head to head · open source
wiki vs nowen-note
wiki has 28,938 GitHub stars, 3,314 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nowen-note has 523 stars, 79 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. wiki leads on adoption by 5,433% (28,938 vs 523 stars). wiki is written in Vue under AGPL-3.0; nowen-note is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. wiki has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, nowen-note 15%. wiki was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | nowen-note | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 523 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Vue | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 79 |
| 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 nowen-note if
- You want the nowen-note feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and nowen-note 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 nowen-note
Nowen Note (弄文笔记) is a GPL 3.0, self hosted knowledge base, daily journal and task workspace written in TypeScript for individuals and teams who want their notes, attachments and indexes to live on their own NAS or server.
read the full nowen-note overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is wiki or nowen-note more popular?
wiki has 28,938 GitHub stars and nowen-note has 523. wiki has the larger community by that measure.
Are wiki and nowen-note free?
Both are open source. wiki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and nowen-note under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wiki and nowen-note?
wiki is written in Vue and nowen-note in TypeScript. 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 nowen-note?
Choose wiki if you want the larger community (28,938 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose nowen-note if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.