head to head · open source
Docs vs NoteDiscovery
Docs has 16,838 GitHub stars, 639 forks, 370 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. NoteDiscovery has 2,807 stars, 233 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Docs leads on adoption by 500% (16,838 vs 2,807 stars). Docs is written in Python under MIT; NoteDiscovery is written in JavaScript under MIT. Docs has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, NoteDiscovery 8%. NoteDiscovery was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (knowledge-base), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Docs | NoteDiscovery | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 639 | ⑂ 233 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Docs if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick NoteDiscovery if
- You want the NoteDiscovery feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and NoteDiscovery fits your workflow better
About Docs
Docs is an open source collaborative text editor for creating, editing, and sharing documents in real time. It lives in the open source documentation and knowledge base ecosystem, and it is built with Django and React for web native use. The repository describes Docs as a web native editor made for teams that need clean documents and sub documents without surrendering data to a hosted service.
About NoteDiscovery
NoteDiscovery is a lightweight, self hosted note taking and knowledge base application, written in JavaScript and released under the MIT licence, that stores every note as a plain markdown file in folders on your own server and is aimed at privacy conscious individuals, developers, knowledge workers, and teams who want to own their data.
read the full NoteDiscovery overview →
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Documentation & Knowledge Base projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Documentation & Knowledge Base field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Docs or NoteDiscovery more popular?
Docs has 16,838 GitHub stars and NoteDiscovery has 2,807. Docs has the larger community by that measure.
Are Docs and NoteDiscovery free?
Both are open source. Docs is licensed under MIT and NoteDiscovery under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Docs and NoteDiscovery?
Docs is written in Python and NoteDiscovery in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Docs or NoteDiscovery?
Choose Docs if you want the larger community (16,838 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose NoteDiscovery if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.