head to head · open source
SiYuan vs TidGi-Desktop
SiYuan has 47,064 GitHub stars, 3,097 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TidGi-Desktop has 2,011 stars, 116 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. SiYuan leads on adoption by 2,240% (47,064 vs 2,011 stars). SiYuan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; TidGi-Desktop is written in TypeScript under MPL-2.0. SiYuan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, TidGi-Desktop 6%. SiYuan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (local-first, 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 | TidGi-Desktop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 116 |
| 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 TidGi-Desktop if
- You want the TidGi-Desktop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and TidGi-Desktop 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 TidGi-Desktop
TidGi Customizable personal knowledge base with git as backup manager and blogging platform. Pronounce: Same as Tai Chi /ˌtaɪ ˈtʃiː/ 🇬🇧 English 🇨🇳 简体中文 ShowCases And Demo Demo Demo Online Web Blog Page TiddlyWiki Official Website Screenshot For mac users, since I haven't buy Apple developer key yet, so you have to entrust App to open it, click here to expand details.◀ First of all, you need to drag this App into Applications folder! Otherwise there will be an error. Click "Cancel" ↓ Click "Open" ↓ Click "OK" ↓ Or you could start the Terminal from launchpad, and run the command below, make sure your…
read the full TidGi-Desktop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SiYuan or TidGi-Desktop more popular?
SiYuan has 47,064 GitHub stars and TidGi-Desktop has 2,011. SiYuan has the larger community by that measure.
Are SiYuan and TidGi-Desktop free?
Both are open source. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and TidGi-Desktop under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SiYuan and TidGi-Desktop?
SiYuan is written in TypeScript and TidGi-Desktop 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 TidGi-Desktop?
Choose SiYuan if you want the larger community (47,064 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose TidGi-Desktop if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.