicit, then spent a release calming the prompt.

The 5.14 line dominates the window. 5.14.0 introduced explicit confirmation dialogs before creating items in shared folders or editing shared resources, and fixed a security issue in MFA policy enforcement. 5.14.3 then narrowed that dialog, which had been firing on metadata-only edits such as renaming, and now appears only when a secret actually changes. Behind those, 5.13 added in-app switching between Community and Pro editions, and 5.12 took the Safari extension out of beta and added a PIN code resource type.

Read the full Passbolt trajectory →

HumHub vs Passbolt: 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
Passbolt
COLLAB
5.0

Passbolt made shared-resource permissions explicit, then spent a release calming the prompt.

◆ Current state

The 5.14 line dominates the window. 5.14.0 introduced explicit confirmation dialogs before creating items in shared folders or editing shared resources, and fixed a security issue in MFA policy enforcement. 5.14.3 then narrowed that dialog, which had been firing on metadata-only edits such as renaming, and now appears only when a secret actually changes. Behind those, 5.13 added in-app switching between Community and Pro editions, and 5.12 took the Safari extension out of beta and added a PIN code resource type.

◆ Where it's heading

The recent arc is about making shared state legible before it changes, then tuning that intervention so it does not fire on edits that carry no risk — a confirmation prompt is only useful while users still read it. Around that thread the work is reach and packaging: Safari at parity with the other browsers, editions switchable without a manual migration, new resource types added one at a time. This is a product filling in the operational edges of team password management rather than moving into new territory.

◆ Prediction

The 5.14.3 correction suggests further tuning of which edit paths trigger the confirmation dialog as more cases are reported. Beyond that, the entries point to continued resource-type additions in the manner of the PIN code type.

Alternatives to HumHub and Passbolt

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 Passbolt.

See all HumHub alternatives → · See all Passbolt alternatives →

Recent activity from HumHub and Passbolt

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

  1. 1d agoHumHubPrivate-space activity leak, installer 503 handling and the stranded theme skeleton
  2. 14d agoPassbolt5.14.3 limits the permission dialog to actual secret changes
  3. 23d agoPassbolt5.14 adds confirmation prompts before shared-resource edits
  4. 29d agoHumHub1.19 upgrade migration and orphaned content fixes
  5. 2mo agoPassbolt5.13 adds in-app switching between Community and Pro
  6. 3mo agoPassbolt5.12 makes the Safari extension generally available
  7. 7mo agoHumHubLogin screen, theming and validator fixes
  8. 9mo agoHumHubGroup manager options and assorted UI fixes

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between HumHub and Passbolt?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. HumHub and Passbolt 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 Passbolt?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. HumHub and Passbolt 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 Passbolt?

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