head to head · open source
Docmost vs Notesnook
Docmost has 22,202 GitHub stars, 1,661 forks, 326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Notesnook has 14,875 stars, 1,042 forks, 1,012 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Docmost leads on adoption by 49% (22,202 vs 14,875 stars). Docmost is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Notesnook is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. Docmost has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Notesnook 7%. Docmost 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Docmost | Notesnook | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 15K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 Notesnook if
- You want the Notesnook feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Notesnook fits your workflow better
About Docmost
Docmost Open source collaborative wiki and documentation software. Website Documentation Twitter / X Getting started To get started with Docmost, please refer to our documentation or try our cloud version . Features Real time collaboration Diagrams (Draw.io, Excalidraw and Mermaid) Spaces Permissions management Groups Comments Page history Search File attachments Embeds (Airtable, Loom, Miro and more) Translations (10+ languages) Screenshots License Docmost core is licensed under the open source AGPL 3.0 license. Enterprise features are available under an enterprise license (Enterprise Edition). All files in the…
read the full Docmost overview →
About Notesnook
Notesnook An end to end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote. Website About us Roadmap Downloads Twitter Discord Overview Notesnook is a free (as in speech) & open source note taking app focused on user privacy & ease of use. To ensure zero knowledge principles, Notesnook encrypts everything on your device using XChaCha20 Poly1305 & Argon2 . Notesnook is our proof that privacy does not (always) have to come at the cost of convenience. We aim to provide users peace of mind & 100% confidence that their notes are safe and secure. The decision to go fully open source is one of the most crucial steps towards…
read the full Notesnook overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Note Taking & Knowledge Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Note Taking & Knowledge Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Docmost or Notesnook more popular?
Docmost has 22,202 GitHub stars and Notesnook has 14,875. Docmost has the larger community by that measure.
Are Docmost and Notesnook free?
Both are open source. Docmost is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Notesnook under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Docmost and Notesnook?
Docmost is written in TypeScript and Notesnook 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, Docmost or Notesnook?
Choose Docmost if you want the larger community (22,202 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Notesnook if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.