head to head · open source
nb vs poznote
nb has 8,405 GitHub stars, 254 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. poznote has 852 stars, 35 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. nb leads on adoption by 887% (8,405 vs 852 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 4%. 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 | ★ 8.4K | ★ 852 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-26 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 254 | ⑂ 35 |
| 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 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 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 poznote
Poznote is a free, self hosted, open source note taking web application for individuals, homelabs, and teams who want Notion , Obsidian , Evernote , or OneNote style notes running on hardware they control.
read the full poznote overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nb or poznote more popular?
nb has 8,405 GitHub stars and poznote has 852. 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 (8,405 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose poznote if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.