head to head · open source
SiYuan vs dnote
SiYuan has 46,448 GitHub stars, 3,012 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dnote has 3,083 stars, 124 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 1,407% (46,448 vs 3,083 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; dnote is written in Go under Apache-2.0. SiYuan has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, dnote 4%. SiYuan 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.
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Side by side
| SiYuan | dnote | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-07-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 124 |
| 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 dnote if
- You want the dnote feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dnote 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 dnote
Dnote is a free, open source, single binary command line notebook for developers who want their notes kept as plain files they own rather than inside a proprietary hosted service.
read the full dnote overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or dnote more popular?
SiYuan has 46,448 GitHub stars and dnote has 3,083. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and dnote free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and dnote under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and dnote?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and dnote in Go. 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 dnote?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (46,448 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose dnote if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.