head to head · open source
nb vs flatnotes
nb has 8,462 GitHub stars, 258 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. flatnotes has 3,274 stars, 222 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. nb leads on adoption by 158% (8,462 vs 3,274 stars). nb is written in Shell under AGPL-3.0; flatnotes is written in Vue under MIT. nb has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, flatnotes 7%. nb was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (markdown, note-taking, notes), 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
| nb | flatnotes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.5K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 258 | ⑂ 222 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nb if
- You weight community size — 8.5K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick flatnotes if
- You want the flatnotes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and flatnotes fits your workflow better
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…
About flatnotes
A self hosted, database less note taking web app that utilises a flat folder of markdown files for storage. Log into the demo site and take a look around. Note: This site resets every 15 minutes. Contents Design Principle Features Getting Started Hosted Self Hosted Roadmap Contributing Sponsorship Thanks Design Principle flatnotes is designed to be a distraction free note taking app that puts your note content first. This means: A clean and simple user interface. No folders, notebooks or anything like that. Just all of your notes, backed by powerful search and tagging functionality. Quick access to a full text…
read the full flatnotes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nb or flatnotes more popular?
nb has 8,462 GitHub stars and flatnotes has 3,274. nb has the larger community by that measure.
Are nb and flatnotes free?
Both are open source. nb is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and flatnotes under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nb and flatnotes?
nb is written in Shell and flatnotes in Vue. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, nb or flatnotes?
Choose nb if you want the larger community (8,462 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose flatnotes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.