head to head · open source
Open-Notebook vs obsidian-mind
Open-Notebook has 39,222 GitHub stars, 4,548 forks, 110 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. obsidian-mind has 4,653 stars, 532 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. Open-Notebook leads on adoption by 743% (39,222 vs 4,653 stars). Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript under MIT; obsidian-mind is written in TypeScript under MIT. Open-Notebook has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, obsidian-mind 11%. Open-Notebook was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | obsidian-mind | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 4.7K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.5K | ⑂ 532 |
| 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 obsidian-mind if
- You want the obsidian-mind feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and obsidian-mind 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 obsidian-mind
obsidian mind is a self organizing Obsidian vault template that gives AI coding agents persistent memory, built for developers and knowledge workers who run Claude Code, Codex CLI, or Gemini CLI and want every session to build on the last.
read the full obsidian-mind overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open-Notebook or obsidian-mind more popular?
Open-Notebook has 39,222 GitHub stars and obsidian-mind has 4,653. Open-Notebook has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open-Notebook and obsidian-mind free?
Both are open source. Open-Notebook is licensed under MIT and obsidian-mind under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Open-Notebook and obsidian-mind?
Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript and obsidian-mind 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 obsidian-mind?
Choose Open-Notebook if you want the larger community (39,222 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose obsidian-mind if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.