head to head · open source
SiYuan vs tagspaces
SiYuan has 46,422 GitHub stars, 3,011 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tagspaces has 5,286 stars, 512 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 778% (46,422 vs 5,286 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; tagspaces is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. SiYuan has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, tagspaces 10%. SiYuan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | tagspaces | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-07-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 512 |
| 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 tagspaces if
- You want the tagspaces feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and tagspaces 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 tagspaces
TagSpaces is a free, open source, offline document manager with tagging support for Windows, Linux and macOS, built for people who want to organise local files and notes without cloud services, internet access or vendor lock in.
read the full tagspaces overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or tagspaces more popular?
SiYuan has 46,422 GitHub stars and tagspaces has 5,286. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and tagspaces free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and tagspaces under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and tagspaces?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and tagspaces 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 tagspaces?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (46,422 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose tagspaces if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.