head to head · open source
nb vs flatnotes
nb has 8,405 GitHub stars, 254 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. flatnotes has 3,223 stars, 214 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 22 days ago. nb leads on adoption by 161% (8,405 vs 3,223 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%. flatnotes 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 | ★ 8.4K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-08-26 | 2026-08-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 254 | ⑂ 214 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nb if
- You weight community size — 8.4K 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 distributed as a single portable shell script, aimed at people who want plain text notes, Git backed history, and local search without a hosted service.
About flatnotes
flatnotes is a self hosted, database less note taking web app that keeps every note as a Markdown file in a flat folder, built for individuals and small teams who want a browser based editor without handing ownership of their notes to a hosted service.
read the full flatnotes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nb or flatnotes more popular?
nb has 8,405 GitHub stars and flatnotes has 3,223. 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 (8,405 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose flatnotes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.