head to head · open source
OpenViking vs zk
OpenViking has 41,383 GitHub stars, 3,362 forks, 999 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zk has 2,863 stars, 199 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. OpenViking leads on adoption by 1,345% (41,383 vs 2,863 stars). OpenViking is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; zk is written in Go under GPL-3.0. OpenViking has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, zk 7%. OpenViking 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| OpenViking | zk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 199 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenViking if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick zk if
- You want the zk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and zk fits your workflow better
About OpenViking
The Context Database for AI Agents English / 中文 / 日本語 Website · Live Demo · GitHub · Issues · Docs · Blog Lark · WeChat · Discord · X What is OpenViking OpenViking is an open source context database for AI agents — one filesystem for everything an agent knows: knowledge, memory, and skills. Most agent memory is a black box: text goes in, embeddings come out, and nobody can see what was actually stored. OpenViking organizes context as a virtual filesystem under viking:// instead. Agents navigate it like files — ls , tree , read , write , grep — and you can open any directory to inspect and edit what your agent…
read the full OpenViking overview →
About zk
A plain text note taking assistant Description zk is a command line tool helping you to maintain a plain text Zettelkasten or personal wiki. Looking for a quick usage example? Or want to see it in action? Checkout Shivan's video, Note taking System ALL Programmers Should Consider . Join us on Matrix for general, support and development discussion: \ zk org:pub.solar. Highlights Creating notes from templates Advanced search and filtering capabilities including tags, links and mentions Integration with your favorite editors: Any LSP compatible editor zk emacs for Emacs zk nvim for Neovim 0.8+ zk vscode for Visual…
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Documentation & Knowledge Base projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Documentation & Knowledge Base field.
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenViking or zk more popular?
OpenViking has 41,383 GitHub stars and zk has 2,863. OpenViking has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenViking and zk free?
Both are open source. OpenViking is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and zk under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenViking and zk?
OpenViking is written in Python and zk in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenViking or zk?
Choose OpenViking if you want the larger community (41,383 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose zk if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.