head to head · open source
Open-Notebook vs Zotero
Open-Notebook has 39,087 GitHub stars, 4,527 forks, 110 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Zotero has 15,308 stars, 1,120 forks, 1,600 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Open-Notebook leads on adoption by 155% (39,087 vs 15,308 stars). Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript under MIT; Zotero is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Open-Notebook has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Zotero 7%. Zotero 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 | Zotero | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.5K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 Zotero if
- You want the Zotero feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Zotero 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 Zotero
Zotero is a free tool for research sources. It lives in the JavaScript application ecosystem and is listed under Productivity & Utilities / Note Taking & Knowledge Management. The provided GitHub metadata reports 15,272 stars, 1,117 forks, 1,600 open issues, 0 contributors, a repository age of 0 years, and a last push timestamp of 2026 09 14T16:40:51Z. The homepage is https://www.zotero.org, and no topics are listed. The license field is NOASSERTION.
read the full Zotero overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open-Notebook or Zotero more popular?
Open-Notebook has 39,087 GitHub stars and Zotero has 15,308. Open-Notebook has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open-Notebook and Zotero free?
Both are open source. Open-Notebook is licensed under MIT, and Zotero has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open-Notebook and Zotero?
Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript and Zotero in JavaScript. 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 Zotero?
Choose Open-Notebook if you want the larger community (39,087 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Zotero if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.