head to head · open source
SiYuan vs Lorien
SiYuan has 46,422 GitHub stars, 3,011 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lorien has 6,797 stars, 306 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 583% (46,422 vs 6,797 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Lorien is written in GDScript under MIT. SiYuan has attracted 6% 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 | ★ 46K | ★ 6.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | GDScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 306 |
| 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 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
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 Lorien
Lorien is an infinite canvas drawing and whiteboarding application for Windows, Linux and macOS, built with the Godot game engine and aimed at people who want a fast, simple digital notebook for note taking, brainstorming and light diagramming.
read the full Lorien overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or Lorien more popular?
SiYuan has 46,422 GitHub stars and Lorien has 6,797. 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 (46,422 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Lorien if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.