head to head · open source
MiaoYan vs Darkwrite
MiaoYan has 8,647 GitHub stars, 512 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. Darkwrite has 315 stars, 14 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MiaoYan leads on adoption by 2,645% (8,647 vs 315 stars). MiaoYan is written in Swift under MIT; Darkwrite is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. MiaoYan has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Darkwrite 4%. MiaoYan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (editor, 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.
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Side by side
| MiaoYan | Darkwrite | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.6K | ★ 315 |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Swift | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 512 | ⑂ 14 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick MiaoYan if
- You weight community size — 8.6K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Darkwrite if
- You want the Darkwrite 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 Darkwrite fits your workflow better
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 →
About Darkwrite
Darkwrite is an open source, cross platform desktop note taking application written in TypeScript and built on Electron, made for people who want to write notes without distraction, accounts, or a server holding their data.
read the full Darkwrite overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is MiaoYan or Darkwrite more popular?
MiaoYan has 8,647 GitHub stars and Darkwrite has 315. MiaoYan has the larger community by that measure.
Are MiaoYan and Darkwrite free?
Both are open source. MiaoYan is licensed under MIT and Darkwrite under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between MiaoYan and Darkwrite?
MiaoYan is written in Swift and Darkwrite 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, MiaoYan or Darkwrite?
Choose MiaoYan if you want the larger community (8,647 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Darkwrite if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.