head to head · open source
wiki vs flatnotes
wiki has 28,937 GitHub stars, 3,314 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped yesterday. flatnotes has 3,224 stars, 214 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. wiki leads on adoption by 798% (28,937 vs 3,224 stars). wiki is written in Vue under AGPL-3.0; flatnotes is written in Vue under MIT. wiki has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, flatnotes 7%. wiki was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (markdown, wiki), 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
| wiki | flatnotes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Vue | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 214 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick wiki if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick flatnotes if
- You want the flatnotes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and flatnotes fits your workflow better
About wiki
Wiki.js is a modern, lightweight wiki application built on NodeJS and distributed as open source under the AGPL 3.0 licence, aimed at teams and organisations that want to publish and maintain their own documentation and knowledge base rather than renting a hosted one.
About flatnotes
flatnotes is a self hosted, database less note taking web app that keeps every note as a Markdown file in a flat folder, built for individuals and small teams who want a browser based editor without handing ownership of their notes to a hosted service.
read the full flatnotes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is wiki or flatnotes more popular?
wiki has 28,937 GitHub stars and flatnotes has 3,224. wiki has the larger community by that measure.
Are wiki and flatnotes free?
Both are open source. wiki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and flatnotes under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wiki and flatnotes?
wiki is written in Vue and flatnotes in Vue. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, wiki or flatnotes?
Choose wiki if you want the larger community (28,937 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose flatnotes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.