head to head · open source
SurfSense vs saber
SurfSense has 16,169 GitHub stars, 1,538 forks, 130 open issues and last shipped yesterday. saber has 4,817 stars, 371 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. SurfSense leads on adoption by 236% (16,169 vs 4,817 stars). SurfSense is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; saber is written in Dart under GPL-3.0. SurfSense has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, saber 8%. SurfSense 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
| SurfSense | saber | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 371 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SurfSense if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick saber if
- You want the saber feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and saber fits your workflow better
About SurfSense
SurfSense is an open source NotebookLM alternative and privacy first knowledge base that can work with any AI model chosen by the user. It is a Python productivity and knowledge management project in the agent, RAG, LangChain, LangGraph, FastAPI, Next.js, and Ollama ecosystem. The project presents itself as an open web research platform for AI agents, with live data connectors and a built in knowledge base that keeps findings searchable with citations.
read the full SurfSense overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SurfSense or saber more popular?
SurfSense has 16,169 GitHub stars and saber has 4,817. SurfSense has the larger community by that measure.
Are SurfSense and saber free?
Both are open source. SurfSense has no licence declared in this registry, and saber is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between SurfSense and saber?
SurfSense is written in Python and saber in Dart. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, SurfSense or saber?
Choose SurfSense if you want the larger community (16,169 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose saber if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.