head to head · open source
Tolaria vs saber
Tolaria has 19,834 GitHub stars, 1,380 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. saber has 4,817 stars, 371 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Tolaria leads on adoption by 312% (19,834 vs 4,817 stars). Tolaria is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; saber is written in Dart under GPL-3.0. Tolaria has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, saber 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 | saber | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 371 |
| 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 saber if
- You want the saber feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and saber fits your workflow better
About Tolaria
Tolaria is an open source desktop application for macOS, Windows, and Linux, written in TypeScript and licensed under AGPL 3.0. It manages markdown knowledge bases as local files, with each vault stored as a Git repository. The project lives in the personal knowledge management ecosystem as a local first, Git native tool for second brains, company documentation used as AI context, and assistant memory or procedures.
read the full Tolaria overview →
About saber
Saber is a cross platform, open source handwriting notes app for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS and Windows, built for students, professionals and anyone else who writes by hand on a screen and wants their notes to stay on their own terms.
read the full saber overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tolaria or saber more popular?
Tolaria has 19,834 GitHub stars and saber has 4,817. Tolaria has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tolaria and saber free?
Both are open source. Tolaria is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and saber under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tolaria and saber?
Tolaria is written in TypeScript and saber in Dart. 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 saber?
Choose Tolaria if you want the larger community (19,834 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose saber if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.