Kanboard vs SiYuan

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureKanboardSiYuan
CategoryProject Management & TasksNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguagePHPTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 9,776★ 45,670
First released20142020
ReplacesTrelloNotion, Evernote

Why pick each one

Choose Kanboard if…

  • Very lightweight
  • Easy to learn
  • Stable
Kanboard details

Choose SiYuan if…

  • Powerful block-based model
  • Works offline and self-hosted
SiYuan details

Frequently asked questions

Is Kanboard or SiYuan better?

Neither is universally better. SiYuan has the larger community, while Kanboard is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Kanboard and SiYuan free and open-source?

Yes. Kanboard is licensed under MIT and SiYuan under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Kanboard and SiYuan with Docker?

Kanboard: yes. SiYuan: yes.

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