Flatnotes vs Khoj
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Flatnotes
Self-hosted, database-less note-taking web app
VS
Khoj
Self-hostable AI assistant over your personal notes
| Feature | Flatnotes | Khoj |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 88 · Excellent | 94 · Excellent |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Vue | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,230 | ★ 37,485 |
| First released | 2021 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Evernote, Simplenote | Notion AI, Evernote |
What are Flatnotes and Khoj?
Flatnotes
Flatnotes is a self-hosted web application for taking notes, with a focus on simplicity and storing all notes as flat Markdown files. It has no database and keeps notes easy to back up and access.
- Flat Markdown file storage
- No database required
- Full-text search
- Clean minimal interface
Khoj
Khoj is an open-source, self-hostable AI application that lets you search and chat with your notes, documents, and knowledge base. It connects to Markdown, Org-mode, PDF, and other personal data sources.
- AI chat over personal notes
- Semantic search across documents
- Connects many data sources
- Self-hostable
Flatnotes vs Khoj: key differences
Flatnotes is written in Vue, while Khoj is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Flatnotes versus AGPL-3.0 for Khoj. Flatnotes is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Khoj. Khoj has the considerably larger community, at 37,485 GitHub stars versus 3,230.
Why pick each one
Choose Flatnotes if…
- Trivial to back up
- Very lightweight
Watch out for
- Basic feature set
- Single-user oriented
Choose Khoj if…
- Turns notes into an AI knowledge base
- Supports local LLMs
Watch out for
- Higher resource needs
- Setup more involved
Frequently asked questions
Is Flatnotes or Khoj better?
Neither is universally better. Khoj has the larger community, while Flatnotes is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Flatnotes and Khoj free and open-source?
Yes. Flatnotes is licensed under MIT and Khoj under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Flatnotes and Khoj with Docker?
Flatnotes: yes. Khoj: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Flatnotes or Khoj?
Flatnotes has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Khoj. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.