head to head · open source
Affine vs SiYuan
Affine has 72,729 GitHub stars, 5,285 forks, 732 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. SiYuan has 46,414 stars, 3,010 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped today. Affine leads on adoption by 57% (72,729 vs 46,414 stars). Affine is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Affine has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, SiYuan 6%. SiYuan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (knowledge-base, markdown), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | SiYuan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 46K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Affine if
- You weight community size — 73K 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 SiYuan if
- You want the SiYuan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and SiYuan fits your workflow better
About Affine
AFFiNE is an open source, privacy first workspace that merges documentation, whiteboarding, and databases into one hyper fused platform. It lives in the productivity and knowledge management ecosystem, positioned as a direct alternative to Notion and Miro. Built with local first principles, it ensures users retain full control of their data while supporting real time collaboration across web and desktop clients.
read the full Affine overview →
About SiYuan
SiYuan is an open source, self hosted knowledge management system built for privacy first workflows. It operates as a local first workspace where users store data in encrypted repositories on their own infrastructure, avoiding reliance on third party cloud services. The project lives in the productivity and utilities ecosystem, specifically targeting note taking and knowledge management use cases, and positions itself as a privacy respecting alternative to Notion.
read the full SiYuan overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Affine or SiYuan more popular?
Affine has 72,729 GitHub stars and SiYuan has 46,414. Affine has the larger community by that measure.
Are Affine and SiYuan free?
Both are open source. Affine has no licence declared in this registry, and SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Affine and SiYuan?
Affine is written in TypeScript and SiYuan in TypeScript. 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 SiYuan?
Choose Affine if you want the larger community (72,729 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose SiYuan if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.