head to head · open source
nb vs nowen-note
nb has 8,405 GitHub stars, 254 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. nowen-note has 525 stars, 79 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. nb leads on adoption by 1,501% (8,405 vs 525 stars). nb is written in Shell under AGPL-3.0; nowen-note is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. nb has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, nowen-note 15%. nowen-note was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (knowledge-base, markdown, note-taking, notebook), 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
| nb | nowen-note | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.4K | ★ 525 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Shell | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-26 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 254 | ⑂ 79 |
| 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 nowen-note if
- You want the nowen-note 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 nowen-note 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 nowen-note
Nowen Note (弄文笔记) is a GPL 3.0, self hosted knowledge base, daily journal and task workspace written in TypeScript for individuals and teams who want their notes, attachments and indexes to live on their own NAS or server.
read the full nowen-note overview →
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 nb or nowen-note more popular?
nb has 8,405 GitHub stars and nowen-note has 525. nb has the larger community by that measure.
Are nb and nowen-note free?
Both are open source. nb is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and nowen-note under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nb and nowen-note?
nb is written in Shell and nowen-note 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 nowen-note?
Choose nb if you want the larger community (8,405 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose nowen-note if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.