head to head · open source
fsnotes vs saber
fsnotes has 7,562 GitHub stars, 588 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. saber has 5,011 stars, 421 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. fsnotes leads on adoption by 51% (7,562 vs 5,011 stars). fsnotes is written in Swift under MIT; saber is written in Dart under GPL-3.0. fsnotes has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, saber 8%. saber was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ios, macos, 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| fsnotes | saber | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.6K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Swift | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 588 | ⑂ 421 |
| 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 saber if
- You want the saber feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and saber 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 saber
Saber [ ][google play] [ ][f droid] [ ][app store] [ ][download windows] [ ][flathub] [ ][download appimage] English čeština Deutsch 中文 (简体中文, 中国) 中文 (繁體, 台灣) العربية Tiếng Việt Saber is the notes app built for handwriting. It's designed to be as simple and intuitive as possible, while still delivering unique features that you'll actually use. Additionally, Saber is available across all your devices, large and small, and syncs between them seamlessly. Notably, it can invert your notes when you're in dark mode. This allows you to write with white ink on a black background, which is much easier on the eyes in low…
read the full saber 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 fsnotes or saber more popular?
fsnotes has 7,562 GitHub stars and saber has 5,011. fsnotes has the larger community by that measure.
Are fsnotes and saber free?
Both are open source. fsnotes is licensed under MIT and saber under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fsnotes and saber?
fsnotes is written in Swift and saber in Dart. 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 saber?
Choose fsnotes if you want the larger community (7,562 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose saber if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.