head to head · open source
Affine vs Chalk.ist
Affine has 74,123 GitHub stars, 5,454 forks, 732 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Chalk.ist has 1,845 stars, 148 forks, 22 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. Affine leads on adoption by 3,918% (74,123 vs 1,845 stars). Affine is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Chalk.ist is written in Vue under MIT. Affine has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Chalk.ist 8%. Affine was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Affine | Chalk.ist | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 74K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-01-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 148 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Affine if
- You weight community size — 74K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Chalk.ist if
- You want the Chalk.ist feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and Chalk.ist fits your workflow better
About Affine
AFFiNE.Pro Write, Draw and Plan All at Once A privacy focused, local first, open source, and ready to use alternative for Notion & Miro. One hyper fused platform for wildly creative minds. Home Page Discord Live Demo Blog Documentation [![All Contributors][all contributors badge]]( contributors) [![TypeScript version icon]]( Docs, canvas and tables are hyper merged with AFFiNE just like the word affine (əˈfʌɪn a fine). Getting started & staying tuned with us. Star us, and you will receive all release notifications from GitHub without any delay! What is AFFiNE AFFiNE is an open source, all in one workspace and an…
read the full Affine overview →
About Chalk.ist
Chalk.ist Create beautiful images of your source code Go to App Development License MIT Kasper Mikiewicz 2022
read the full Chalk.ist overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Affine or Chalk.ist more popular?
Affine has 74,123 GitHub stars and Chalk.ist has 1,845. Affine has the larger community by that measure.
Are Affine and Chalk.ist free?
Both are open source. Affine has no licence declared in this registry, and Chalk.ist is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Affine and Chalk.ist?
Affine is written in TypeScript and Chalk.ist in Vue. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Affine or Chalk.ist?
Choose Affine if you want the larger community (74,123 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Chalk.ist if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.