head to head · open source
qinglong vs freeplane
qinglong has 19,887 GitHub stars, 3,232 forks, 108 open issues and last shipped yesterday. freeplane has 4,362 stars, 498 forks, 453 open issues and last shipped yesterday. qinglong leads on adoption by 356% (19,887 vs 4,362 stars). qinglong is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; freeplane is written in Java under GPL-2.0. qinglong has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, freeplane 11%. freeplane 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
| qinglong | freeplane | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 498 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick qinglong if
- You weight community size — 20K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick freeplane if
- You want the freeplane feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and freeplane fits your workflow better
About qinglong
Qinglong is a self hosted timed task management platform that schedules and runs Python 3, JavaScript, Shell, and TypeScript scripts from a web interface, built for developers and operators who want central control over scheduled jobs instead of hand editing crontab on every machine.
read the full qinglong overview →
About freeplane
Freeplane is a free and open source desktop application for mind mapping, concept mapping and information mapping, written in Java with OSGi and Java Swing. It lives in the Java desktop ecosystem and is distributed under the GPL 2.0 license, with source hosted on GitHub and binary downloads published through SourceForge. The project has been under development for roughly 14 years and sits in the business software category of project and work management tools.
read the full freeplane overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is qinglong or freeplane more popular?
qinglong has 19,887 GitHub stars and freeplane has 4,362. qinglong has the larger community by that measure.
Are qinglong and freeplane free?
Both are open source. qinglong is licensed under Apache-2.0 and freeplane under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between qinglong and freeplane?
qinglong is written in TypeScript and freeplane in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, qinglong or freeplane?
Choose qinglong if you want the larger community (19,887 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose freeplane if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.