head to head · open source
Tolaria vs fsnotes
Tolaria has 20,450 GitHub stars, 1,412 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fsnotes has 7,562 stars, 588 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Tolaria leads on adoption by 170% (20,450 vs 7,562 stars). Tolaria is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; fsnotes is written in Swift under MIT. Tolaria has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, fsnotes 8%. Tolaria 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
| Tolaria | fsnotes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 588 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tolaria if
- You weight community size — 20K 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 fsnotes if
- You want the fsnotes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and fsnotes fits your workflow better
About Tolaria
💧 Tolaria Tolaria is a desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux for managing markdown knowledge bases . People use it for a variety of use cases: Operate second brains and personal knowledge Organize company docs as context for AI Store OpenClaw/assistants memory and procedures Personally, I use it to run my life (hey 👋 Luca here). I have a massive workspace of 10,000+ notes, which are the result of my Refactoring work + a ton of personal journaling and second braining . Sponsors Tolaria is supported by a small panel of tools that help keep the project healthy, tested, and ready for AI assisted development. I…
read the full Tolaria overview →
About fsnotes
FSNotes 简体中文 · 繁體中文 Own your notes. Find them instantly. FSNotes is a fast, native notes app for macOS and iOS. It gives you a focused writing experience while keeping every note in portable Markdown or plain text files—not a proprietary database. Why choose FSNotes No lock in. Open and edit your notes with any compatible app, now or years from now. Fast at any scale. Search and navigate smoothly across collections of 10,000+ notes. Built around your workflow. Use multiple folders, external editors, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, and optional Git backups. More than basic Markdown. Connect ideas with tags and [[links]]…
read the full fsnotes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tolaria or fsnotes more popular?
Tolaria has 20,450 GitHub stars and fsnotes has 7,562. Tolaria has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tolaria and fsnotes free?
Both are open source. Tolaria is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and fsnotes under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tolaria and fsnotes?
Tolaria is written in TypeScript and fsnotes in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Tolaria or fsnotes?
Choose Tolaria if you want the larger community (20,450 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose fsnotes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.