head to head · open source
Docmost vs MiaoYan
Docmost has 21,735 GitHub stars, 1,566 forks, 326 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. MiaoYan has 8,647 stars, 512 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Docmost leads on adoption by 151% (21,735 vs 8,647 stars). Docmost is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; MiaoYan is written in Swift under MIT. Docmost has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, MiaoYan 6%. MiaoYan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Docmost | MiaoYan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 8.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 512 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Docmost if
- You weight community size — 22K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick MiaoYan if
- You want the MiaoYan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and MiaoYan fits your workflow better
About Docmost
Docmost is an open source collaborative wiki and documentation software written in TypeScript and licensed under the AGPL 3.0 license. It positions itself as an open alternative to Atlassian Confluence and Notion, and its tagline describes it as a self hosted wiki with AI, compliance, and real time editing. The project lives in the knowledge management and note taking ecosystem, where teams manage documentation and knowledge base content.
read the full Docmost overview →
About MiaoYan
MiaoYan is a lightweight, local first Markdown note taking app for macOS, written in Swift and released under the MIT licence, aimed at people who want fast plain text notes on their own disk without accounts, telemetry, or a hosted service.
read the full MiaoYan overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Docmost or MiaoYan more popular?
Docmost has 21,735 GitHub stars and MiaoYan has 8,647. Docmost has the larger community by that measure.
Are Docmost and MiaoYan free?
Both are open source. Docmost is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and MiaoYan under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Docmost and MiaoYan?
Docmost is written in TypeScript and MiaoYan in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Docmost or MiaoYan?
Choose Docmost if you want the larger community (21,735 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose MiaoYan if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.