head to head · open source
Tolaria vs saber
Tolaria has 20,450 GitHub stars, 1,412 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped yesterday. saber has 5,011 stars, 421 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Tolaria leads on adoption by 308% (20,450 vs 5,011 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 | ★ 5.0K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 421 |
| 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 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 saber
Saber [ ][google play] [ ][f droid] [ ][app store] [ ][download windows] [ ][flathub] [ ][download appimage] English čeština Deutsch 中文 (简体中文, 中国) 中文 (繁體, 台灣) العربية Tiếng Việt Saber is the notes app built for handwriting. It's designed to be as simple and intuitive as possible, while still delivering unique features that you'll actually use. Additionally, Saber is available across all your devices, large and small, and syncs between them seamlessly. Notably, it can invert your notes when you're in dark mode. This allows you to write with white ink on a black background, which is much easier on the eyes in low…
read the full saber overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tolaria or saber more popular?
Tolaria has 20,450 GitHub stars and saber has 5,011. 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 (20,450 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.