head to head · open source
AppFlowy vs marksman
AppFlowy has 78,162 GitHub stars, 6,170 forks, 1,030 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. marksman has 3,385 stars, 77 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. AppFlowy leads on adoption by 2,209% (78,162 vs 3,385 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 | ★ 78K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Dart | F# |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.2K | ⑂ 77 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick AppFlowy if
- You weight community size — 78K 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 ⭐️ The Open Source Alternative To Notion ⭐️ AppFlowy is the AI workspace where you achieve more without losing control of your data Website • Forum • Discord • Reddit • Twitter User Installation Download AppFlowy Desktop (macOS, Windows, and Linux) Other channels: FlatHub, Snapcraft, Sourceforge Available on App Store: iPhone Play Store: Android 10 or above; ARMv7 is not supported Self hosting AppFlowy Source Built With Flutter Rust Stay Up to Date Getting Started with development Please view the documentation for OS specific development instructions Roadmap AppFlowy Roadmap ReadMe AppFlowy Public…
read the full AppFlowy overview →
About marksman
Marksman Write Markdown with code assist and intelligence in the comfort of your favourite editor. Marksman is a program that integrates with your editor to assist you in writing and maintaining your Markdown documents. Using [LSP protocol][lsp main] it provides completion , goto definition , find references , rename refactoring, diagnostics , and more. In addition to regular Markdown, it also supports wiki link style references that enable [Zettelkasten like][zettel wiki][^roam research] , [^markdown memo] note taking. See more about Marksman's features below. Marksman works on MacOS, Linux, and Windows and is…
read the full marksman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AppFlowy or marksman more popular?
AppFlowy has 78,162 GitHub stars and marksman has 3,385. 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 (78,162 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose marksman if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.