head to head · open source
saber vs MarkFlowy
saber has 4,817 GitHub stars, 371 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. MarkFlowy has 2,393 stars, 93 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped yesterday. saber leads on adoption by 101% (4,817 vs 2,393 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%. MarkFlowy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | ★ 4.8K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Dart | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 371 | ⑂ 93 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick saber if
- You weight community size — 4.8K 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 is a cross platform, open source handwriting notes app for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS and Windows, built for students, professionals and anyone else who writes by hand on a screen and wants their notes to stay on their own terms.
read the full saber overview →
About MarkFlowy
MarkFlowy is a free, open source, cross platform desktop Markdown and text editor, built with Tauri, Rust and Prosemirror, for developers, writers and knowledge workers who want WYSIWYG or source mode editing of large documents with built in AI assistance.
read the full MarkFlowy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is saber or MarkFlowy more popular?
saber has 4,817 GitHub stars and MarkFlowy has 2,393. 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 (4,817 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.