head to head · open source
nb vs poznote
nb has 8,462 GitHub stars, 258 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. poznote has 979 stars, 48 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. nb leads on adoption by 764% (8,462 vs 979 stars). nb is written in Shell under AGPL-3.0; poznote is written in JavaScript under MIT. nb has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, poznote 5%. poznote was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (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 | poznote | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.5K | ★ 979 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 258 | ⑂ 48 |
| 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 poznote if
- You want the poznote feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and poznote 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 poznote
English · Français · Deutsch · Español · Português · Русский · 简体中文 Powerful note taking without the hassle. A free, self hosted, open source alternative to Notion, Obsidian, Evernote, or OneNote. Features Discover all the features here. Screenshots See all the screenshots here. Demo Login : poznote Password : poznote They talk about Poznote Discord Join the community to ask questions, share feedback or follow the development: Table of content Install Access Change Settings Update application Authentication App Passwords Note types Snapshots Personalization Multi users Activity Log Webhooks Git Synchronization…
read the full poznote overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nb or poznote more popular?
nb has 8,462 GitHub stars and poznote has 979. nb has the larger community by that measure.
Are nb and poznote free?
Both are open source. nb is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and poznote under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nb and poznote?
nb is written in Shell and poznote in JavaScript. 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 poznote?
Choose nb if you want the larger community (8,462 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose poznote if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.