head to head · open source
Docs vs nb
Docs has 16,965 GitHub stars, 693 forks, 370 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. nb has 8,462 stars, 258 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Docs leads on adoption by 100% (16,965 vs 8,462 stars). Docs is written in TypeScript under MIT; nb is written in Shell under AGPL-3.0. Docs has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, nb 3%. Docs was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (knowledge-base), 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
| Docs | nb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 8.5K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 693 | ⑂ 258 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Docs if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick nb if
- You want the nb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and nb fits your workflow better
About Docs
Chat on Matrix • Documentation • Try Docs • Contact us La Suite Docs: Collaborative Text Editing Docs, where your notes can become knowledge through live collaboration. Docs is an open source collaborative editor that helps teams write, organize, and share knowledge together in real time. What is Docs? Docs is an open source alternative to tools like Notion or Google Docs, focused on: Real time collaboration Clean, structured documents Knowledge organization Data ownership & self hosting Built for public organizations, companies, and open communities. Why use Docs? Writing Rich text & Markdown editing Slash…
About nb
nb is a command line and local web note‑taking, bookmarking, archiving, and knowledge base application with: plain text data storage, encryption, filtering, pinning, tagging, and search, Git backed versioning and syncing, Pandoc backed conversion, [[wiki style linking]] , terminal and GUI web browsing, inline images, todos with tasks, global and local notebooks, organization with folders, customizable color themes, extensibility through plugins, and more, in a single portable script. nb creates notes in text based formats like Markdown, Org, LaTeX, and AsciiDoc, can work with files in any format, can import and…
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Documentation & Knowledge Base projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Documentation & Knowledge Base field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Docs or nb more popular?
Docs has 16,965 GitHub stars and nb has 8,462. Docs has the larger community by that measure.
Are Docs and nb free?
Both are open source. Docs is licensed under MIT and nb under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Docs and nb?
Docs is written in TypeScript and nb in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Docs or nb?
Choose Docs if you want the larger community (16,965 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nb if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.