head to head · open source
Open-Notebook vs silverbullet
Open-Notebook has 41,535 GitHub stars, 4,772 forks, 110 open issues and last shipped yesterday. silverbullet has 6,456 stars, 528 forks, 345 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Open-Notebook leads on adoption by 543% (41,535 vs 6,456 stars). Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript under MIT; silverbullet is written in TypeScript under MIT. Open-Notebook has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, silverbullet 8%. 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 (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
| Open-Notebook | silverbullet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 6.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 528 |
| 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 silverbullet if
- You want the silverbullet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and silverbullet 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 silverbullet
SilverBullet SilverBullet is a Programmable, Private, Browser based, Open Source, Self Hosted, Personal Knowledge Database — a fancy term for a "notes app on steroids". Yowza! That surely is a lot of adjectives to describe a browser based Markdown editor programmable with Lua. Let’s get more specific. SilverBullet combines a clean live preview editor with wiki style linking, a built in database and query language, and a fully integrated Space Lua scripting environment, turning your notes into a programmable system that grows with you. In SilverBullet you keep your content as a collection of Markdown Pages…
read the full silverbullet overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open-Notebook or silverbullet more popular?
Open-Notebook has 41,535 GitHub stars and silverbullet has 6,456. Open-Notebook has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open-Notebook and silverbullet free?
Both are open source. Open-Notebook is licensed under MIT and silverbullet under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Open-Notebook and silverbullet?
Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript and silverbullet 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 silverbullet?
Choose Open-Notebook if you want the larger community (41,535 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose silverbullet if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.