Foam 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.
Not the right match-up?
Foam
Personal knowledge management on top of VS Code
VS
Khoj
Self-hostable AI assistant over your personal notes
| Feature | Foam | Khoj |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 17,328 | ★ 36,386 |
| First released | 2020 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Roam Research, Obsidian | Notion AI, Evernote |
Why pick each one
Choose Foam if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 17.3k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Foam or Khoj better?
Neither is universally better. Khoj has the larger community, while Foam is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Foam and Khoj free and open-source?
Yes. Foam is licensed under MIT and Khoj under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Foam and Khoj with Docker?
Foam: check the project docs for container support. Khoj: yes.