head to head · open source
fsnotes vs MarkFlowy
fsnotes has 7,562 GitHub stars, 588 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. MarkFlowy has 2,426 stars, 98 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. fsnotes leads on adoption by 212% (7,562 vs 2,426 stars). fsnotes is written in Swift under MIT; MarkFlowy is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. fsnotes has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, MarkFlowy 4%. fsnotes was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (markdown, notes-app), 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
| fsnotes | MarkFlowy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.6K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Swift | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 588 | ⑂ 98 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick fsnotes if
- You weight community size — 7.6K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick MarkFlowy if
- You want the MarkFlowy 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 MarkFlowy fits your workflow better
About fsnotes
FSNotes 简体中文 · 繁體中文 Own your notes. Find them instantly. FSNotes is a fast, native notes app for macOS and iOS. It gives you a focused writing experience while keeping every note in portable Markdown or plain text files—not a proprietary database. Why choose FSNotes No lock in. Open and edit your notes with any compatible app, now or years from now. Fast at any scale. Search and navigate smoothly across collections of 10,000+ notes. Built around your workflow. Use multiple folders, external editors, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, and optional Git backups. More than basic Markdown. Connect ideas with tags and [[links]]…
read the full fsnotes overview →
About MarkFlowy
MarkFlowy beta Modern and intelligent Markdown editor. [![App Version][version badge]][release] [![Downloads][downloads badge]][release] [![Build Status][build badge]][build] [![Code of Conduct][coc badge]][coc] [![Commit Activity][commit badge]][commit] [![issues closed]]( [![PRs Welcome][prs welcome badge]][prs welcome] [![TypeScript version icon]]( [![Rust version icon]]( [![License][license badge]][license] [![codefactor]]( English 简体中文 日本語 Features High Performance: The rebuilt editor dramatically improves opening speed for large documents. A 2 MB Markdown file opened in around 1 second in testing. Built in…
read the full MarkFlowy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fsnotes or MarkFlowy more popular?
fsnotes has 7,562 GitHub stars and MarkFlowy has 2,426. fsnotes has the larger community by that measure.
Are fsnotes and MarkFlowy free?
Both are open source. fsnotes is licensed under MIT and MarkFlowy under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fsnotes and MarkFlowy?
fsnotes is written in Swift and MarkFlowy 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, fsnotes or MarkFlowy?
Choose fsnotes if you want the larger community (7,562 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose MarkFlowy if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.