head to head · open source
SiYuan vs fsnotes
SiYuan has 47,039 GitHub stars, 3,095 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fsnotes has 7,560 stars, 588 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 522% (47,039 vs 7,560 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; fsnotes is written in Swift under MIT. SiYuan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, fsnotes 8%. SiYuan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (markdown, 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 | fsnotes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 588 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SiYuan if
- You weight community size — 47K 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 fsnotes if
- You want the fsnotes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and fsnotes fits your workflow better
About SiYuan
From thought to insight, with agents English 中文 日本語 Türkçe Table of Contents 💡 Introduction 🔮 Features 🏗️ Architecture and Ecosystem 🗺️ Roadmap 🚀 Download Setup App Market Installation Package Package Manager Docker Hosting Unraid Hosting TrueNAS Hosting Test Channels ⌨️ Command line Interface 🏘️ Community 🛠️ Development Guide ❓ FAQ How does SiYuan store data? Does it support data synchronization through a third party sync disk? Is SiYuan open source? How to upgrade to a new version? What if some blocks (such as paragraph blocks in list items) cannot find the block icon? What should I do if the data repo…
read the full SiYuan overview →
About fsnotes
FSNotes 简体中文 · 繁體中文 Own your notes. Find them instantly. FSNotes is a fast, native notes app for macOS and iOS. It gives you a focused writing experience while keeping every note in portable Markdown or plain text files—not a proprietary database. Why choose FSNotes No lock in. Open and edit your notes with any compatible app, now or years from now. Fast at any scale. Search and navigate smoothly across collections of 10,000+ notes. Built around your workflow. Use multiple folders, external editors, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, and optional Git backups. More than basic Markdown. Connect ideas with tags and [[links]]…
read the full fsnotes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or fsnotes more popular?
SiYuan has 47,039 GitHub stars and fsnotes has 7,560. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and fsnotes free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and fsnotes under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and fsnotes?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and fsnotes in Swift. 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 fsnotes?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (47,039 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose fsnotes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.