head to head · open source
Open-Notebook vs dstask
Open-Notebook has 41,599 GitHub stars, 4,781 forks, 110 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dstask has 1,217 stars, 68 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Open-Notebook leads on adoption by 3,318% (41,599 vs 1,217 stars). Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript under MIT; dstask is written in Go under MIT. Open-Notebook has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, dstask 6%. Open-Notebook 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
| Open-Notebook | dstask | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-05-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 68 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Open-Notebook if
- You weight community size — 42K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dstask if
- You want the dstask feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dstask fits your workflow better
About Open-Notebook
[![Forks][forks shield]][forks url] [![Stargazers][stars shield]][stars url] [![Issues][issues shield]][issues url] [![MIT License][license shield]][license url] Open Notebook An open source, privacy focused alternative to Google's Notebook LM! Join our Discord server for help, to share workflow ideas, and suggest features! Checkout our website » Follow @lfnovo on X for updates 📚 Get Started · 📖 User Guide · ✨ Features · 🚀 Deploy Deutsch Español français 日本語 한국어 Português Русский 中文 A private, multi model, 100% local, full featured alternative to Notebook LM In a world dominated by Artificial Intelligence…
read the full Open-Notebook overview →
About dstask
dstask Single binary terminal based TODO manager with git based sync + markdown notes per task Dstask is a personal task tracker designed to help you focus. It is similar to Taskwarrior but uses git to synchronise instead of a special protocol. If you're at home in the terminal, and with solving the occasional merge conflict, then dstask is for you! Video courtesy of xGoivo thanks! Features: Powerful context system (automatically applies filter/tags to queries and new tasks) Git powered sync /undo/resolve (passwordstore.org style) which means no need to set up a sync server, and syncing between devices is easy!…
read the full dstask overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open-Notebook or dstask more popular?
Open-Notebook has 41,599 GitHub stars and dstask has 1,217. Open-Notebook has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open-Notebook and dstask free?
Both are open source. Open-Notebook is licensed under MIT and dstask under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Open-Notebook and dstask?
Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript and dstask 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, Open-Notebook or dstask?
Choose Open-Notebook if you want the larger community (41,599 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose dstask if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.