Foam vs Many Notes
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Many Notes
Markdown note-taking web app designed for simplicity
| Feature | Foam | Many Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 83 · Excellent |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 17,415 | ★ 1,087 |
| First released | 2020 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Roam Research, Obsidian | Obsidian, Notion |
What are Foam and Many Notes?
Foam
Foam is a personal knowledge management and sharing system built as a set of extensions and conventions for Visual Studio Code. It turns a folder of Markdown files into a linked, navigable knowledge base.
- Wiki-style links
- Graph visualization
- Plain Markdown files
- VS Code integration
Many Notes
Many Notes is a self-hosted Markdown note-taking web application built with Laravel. It supports multiple vaults per user, links and backlinks, tags, templates, and OAuth login from many providers.
- Multiple vaults per user
- Links, backlinks, and tags
- Smart Markdown editor
- Wide OAuth provider support
Foam vs Many Notes: key differences
Foam is written in TypeScript, while Many Notes is built with PHP. Foam is the more established project (first released 2020), while Many Notes arrived in 2024. Foam has the considerably larger community, at 17,415 GitHub stars versus 1,087. Many Notes lists first-class Docker deployment; Foam does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Foam if…
- Plain Markdown files
- Graph visualization included
- Git-friendly by design
Watch out for
- Requires VS Code
- Less polished than Obsidian
Choose Many Notes if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
Frequently asked questions
Is Foam or Many Notes better?
Foam is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Many Notes if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Foam and Many Notes free and open-source?
Yes. Foam is licensed under MIT and Many Notes under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Foam and Many Notes with Docker?
Foam: check the project docs for container support. Many Notes: yes.