head to head · open source
Open-Notebook vs vnote
Open-Notebook has 41,664 GitHub stars, 4,790 forks, 110 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. vnote has 13,032 stars, 1,296 forks, 270 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Open-Notebook leads on adoption by 220% (41,664 vs 13,032 stars). Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript under MIT; vnote is written in C++ under LGPL-3.0. Open-Notebook has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, vnote 10%. vnote 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 | vnote | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 vnote if
- You want the vnote feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and vnote 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 vnote
VNote 简体中文 Project on Gitee A pleasant note taking platform. For more information, please visit VNote's Home Page . Description VNote is a Qt based, free and open source note taking application, focusing on Markdown now. VNote is designed to provide a pleasant note taking platform with excellent editing experience. VNote is NOT just a simple editor for Markdown. By providing notes management, VNote makes taking notes in Markdown simpler. In the future, VNote will support more formats besides Markdown. Utilizing Qt, VNote could run on Linux , Windows , and macOS . Downloads Continuous builds on master branch…
read the full vnote overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open-Notebook or vnote more popular?
Open-Notebook has 41,664 GitHub stars and vnote has 13,032. Open-Notebook has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open-Notebook and vnote free?
Both are open source. Open-Notebook is licensed under MIT and vnote under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Open-Notebook and vnote?
Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript and vnote in C++. 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 vnote?
Choose Open-Notebook if you want the larger community (41,664 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose vnote if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.