head to head · open source
NoteDiscovery vs wandao
NoteDiscovery has 2,807 GitHub stars, 233 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wandao has 1,160 stars, 136 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NoteDiscovery leads on adoption by 142% (2,807 vs 1,160 stars). NoteDiscovery is written in JavaScript under MIT; wandao is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. NoteDiscovery has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, wandao 12%. NoteDiscovery was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (evernote, 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 | wandao | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.8K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 233 | ⑂ 136 |
| 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 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 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 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 NoteDiscovery or wandao more popular?
NoteDiscovery has 2,807 GitHub stars and wandao has 1,160. NoteDiscovery has the larger community by that measure.
Are NoteDiscovery and wandao free?
Both are open source. NoteDiscovery is licensed under MIT and wandao under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NoteDiscovery and wandao?
NoteDiscovery is written in JavaScript 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, NoteDiscovery or wandao?
Choose NoteDiscovery if you want the larger community (2,807 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose wandao if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.