head to head · open source
Tolaria vs vnote
Tolaria has 20,464 GitHub stars, 1,413 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped today. vnote has 13,032 stars, 1,296 forks, 270 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tolaria leads on adoption by 57% (20,464 vs 13,032 stars). Tolaria is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; vnote is written in C++ under LGPL-3.0. Tolaria has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, vnote 10%. 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 | vnote | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 13K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-06 | 2026-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 vnote if
- You want the vnote feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and vnote 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 vnote
VNote 简体中文 Project on Gitee A pleasant note taking platform. For more information, please visit VNote's Home Page . Description VNote is a Qt based, free and open source note taking application, focusing on Markdown now. VNote is designed to provide a pleasant note taking platform with excellent editing experience. VNote is NOT just a simple editor for Markdown. By providing notes management, VNote makes taking notes in Markdown simpler. In the future, VNote will support more formats besides Markdown. Utilizing Qt, VNote could run on Linux , Windows , and macOS . Downloads Continuous builds on master branch…
read the full vnote overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tolaria or vnote more popular?
Tolaria has 20,464 GitHub stars and vnote has 13,032. Tolaria has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tolaria and vnote free?
Both are open source. Tolaria is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and vnote under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tolaria and vnote?
Tolaria is written in TypeScript and vnote in C++. 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 vnote?
Choose Tolaria if you want the larger community (20,464 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose vnote if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.