head to head · open source
SiYuan vs silverbullet
SiYuan has 46,422 GitHub stars, 3,011 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. silverbullet has 6,093 stars, 482 forks, 345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SiYuan leads on adoption by 662% (46,422 vs 6,093 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; silverbullet is written in TypeScript under MIT. SiYuan has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, silverbullet 8%. 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 | silverbullet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 482 |
| 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 silverbullet if
- You want the silverbullet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and silverbullet 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 silverbullet
SilverBullet is an open source, self hosted, browser based personal knowledge database that stores notes as Markdown pages and makes them programmable with Space Lua, aimed at individual knowledge workers who want a notes app they can script rather than merely configure.
read the full silverbullet overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or silverbullet more popular?
SiYuan has 46,422 GitHub stars and silverbullet has 6,093. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and silverbullet free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and silverbullet under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and silverbullet?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and silverbullet 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 silverbullet?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (46,422 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose silverbullet if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.