head to head · open source
Docmost vs SurfSense
Docmost has 22,202 GitHub stars, 1,661 forks, 326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SurfSense has 16,717 stars, 1,597 forks, 130 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Docmost leads on adoption by 33% (22,202 vs 16,717 stars). Docmost is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; SurfSense is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Docmost has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, SurfSense 10%. SurfSense was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai), 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
| Docmost | SurfSense | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 17K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 SurfSense if
- You want the SurfSense feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and SurfSense 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 SurfSense
English Español Português हिन्दी 简体中文 SurfSense: The Open Source NotebookLM Alternative for Open Web Research SurfSense is the open source NotebookLM alternative for AI agents , an open web research platform with live data connectors. Your agents research the live web with structured data from Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Amazon, Walmart, Google Maps, Google Search, Indeed, and any page on the open web , through one REST API or MCP server . Scheduled and event triggered agents turn what they find into briefs and alerts, and a built in knowledge base keeps every finding searchable with citations. [!NOTE]…
read the full SurfSense overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Docmost or SurfSense more popular?
Docmost has 22,202 GitHub stars and SurfSense has 16,717. Docmost has the larger community by that measure.
Are Docmost and SurfSense free?
Both are open source. Docmost is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SurfSense under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Docmost and SurfSense?
Docmost is written in TypeScript and SurfSense in Python. 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 SurfSense?
Choose Docmost if you want the larger community (22,202 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose SurfSense if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.