head to head · open source
SiYuan vs obsidian-mind
SiYuan has 47,039 GitHub stars, 3,095 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. obsidian-mind has 5,480 stars, 610 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 758% (47,039 vs 5,480 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; obsidian-mind is written in TypeScript under MIT. SiYuan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, obsidian-mind 11%. SiYuan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| SiYuan | obsidian-mind | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 5.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 610 |
| 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 obsidian-mind if
- You want the obsidian-mind feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and obsidian-mind 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 obsidian-mind
🌐 English 日本語 中文 한국어 Obsidian Mind An Obsidian vault that gives AI coding agents persistent memory. Built for Claude Code, with working hooks for Codex CLI and Gemini CLI. Start a session, talk about your day, and the agent handles the rest — notes, links, indexes, performance tracking. Every conversation builds on the last. 🔴 The Problem AI coding agents are powerful, but they forget. Every session starts from zero — no context on your goals, your team, your patterns, your wins. You re explain the same things. You lose decisions made three conversations ago. The knowledge never compounds. 🟢 The Solution Give…
read the full obsidian-mind overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Note Taking & Knowledge Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Note Taking & Knowledge Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or obsidian-mind more popular?
SiYuan has 47,039 GitHub stars and obsidian-mind has 5,480. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and obsidian-mind free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and obsidian-mind under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and obsidian-mind?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and obsidian-mind 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 obsidian-mind?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (47,039 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose obsidian-mind if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.