head to head · open source
nb vs wandao
nb has 8,405 GitHub stars, 254 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. wandao has 1,160 stars, 136 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nb leads on adoption by 625% (8,405 vs 1,160 stars). nb is written in Shell under AGPL-3.0; wandao is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. nb has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, wandao 12%. wandao was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (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 | wandao | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.4K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Python |
| Last push | 2026-08-26 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 254 | ⑂ 136 |
| 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 wandao if
- You want the wandao feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and wandao 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 wandao
Wandao (万能导) is a multi platform knowledge base Markdown import and export tool that turns content you have permission to access into local Markdown and pushes local Markdown back into supported platforms, built for people who need to back up, migrate, or study documentation without manual copying and pasting.
read the full wandao overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nb or wandao more popular?
nb has 8,405 GitHub stars and wandao has 1,160. nb has the larger community by that measure.
Are nb and wandao free?
Both are open source. nb is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and wandao under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nb and wandao?
nb is written in Shell and wandao in Python. 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 wandao?
Choose nb if you want the larger community (8,405 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose wandao if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.