head to head · open source
AppFlowy vs fsnotes
AppFlowy has 76,826 GitHub stars, 6,021 forks, 1,030 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. fsnotes has 7,494 stars, 578 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped yesterday. AppFlowy leads on adoption by 925% (76,826 vs 7,494 stars). AppFlowy is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0; fsnotes is written in Swift under MIT. AppFlowy has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, fsnotes 8%. fsnotes was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (note-taking), 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
| AppFlowy | fsnotes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 7.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Dart | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.0K | ⑂ 578 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick AppFlowy if
- You weight community size — 77K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick fsnotes if
- You want the fsnotes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and fsnotes fits your workflow better
About AppFlowy
AppFlowy is an open source collaborative workspace platform that combines note taking, project management, wikis, and AI features into a single interface. It runs as a desktop and mobile application and supports self hosting, built with Flutter for the frontend and Rust for the backend. AppFlowy lives in the productivity and knowledge management ecosystem, positioned explicitly as a Notion alternative.
read the full AppFlowy overview →
About fsnotes
FSNotes is a fast, native Markdown and plain text note taking app for macOS and iOS, written in Swift 5 and released under the MIT licence, built for people who want their notes kept as portable files rather than inside a proprietary database.
read the full fsnotes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AppFlowy or fsnotes more popular?
AppFlowy has 76,826 GitHub stars and fsnotes has 7,494. AppFlowy has the larger community by that measure.
Are AppFlowy and fsnotes free?
Both are open source. AppFlowy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and fsnotes under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AppFlowy and fsnotes?
AppFlowy is written in Dart and fsnotes in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, AppFlowy or fsnotes?
Choose AppFlowy if you want the larger community (76,826 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose fsnotes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.