head to head · open source
saber vs MarkFlowy
saber has 5,011 GitHub stars, 421 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. MarkFlowy has 2,426 stars, 98 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. saber leads on adoption by 107% (5,011 vs 2,426 stars). saber is written in Dart under GPL-3.0; MarkFlowy is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. saber has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, MarkFlowy 4%. saber was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cross-platform, 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 | MarkFlowy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.0K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Dart | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 421 | ⑂ 98 |
| 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 MarkFlowy if
- You want the MarkFlowy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and MarkFlowy 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…
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About MarkFlowy
MarkFlowy beta Modern and intelligent Markdown editor. [![App Version][version badge]][release] [![Downloads][downloads badge]][release] [![Build Status][build badge]][build] [![Code of Conduct][coc badge]][coc] [![Commit Activity][commit badge]][commit] [![issues closed]]( [![PRs Welcome][prs welcome badge]][prs welcome] [![TypeScript version icon]]( [![Rust version icon]]( [![License][license badge]][license] [![codefactor]]( English 简体中文 日本語 Features High Performance: The rebuilt editor dramatically improves opening speed for large documents. A 2 MB Markdown file opened in around 1 second in testing. Built in…
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Frequently asked questions
Is saber or MarkFlowy more popular?
saber has 5,011 GitHub stars and MarkFlowy has 2,426. saber has the larger community by that measure.
Are saber and MarkFlowy free?
Both are open source. saber is licensed under GPL-3.0 and MarkFlowy under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between saber and MarkFlowy?
saber is written in Dart and MarkFlowy in TypeScript. 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 MarkFlowy?
Choose saber if you want the larger community (5,011 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose MarkFlowy if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.