Dendron vs LeafWiki
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
LeafWiki
Lightweight self-hosted wiki with Markdown stored on disk
| Feature | Dendron | LeafWiki |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 55 · Fair | 83 · Excellent |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,470 | ★ 1,149 |
| First released | 2020 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Notion, Confluence | DokuWiki, Confluence |
What are Dendron and LeafWiki?
Dendron
Dendron is an open-source, local-first note-taking tool that works as a hierarchical personal knowledge wiki on top of VS Code. It uses a structured naming scheme to organize thousands of Markdown notes and can publish them as a static site.
- Hierarchical note schema
- Local Markdown storage
- Static site publishing
- VS Code integration
LeafWiki
LeafWiki is a lightweight self-hosted wiki for long-lived documentation that stores Markdown pages on disk in a tree structure. It ships as a single Go binary with SQLite and supports tables, task lists, footnotes, and Mermaid diagrams.
- Single Go binary deployment
- Markdown pages stored on disk
- Tree-based page organization
- Mermaid diagram support
Dendron vs LeafWiki: key differences
Dendron is written in TypeScript, while LeafWiki is built with Go. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Dendron versus MIT for LeafWiki. LeafWiki is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Dendron. Dendron is the more established project (first released 2020), while LeafWiki arrived in 2024. Dendron has the considerably larger community, at 7,470 GitHub stars versus 1,149. LeafWiki lists first-class Docker deployment; Dendron does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Dendron if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 7.5k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Tied to VS Code
- Learning curve for hierarchy
Choose LeafWiki if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Dendron or LeafWiki better?
Neither is universally better. Dendron has the larger community, while LeafWiki is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Dendron and LeafWiki free and open-source?
Yes. Dendron is licensed under GPL-3.0 and LeafWiki under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dendron and LeafWiki with Docker?
Dendron: check the project docs for container support. LeafWiki: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Dendron or LeafWiki?
LeafWiki has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Dendron. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.