head to head · open source
cobalt vs hedgedoc
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars, 3,798 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. hedgedoc has 7,426 stars, 596 forks, 275 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cobalt leads on adoption by 483% (43,316 vs 7,426 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; hedgedoc is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, hedgedoc 8%. hedgedoc was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), 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
| cobalt | hedgedoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 7.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 596 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cobalt if
- You weight community size — 43K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Svelte
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hedgedoc if
- You want the hedgedoc 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 hedgedoc fits your workflow better
About cobalt
cobalt is a media downloader built around a single promise: paste a link, get the file, move on. It is a monorepo containing the source for an API, a web frontend, and related packages, written primarily in Svelte and TypeScript. The project lives in the modern web and JavaScript ecosystem, and its public surface is hosted at cobalt.tools, while the full codebase is published under the AGPL 3.0 license.
read the full cobalt overview →
About hedgedoc
HedgeDoc is an open source, self hostable collaborative markdown notes application, written in TypeScript and licensed under AGPL 3.0, for teams and individuals who need several people editing the same document in a browser at the same time.
read the full hedgedoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or hedgedoc more popular?
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars and hedgedoc has 7,426. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and hedgedoc free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and hedgedoc under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and hedgedoc?
cobalt is written in Svelte and hedgedoc 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, cobalt or hedgedoc?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (43,316 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose hedgedoc if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.