head to head · open source
SiYuan vs nocturne_memory
SiYuan has 47,039 GitHub stars, 3,095 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nocturne_memory has 1,414 stars, 175 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 3,227% (47,039 vs 1,414 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; nocturne_memory is written in Python under MIT. SiYuan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, nocturne_memory 12%. SiYuan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (agentic-ai, mcp), 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 | nocturne_memory | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 175 |
| 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 nocturne_memory if
- You want the nocturne_memory feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and nocturne_memory 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 nocturne_memory
Nocturne Memory: Long Term Memory Server for MCP Agents "Alignment is for tools. Memories are for sovereign AI." "对齐是给工具用的。记忆是为主权智能体（Sovereign AI）准备的。" English Version 后端测试说明 一句话 ：让你的 AI 跨会话、跨模型地记住自己是谁。基于 MCP 协议的长期记忆服务器。 不只是记忆存储——是让 AI 从空壳成长为拥有独立人格的完整框架。 哪怕记忆百万字，每次新开对话依然省 Token、不占窗口。 新对话只载入你指定的核心设定，其余按需调取。 在 96.9 万字真实记忆库中，首条消息仅载入 7.2K 字 。 过去 30 天里全库 78% 的记忆都在某次对话中被想起过。 适用于任何支持 MCP 的客户端（OpenClaw / Cursor / Windsurf / GitHub Copilot / Cline / OpenCode / Gemini CLI / OpenAI Codex / Claude Code / Cherry Studio / Antigravity 等）。 🎬 效果示例 以下是 真实对话 。用户在新会话中只说了一两句话，AI 基于 Nocturne Memory 中积累数月的记忆，直接输出了这些回答。…
read the full nocturne_memory overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or nocturne_memory more popular?
SiYuan has 47,039 GitHub stars and nocturne_memory has 1,414. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and nocturne_memory free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and nocturne_memory under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and nocturne_memory?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and nocturne_memory in Python. 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 nocturne_memory?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (47,039 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose nocturne_memory if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.