head to head · open source
Open-Notebook vs MarkFlowy
Open-Notebook has 39,222 GitHub stars, 4,548 forks, 110 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. MarkFlowy has 2,393 stars, 93 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Open-Notebook leads on adoption by 1,539% (39,222 vs 2,393 stars). Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript under MIT; MarkFlowy is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Open-Notebook has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, MarkFlowy 4%. MarkFlowy 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 | MarkFlowy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.5K | ⑂ 93 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Open-Notebook if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick MarkFlowy if
- You want the MarkFlowy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and MarkFlowy fits your workflow better
About Open-Notebook
Open Notebook is an open source, privacy focused research notebook that replicates and extends Google’s Notebook LM functionality. It runs locally or self hosted, letting users manage AI powered research workflows without surrendering data to cloud providers. Built with TypeScript, Next.js, React, SurrealDB, and LangChain, it targets researchers, students, and knowledge workers seeking control over their data and tools.
read the full Open-Notebook overview →
About MarkFlowy
MarkFlowy is a free, open source, cross platform desktop Markdown and text editor, built with Tauri, Rust and Prosemirror, for developers, writers and knowledge workers who want WYSIWYG or source mode editing of large documents with built in AI assistance.
read the full MarkFlowy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open-Notebook or MarkFlowy more popular?
Open-Notebook has 39,222 GitHub stars and MarkFlowy has 2,393. Open-Notebook has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open-Notebook and MarkFlowy free?
Both are open source. Open-Notebook is licensed under MIT and MarkFlowy under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Open-Notebook and MarkFlowy?
Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript and MarkFlowy 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, Open-Notebook or MarkFlowy?
Choose Open-Notebook if you want the larger community (39,222 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose MarkFlowy if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.