head to head · open source
AppFlowy vs marksman
AppFlowy has 76,854 GitHub stars, 6,026 forks, 1,030 open issues and last shipped yesterday. marksman has 3,343 stars, 72 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. AppFlowy leads on adoption by 2,199% (76,854 vs 3,343 stars). AppFlowy is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0; marksman is written in F# under MIT. AppFlowy has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, marksman 2%. AppFlowy 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 | marksman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Dart | F# |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.0K | ⑂ 72 |
| 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 marksman if
- You want the marksman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches F#
- You evaluated both and marksman 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 marksman
Marksman is an MIT licensed Markdown language server, written in F , that brings code assist features such as completion, go to definition, find references, rename refactoring and diagnostics into any editor that speaks the Language Server Protocol, and it is aimed at writers and note takers who maintain Markdown documents and Zettelkasten style wikilink notes.
read the full marksman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AppFlowy or marksman more popular?
AppFlowy has 76,854 GitHub stars and marksman has 3,343. AppFlowy has the larger community by that measure.
Are AppFlowy and marksman free?
Both are open source. AppFlowy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and marksman under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AppFlowy and marksman?
AppFlowy is written in Dart and marksman in F#. 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 marksman?
Choose AppFlowy if you want the larger community (76,854 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose marksman if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.