head to head · open source
AppFlowy vs saber
AppFlowy has 76,826 GitHub stars, 6,021 forks, 1,030 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. saber has 4,815 stars, 371 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. AppFlowy leads on adoption by 1,496% (76,826 vs 4,815 stars). AppFlowy is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0; saber is written in Dart under GPL-3.0. AppFlowy has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, saber 8%. AppFlowy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (flutter), 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 | saber | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Dart | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.0K | ⑂ 371 |
| 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 saber if
- You want the saber feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and saber 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 saber
Saber is a cross platform, open source handwriting notes app for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS and Windows, built for students, professionals and anyone else who writes by hand on a screen and wants their notes to stay on their own terms.
read the full saber overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AppFlowy or saber more popular?
AppFlowy has 76,826 GitHub stars and saber has 4,815. AppFlowy has the larger community by that measure.
Are AppFlowy and saber free?
Both are open source. AppFlowy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and saber under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AppFlowy and saber?
AppFlowy is written in Dart and saber in Dart. 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 saber?
Choose AppFlowy if you want the larger community (76,826 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose saber if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.