head to head · open source
SiYuan vs projectmem
SiYuan has 47,112 GitHub stars, 3,099 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. projectmem has 875 stars, 53 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 5,284% (47,112 vs 875 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; projectmem is written in Python under MIT. SiYuan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, projectmem 6%. SiYuan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (agentic-ai), 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 | projectmem | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 875 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-07 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 53 |
| 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 projectmem if
- You want the projectmem feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and projectmem 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 projectmem
🎉 v0.3.3 is out — pjm precheck no longer slows down as your project grows, and Windows works end to end. See what changed → We don't make AI smarter. We make it experienced. Coding agent memory — the local first memory + judgment layer for AI coding agents. One MCP server for every project. Save up to 50%+ of AI tokens. Stop repeating yesterday's bug. Website • Guide • Demo • Changelog • Paper pjm visualize — every case your project solved, what failed on the way, and what it saved. Generated locally from .projectmem/events.jsonl . 🚀 Start here — five minutes, once Five minutes if you follow along here. Want…
read the full projectmem overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or projectmem more popular?
SiYuan has 47,112 GitHub stars and projectmem has 875. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and projectmem free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and projectmem under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and projectmem?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and projectmem 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 projectmem?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (47,112 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose projectmem if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.