head to head · open source
saber vs dstask
saber has 5,016 GitHub stars, 421 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. dstask has 1,217 stars, 68 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. saber leads on adoption by 312% (5,016 vs 1,217 stars). saber is written in Dart under GPL-3.0; dstask is written in Go under MIT. saber has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, dstask 6%. saber was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (notes, notes-app), 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
| saber | dstask | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.0K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Dart | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-05-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 421 | ⑂ 68 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick saber if
- You weight community size — 5.0K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dstask if
- You want the dstask feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dstask fits your workflow better
About saber
Saber [ ][google play] [ ][f droid] [ ][app store] [ ][download windows] [ ][flathub] [ ][download appimage] English čeština Deutsch 中文 (简体中文, 中国) 中文 (繁體, 台灣) العربية Tiếng Việt Saber is the notes app built for handwriting. It's designed to be as simple and intuitive as possible, while still delivering unique features that you'll actually use. Additionally, Saber is available across all your devices, large and small, and syncs between them seamlessly. Notably, it can invert your notes when you're in dark mode. This allows you to write with white ink on a black background, which is much easier on the eyes in low…
read the full saber overview →
About dstask
dstask Single binary terminal based TODO manager with git based sync + markdown notes per task Dstask is a personal task tracker designed to help you focus. It is similar to Taskwarrior but uses git to synchronise instead of a special protocol. If you're at home in the terminal, and with solving the occasional merge conflict, then dstask is for you! Video courtesy of xGoivo thanks! Features: Powerful context system (automatically applies filter/tags to queries and new tasks) Git powered sync /undo/resolve (passwordstore.org style) which means no need to set up a sync server, and syncing between devices is easy!…
read the full dstask overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is saber or dstask more popular?
saber has 5,016 GitHub stars and dstask has 1,217. saber has the larger community by that measure.
Are saber and dstask free?
Both are open source. saber is licensed under GPL-3.0 and dstask under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between saber and dstask?
saber is written in Dart and dstask 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, saber or dstask?
Choose saber if you want the larger community (5,016 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose dstask if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.