head to head · open source
Tolaria vs silverbullet
Tolaria has 19,834 GitHub stars, 1,380 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. silverbullet has 6,099 stars, 485 forks, 345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tolaria leads on adoption by 225% (19,834 vs 6,099 stars). Tolaria is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; silverbullet is written in TypeScript under MIT. Tolaria has attracted 7% 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.
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
| Tolaria | silverbullet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 485 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tolaria if
- You weight community size — 20K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 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 Tolaria
Tolaria is an open source desktop application for macOS, Windows, and Linux, written in TypeScript and licensed under AGPL 3.0. It manages markdown knowledge bases as local files, with each vault stored as a Git repository. The project lives in the personal knowledge management ecosystem as a local first, Git native tool for second brains, company documentation used as AI context, and assistant memory or procedures.
read the full Tolaria 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tolaria or silverbullet more popular?
Tolaria has 19,834 GitHub stars and silverbullet has 6,099. Tolaria has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tolaria and silverbullet free?
Both are open source. Tolaria is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and silverbullet under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tolaria and silverbullet?
Tolaria 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, Tolaria or silverbullet?
Choose Tolaria if you want the larger community (19,834 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose silverbullet if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.