head to head · open source
wiki vs nb
wiki has 28,937 GitHub stars, 3,314 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nb has 8,406 stars, 254 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 23 days ago. wiki leads on adoption by 244% (28,937 vs 8,406 stars). wiki is written in Vue under AGPL-3.0; nb is written in Shell under AGPL-3.0. wiki has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, nb 3%. wiki was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (git, markdown), 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 | nb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 8.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Vue | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 254 |
| 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 nb if
- You want the nb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and nb 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 nb
nb is a command line and local web note taking, bookmarking, archiving, and knowledge base application distributed as a single portable shell script, aimed at people who want plain text notes, Git backed history, and local search without a hosted service.
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Frequently asked questions
Is wiki or nb more popular?
wiki has 28,937 GitHub stars and nb has 8,406. wiki has the larger community by that measure.
Are wiki and nb free?
Both are open source. wiki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and nb under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wiki and nb?
wiki is written in Vue and nb in Shell. 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 nb?
Choose wiki if you want the larger community (28,937 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose nb if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.