head to head · open source
TidGi-Desktop vs gtoolkit
TidGi-Desktop has 2,002 GitHub stars, 116 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. gtoolkit has 1,572 stars, 69 forks, 332 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TidGi-Desktop leads on adoption by 27% (2,002 vs 1,572 stars). TidGi-Desktop is written in TypeScript under MPL-2.0; gtoolkit is written in Smalltalk under MIT. TidGi-Desktop has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, gtoolkit 4%. gtoolkit was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (knowledge-management, notebook), 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
| TidGi-Desktop | gtoolkit | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.0K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Smalltalk |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 116 | ⑂ 69 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick TidGi-Desktop if
- You weight community size — 2.0K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gtoolkit if
- You want the gtoolkit feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Smalltalk
- You evaluated both and gtoolkit fits your workflow better
About TidGi-Desktop
TidGi Desktop is a free, MPL 2.0 licensed, cross platform desktop note taking and knowledge management application built on TiddlyWiki and running as an Electron app, aimed at people who want their notes stored locally as files they own, backed up to Git automatically, and optionally published as a blog.
read the full TidGi-Desktop overview →
About gtoolkit
Glamorous Toolkit is the Moldable Development Environment, an MIT licensed Smalltalk environment that replaces code reading with deterministic contextual tools, aimed at developers and teams who need to make large systems — and the AI generated code flowing into them — explainable, and who are willing to program the environment itself.
read the full gtoolkit overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is TidGi-Desktop or gtoolkit more popular?
TidGi-Desktop has 2,002 GitHub stars and gtoolkit has 1,572. TidGi-Desktop has the larger community by that measure.
Are TidGi-Desktop and gtoolkit free?
Both are open source. TidGi-Desktop is licensed under MPL-2.0 and gtoolkit under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between TidGi-Desktop and gtoolkit?
TidGi-Desktop is written in TypeScript and gtoolkit in Smalltalk. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, TidGi-Desktop or gtoolkit?
Choose TidGi-Desktop if you want the larger community (2,002 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose gtoolkit if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.