head to head · open source
SiYuan vs fsnotes
SiYuan has 46,422 GitHub stars, 3,011 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fsnotes has 7,494 stars, 578 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SiYuan leads on adoption by 519% (46,422 vs 7,494 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; fsnotes is written in Swift under MIT. SiYuan has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, fsnotes 8%. fsnotes 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 | ★ 46K | ★ 7.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 578 |
| 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 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
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 fsnotes
FSNotes is a fast, native Markdown and plain text note taking app for macOS and iOS, written in Swift 5 and released under the MIT licence, built for people who want their notes kept as portable files rather than inside a proprietary database.
read the full fsnotes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or fsnotes more popular?
SiYuan has 46,422 GitHub stars and fsnotes has 7,494. 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 (46,422 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose fsnotes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.