head to head · open source
MiaoYan vs dstask
MiaoYan has 8,737 GitHub stars, 522 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dstask has 1,217 stars, 68 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. MiaoYan leads on adoption by 618% (8,737 vs 1,217 stars). MiaoYan is written in Swift under MIT; dstask is written in Go under MIT. MiaoYan has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, dstask 6%. MiaoYan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | dstask | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.7K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Swift | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-05-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 522 | ⑂ 68 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick MiaoYan if
- You weight community size — 8.7K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dstask if
- You want the dstask feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dstask fits your workflow better
About MiaoYan
English 简体中文 MiaoYan Lightweight Markdown note taking app for macOS Features Fantastic : Local first, no data collection, split editor & preview, wikilink backlinks, LaTeX, Mermaid Beautiful : Minimalist design, three column layout, dark mode, macOS 26 glass, distraction free Fast : Swift 6 native, better performance than Electron based apps Simple : Lightweight, version history, keyboard shortcuts, auto formatting Installation 1. Mac App Store (paid, automatic updates): 2. Homebrew : 3. GitHub Releases : download the latest DMG from GitHub Releases (macOS 11.5+) All three options share the same codebase and…
read the full MiaoYan overview →
About dstask
dstask Single binary terminal based TODO manager with git based sync + markdown notes per task Dstask is a personal task tracker designed to help you focus. It is similar to Taskwarrior but uses git to synchronise instead of a special protocol. If you're at home in the terminal, and with solving the occasional merge conflict, then dstask is for you! Video courtesy of xGoivo thanks! Features: Powerful context system (automatically applies filter/tags to queries and new tasks) Git powered sync /undo/resolve (passwordstore.org style) which means no need to set up a sync server, and syncing between devices is easy!…
read the full dstask overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is MiaoYan or dstask more popular?
MiaoYan has 8,737 GitHub stars and dstask has 1,217. MiaoYan has the larger community by that measure.
Are MiaoYan and dstask free?
Both are open source. MiaoYan is licensed under MIT and dstask under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between MiaoYan and dstask?
MiaoYan is written in Swift and dstask in Go. 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 dstask?
Choose MiaoYan if you want the larger community (8,737 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose dstask if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.