head to head · open source
Logseq vs MiaoYan
Logseq has 44,972 GitHub stars, 2,815 forks, 942 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MiaoYan has 8,646 stars, 511 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. Logseq leads on adoption by 420% (44,972 vs 8,646 stars). Logseq is written in Clojure under AGPL-3.0; MiaoYan is written in Swift under MIT. Logseq has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, MiaoYan 6%. Logseq was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (local-first, markdown), 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
| Logseq | MiaoYan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 8.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Clojure | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.8K | ⑂ 511 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Logseq if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Clojure
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick MiaoYan if
- You want the MiaoYan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and MiaoYan fits your workflow better
About Logseq
Logseq is an open source, privacy first knowledge management platform built for local first workflows. It runs as a desktop application and web interface, storing data locally in Markdown or Org mode files, with optional SQLite backed DB graphs for advanced features. The project lives in the Clojure/ClojureScript ecosystem and is licensed under AGPL 3.0.
read the full Logseq overview →
About MiaoYan
MiaoYan is a lightweight, local first Markdown note taking app for macOS, written in Swift and released under the MIT licence, aimed at people who want fast plain text notes on their own disk without accounts, telemetry, or a hosted service.
read the full MiaoYan overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Logseq or MiaoYan more popular?
Logseq has 44,972 GitHub stars and MiaoYan has 8,646. Logseq has the larger community by that measure.
Are Logseq and MiaoYan free?
Both are open source. Logseq is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and MiaoYan under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Logseq and MiaoYan?
Logseq is written in Clojure and MiaoYan in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Logseq or MiaoYan?
Choose Logseq if you want the larger community (44,972 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose MiaoYan if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.