head to head · open source
Open-Notebook vs silverbullet
Open-Notebook has 39,222 GitHub stars, 4,548 forks, 110 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. silverbullet has 6,099 stars, 485 forks, 345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Open-Notebook leads on adoption by 543% (39,222 vs 6,099 stars). Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript under MIT; silverbullet is written in TypeScript under MIT. Open-Notebook has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, silverbullet 8%. silverbullet was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (note-taking), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Open-Notebook | silverbullet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.5K | ⑂ 485 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Open-Notebook if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick silverbullet if
- You want the silverbullet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and silverbullet fits your workflow better
About Open-Notebook
Open Notebook is an open source, privacy focused research notebook that replicates and extends Google’s Notebook LM functionality. It runs locally or self hosted, letting users manage AI powered research workflows without surrendering data to cloud providers. Built with TypeScript, Next.js, React, SurrealDB, and LangChain, it targets researchers, students, and knowledge workers seeking control over their data and tools.
read the full Open-Notebook overview →
About silverbullet
SilverBullet is an open source, self hosted, browser based personal knowledge database that stores notes as Markdown pages and makes them programmable with Space Lua, aimed at individual knowledge workers who want a notes app they can script rather than merely configure.
read the full silverbullet overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Note Taking & Knowledge Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Note Taking & Knowledge Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Open-Notebook or silverbullet more popular?
Open-Notebook has 39,222 GitHub stars and silverbullet has 6,099. Open-Notebook has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open-Notebook and silverbullet free?
Both are open source. Open-Notebook is licensed under MIT and silverbullet under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Open-Notebook and silverbullet?
Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript and silverbullet 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, Open-Notebook or silverbullet?
Choose Open-Notebook if you want the larger community (39,222 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose silverbullet if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.