head to head · open source
cobalt vs hedgedoc
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars, 4,031 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. hedgedoc has 7,502 stars, 613 forks, 275 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cobalt leads on adoption by 509% (45,722 vs 7,502 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 | ★ 46K | ★ 7.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 613 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cobalt if
- You weight community size — 46K 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
best way to save what you love cobalt.tools 💬 community discord server 🐦 twitter 🦋 bluesky cobalt is a media downloader that doesn't piss you off. it's friendly, efficient, and doesn't have ads, trackers, paywalls or other nonsense. paste the link, get the file, move on. that simple, just how it should be. cobalt monorepo this monorepo includes source code for api, frontend, and related packages: api tree & readme web tree & readme packages tree it also includes documentation in the docs tree: how to run a cobalt instance how to protect a cobalt instance cobalt api instance environment variables cobalt api…
read the full cobalt overview →
About hedgedoc
[![ HedgeDoc on matrix.org][matrix.org image]][matrix.org url] [![version][github version badge]][github release page] [![POEditor][poeditor image]][poeditor url] [![Mastodon][social mastodon image]][social mastodon] ![REUSE Compliance Check][reuse workflow badge] [![codecov][codecov badge]][codecov url] HedgeDoc lets you create real time collaborative markdown notes. Getting Started ℹ️ Read all about HedgeDoc and the history of the project on our website 🧪 Try out HedgeDoc with the [demo instance][hedgedoc demo]. Check out the [features page][hedgedoc demo features]! 💽 Install HedgeDoc yourself using the…
read the full hedgedoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or hedgedoc more popular?
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars and hedgedoc has 7,502. 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 (45,722 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.