head to head · open source
MiaoYan vs GitJournal
MiaoYan has 8,647 GitHub stars, 512 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. GitJournal has 4,224 stars, 309 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. MiaoYan leads on adoption by 105% (8,647 vs 4,224 stars). MiaoYan is written in Swift under MIT; GitJournal is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0. MiaoYan has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, GitJournal 7%. MiaoYan 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
| MiaoYan | GitJournal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.6K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Swift | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-05-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 512 | ⑂ 309 |
| 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 GitJournal if
- You want the GitJournal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and GitJournal 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 GitJournal
GitJournal is a mobile first, privacy focused Markdown note taking app that stores every note in a Git repository of the user's choosing, built for people who want their writing to stay portable and version controlled instead of locked inside a proprietary sync service.
read the full GitJournal overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is MiaoYan or GitJournal more popular?
MiaoYan has 8,647 GitHub stars and GitJournal has 4,224. MiaoYan has the larger community by that measure.
Are MiaoYan and GitJournal free?
Both are open source. MiaoYan is licensed under MIT and GitJournal under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between MiaoYan and GitJournal?
MiaoYan is written in Swift and GitJournal 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, MiaoYan or GitJournal?
Choose MiaoYan if you want the larger community (8,647 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose GitJournal if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.