head to head · open source
nb vs gramax
nb has 8,405 GitHub stars, 254 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. gramax has 607 stars, 25 forks, 279 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. nb leads on adoption by 1,285% (8,405 vs 607 stars). nb is written in Shell under AGPL-3.0; gramax is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. nb has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, gramax 4%. nb was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (git, knowledge-base, markdown, note-taking), 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 | gramax | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.4K | ★ 607 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Shell | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-26 | 2026-08-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 254 | ⑂ 25 |
| 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 gramax if
- You want the gramax feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and gramax 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 gramax
Gramax is a free, open source, GPL 3.0 docs as code application that keeps documentation as local Markdown files, edits them through a visual editor, versions them with Git, and publishes them as a customizable documentation portal or static site.
read the full gramax overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nb or gramax more popular?
nb has 8,405 GitHub stars and gramax has 607. nb has the larger community by that measure.
Are nb and gramax free?
Both are open source. nb is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and gramax under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nb and gramax?
nb is written in Shell and gramax in TypeScript. 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 gramax?
Choose nb if you want the larger community (8,405 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose gramax if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.