head to head · open source
NoteDiscovery vs zk
NoteDiscovery has 2,867 GitHub stars, 248 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zk has 2,863 stars, 199 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. NoteDiscovery leads on adoption by 0% (2,867 vs 2,863 stars). NoteDiscovery is written in JavaScript under MIT; zk is written in Go under GPL-3.0. NoteDiscovery has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, zk 7%. NoteDiscovery was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | zk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.9K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 248 | ⑂ 199 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick NoteDiscovery if
- You weight community size — 2.9K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick zk if
- You want the zk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and zk fits your workflow better
About NoteDiscovery
NoteDiscovery Your Self Hosted Knowledge Base What is NoteDiscovery? NoteDiscovery is a lightweight, self hosted note taking application that puts you in complete control of your knowledge base. Write, organize, and discover your notes with a beautiful, modern interface—all running on your own server. Write · Find · Discover 🎯 Who is it for? Privacy conscious users who want complete control over their data Developers who prefer markdown and local file storage Knowledge workers building a personal wiki or second brain Teams looking for a self hosted alternative to commercial apps Anyone who values simplicity…
read the full NoteDiscovery overview →
About zk
A plain text note taking assistant Description zk is a command line tool helping you to maintain a plain text Zettelkasten or personal wiki. Looking for a quick usage example? Or want to see it in action? Checkout Shivan's video, Note taking System ALL Programmers Should Consider . Join us on Matrix for general, support and development discussion: \ zk org:pub.solar. Highlights Creating notes from templates Advanced search and filtering capabilities including tags, links and mentions Integration with your favorite editors: Any LSP compatible editor zk emacs for Emacs zk nvim for Neovim 0.8+ zk vscode for Visual…
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Frequently asked questions
Is NoteDiscovery or zk more popular?
NoteDiscovery has 2,867 GitHub stars and zk has 2,863. NoteDiscovery has the larger community by that measure.
Are NoteDiscovery and zk free?
Both are open source. NoteDiscovery is licensed under MIT and zk under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NoteDiscovery and zk?
NoteDiscovery is written in JavaScript and zk in Go. 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 zk?
Choose NoteDiscovery if you want the larger community (2,867 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose zk if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.