head to head · open source
SiYuan vs marksman
SiYuan has 46,436 GitHub stars, 3,011 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped today. marksman has 3,343 stars, 72 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 1,289% (46,436 vs 3,343 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; marksman is written in F# under MIT. SiYuan has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, marksman 2%. 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 | marksman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | F# |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 72 |
| 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 marksman if
- You want the marksman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches F#
- You evaluated both and marksman 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 marksman
Marksman is an MIT licensed Markdown language server, written in F , that brings code assist features such as completion, go to definition, find references, rename refactoring and diagnostics into any editor that speaks the Language Server Protocol, and it is aimed at writers and note takers who maintain Markdown documents and Zettelkasten style wikilink notes.
read the full marksman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or marksman more popular?
SiYuan has 46,436 GitHub stars and marksman has 3,343. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and marksman free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and marksman under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and marksman?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and marksman in F#. 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 marksman?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (46,436 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose marksman if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.