head to head · open source
NoteDiscovery vs gramax
NoteDiscovery has 2,807 GitHub stars, 233 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gramax has 607 stars, 25 forks, 279 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. NoteDiscovery leads on adoption by 362% (2,807 vs 607 stars). NoteDiscovery is written in JavaScript under MIT; gramax is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. NoteDiscovery has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, gramax 4%. NoteDiscovery 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
| NoteDiscovery | gramax | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.8K | ★ 607 |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-08-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 233 | ⑂ 25 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick NoteDiscovery if
- You weight community size — 2.8K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gramax if
- You want the gramax 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 gramax fits your workflow better
About NoteDiscovery
NoteDiscovery is a lightweight, self hosted note taking and knowledge base application, written in JavaScript and released under the MIT licence, that stores every note as a plain markdown file in folders on your own server and is aimed at privacy conscious individuals, developers, knowledge workers, and teams who want to own their data.
read the full NoteDiscovery overview →
About gramax
Gramax is a free, open source, GPL 3.0 docs as code application that keeps documentation as local Markdown files, edits them through a visual editor, versions them with Git, and publishes them as a customizable documentation portal or static site.
read the full gramax overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NoteDiscovery or gramax more popular?
NoteDiscovery has 2,807 GitHub stars and gramax has 607. NoteDiscovery has the larger community by that measure.
Are NoteDiscovery and gramax free?
Both are open source. NoteDiscovery is licensed under MIT and gramax under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NoteDiscovery and gramax?
NoteDiscovery is written in JavaScript and gramax 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, NoteDiscovery or gramax?
Choose NoteDiscovery if you want the larger community (2,807 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose gramax if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.