head to head · open source
Notesnook vs MiaoYan
Notesnook has 14,614 GitHub stars, 1,009 forks, 1,012 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. MiaoYan has 8,647 stars, 512 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. Notesnook leads on adoption by 69% (14,614 vs 8,647 stars). Notesnook is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; MiaoYan is written in Swift under MIT. Notesnook has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, MiaoYan 6%. MiaoYan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (notes-app), 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
| Notesnook | MiaoYan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 8.6K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 512 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Notesnook if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick MiaoYan if
- You want the MiaoYan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and MiaoYan fits your workflow better
About Notesnook
Notesnook is an open source, end to end encrypted note taking application in the productivity and knowledge management ecosystem. It is presented as a free alternative to Evernote, with clients for the web, desktop, and mobile platforms. The project uses a TypeScript and JavaScript monorepo, React for the interface, React Native for mobile apps, and Electron for the desktop app.
read the full Notesnook overview →
About MiaoYan
MiaoYan is a lightweight, local first Markdown note taking app for macOS, written in Swift and released under the MIT licence, aimed at people who want fast plain text notes on their own disk without accounts, telemetry, or a hosted service.
read the full MiaoYan overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Notesnook or MiaoYan more popular?
Notesnook has 14,614 GitHub stars and MiaoYan has 8,647. Notesnook has the larger community by that measure.
Are Notesnook and MiaoYan free?
Both are open source. Notesnook is licensed under GPL-3.0 and MiaoYan under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Notesnook and MiaoYan?
Notesnook is written in TypeScript and MiaoYan in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Notesnook or MiaoYan?
Choose Notesnook if you want the larger community (14,614 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose MiaoYan if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.