head to head · open source
nb vs nowen-note
nb has 8,462 GitHub stars, 258 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. nowen-note has 599 stars, 94 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nb leads on adoption by 1,313% (8,462 vs 599 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 16%. 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.
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Side by side
| nb | nowen-note | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.5K | ★ 599 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Shell | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 258 | ⑂ 94 |
| 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 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 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 nowen-note
Nowen Note（弄文笔记） 开源、自托管的知识库、每日记录与任务协作工作台 统一知识树 · 富文本 / Markdown 双编辑器 · 离线工作区 · AI RAG 问答 · 每日记录 · 任务中心 · 多端协作 English · 官方网站 / 帮助中心 · nowen.cn（维护中） · 在线体验 · 下载客户端 · 教程中心 · MCP 安装 · 更新日志 Nowen Note 不只是一个编辑器。它希望成为一套由你掌控数据、可长期运行在 NAS / 服务器上，并能通过 Web、桌面端和移动端随时访问的个人与团队知识基础设施。 NAS 远程连接登录 ：支持部署到 绿联 NAS（UGOS / UGOS Pro） 和 飞牛 NAS（fnOS） 。部署完成后，可在 Web、桌面端或 Android 客户端中，通过局域网 IP、IPv6 地址或已配置 HTTPS 的公网域名远程连接并登录。 v1.4.16 已发布 v1.4.16 聚焦 笔记切换稳定性、视频附件授权、Markdown / 代码块编辑体验与桌面发布链路 ，继续提升 Nowen Note 在多端编辑、局域网媒体访问和桌面客户端分发场景下的可靠性。 笔记切换更稳定 ：阻止旧富文本保存回执在快速切换后重新抢回激活笔记，并补充“提交后迟到回执”回归覆盖。 视频首次打开更可靠
read the full nowen-note overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nb or nowen-note more popular?
nb has 8,462 GitHub stars and nowen-note has 599. 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 (8,462 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.