head to head · open source
SiYuan vs saber
SiYuan has 46,422 GitHub stars, 3,011 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. saber has 4,815 stars, 371 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 864% (46,422 vs 4,815 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; saber is written in Dart under GPL-3.0. SiYuan has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, saber 8%. 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.
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Side by side
| SiYuan | saber | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 371 |
| 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 saber if
- You want the saber feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and saber 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 saber
Saber is a cross platform, open source handwriting notes app for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS and Windows, built for students, professionals and anyone else who writes by hand on a screen and wants their notes to stay on their own terms.
read the full saber overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or saber more popular?
SiYuan has 46,422 GitHub stars and saber has 4,815. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and saber free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and saber under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and saber?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and saber in Dart. 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 saber?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (46,422 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose saber if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.