head to head · open source
SiYuan vs kition
SiYuan has 46,850 GitHub stars, 3,076 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped today. kition has 520 stars, 39 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped today. SiYuan leads on adoption by 8,910% (46,850 vs 520 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; kition is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. SiYuan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, kition 8%. kition was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 6 topic tags (ai-agent, knowledge-base, local-first, 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 | kition | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 520 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-20 | 2026-10-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 39 |
| 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 kition if
- You want the kition feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and kition 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 kition
Kition English · 简体中文 · Русский · 日本語 · Tiếng Việt · Français · Deutsch · Español Documents, Tables, Whiteboards, Agents, and Workflows in one desktop workspace. Write connected knowledge, think visually, build data tools, research the web, and automate repeatable work. Download Kition Website · Releases · Discussions · Contributing · Support · Security Kition brings Markdown documents, structured table files, an infinite Whiteboard, a tool using AI agent, web research, and visual workflows into one desktop workspace. Instead of making every task begin in a blank chat, Kition gives the Agent editable project…
read the full kition overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or kition more popular?
SiYuan has 46,850 GitHub stars and kition has 520. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and kition free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and kition under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and kition?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and kition 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, SiYuan or kition?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (46,850 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kition if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.