head to head · open source
SiYuan vs brain.md
SiYuan has 46,493 GitHub stars, 3,025 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped today. brain.md has 553 stars, 51 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 8,307% (46,493 vs 553 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; brain.md is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. SiYuan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, brain.md 9%. SiYuan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (markdown), 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
| SiYuan | brain.md | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 553 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-25 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 51 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SiYuan if
- You weight community size — 46K 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 brain.md if
- You want the brain.md feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and brain.md fits your workflow better
About SiYuan
SiYuan is an open source, self hosted knowledge management system built for privacy first workflows. It operates as a local first workspace where users store data in encrypted repositories on their own infrastructure, avoiding reliance on third party cloud services. The project lives in the productivity and utilities ecosystem, specifically targeting note taking and knowledge management use cases, and positions itself as a privacy respecting alternative to Notion.
read the full SiYuan overview →
About brain.md
brain.md is an open, agent agnostic, file based memory layer for coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex, distributed as a zero dependency JavaScript CLI under the Apache 2.0 licence, and it is aimed at developers and teams who want a project's durable decisions, requirements and constraints to survive beyond a single chat session.
read the full brain.md overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or brain.md more popular?
SiYuan has 46,493 GitHub stars and brain.md has 553. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and brain.md free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and brain.md under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and brain.md?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and brain.md in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, SiYuan or brain.md?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (46,493 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose brain.md if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.