head to head · open source
SiYuan vs Lorien
SiYuan has 47,039 GitHub stars, 3,095 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lorien has 6,871 stars, 315 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 1.1 years ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 585% (47,039 vs 6,871 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Lorien is written in GDScript under MIT. SiYuan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Lorien 5%. 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 | Lorien | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 6.9K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | GDScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 315 |
| 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 Lorien if
- You want the Lorien feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches GDScript
- You evaluated both and Lorien 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 Lorien
Lorien Lorien is an infinite canvas drawing/note taking app that is focused on performance, small savefiles and simplicity . It's not based on bitmap images like Krita, Gimp or Photoshop; it rather saves brush strokes as a collection of points and renders them at runtime (kind of like SVG). It's primarily designed to be used as a digital notebook and as brainstorming tool. While it can totally be used to make small sketches and diagrams, it is not meant to replace traditional art programs that operate on bitmap images. It is entirely written in the Godot Game Engine. For an overview on how to use Lorien have a…
read the full Lorien overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or Lorien more popular?
SiYuan has 47,039 GitHub stars and Lorien has 6,871. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and Lorien free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Lorien under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and Lorien?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and Lorien in GDScript. 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 Lorien?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (47,039 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Lorien if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.