Khoj vs nb Notes
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Khoj
Self-hostable AI assistant over your personal notes
VS
nb Notes
Command-line note-taking, bookmarking, and archiving tool
| Feature | Khoj | nb Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 94 · Excellent | 92 · Excellent |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 37,485 | ★ 8,410 |
| First released | 2021 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Notion AI, Evernote | Evernote, Notion |
What are Khoj and nb Notes?
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
nb Notes
nb is a command-line and local web tool for plain-text note-taking, bookmarking, and archiving with Git-backed versioning and syncing. It works entirely in the terminal and supports encryption.
- Plain-text notes and bookmarks
- Git-backed sync
- Optional encryption
- Tagging and search
Khoj vs nb Notes: key differences
Khoj is written in Python, while nb Notes is built with Shell. Nb Notes is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Khoj. Nb Notes is the more established project (first released 2019), while Khoj arrived in 2021. Khoj has the considerably larger community, at 37,485 GitHub stars versus 8,410. Khoj lists first-class Docker deployment; nb Notes does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Khoj if…
- Turns notes into an AI knowledge base
- Supports local LLMs
Watch out for
- Higher resource needs
- Setup more involved
Choose nb Notes if…
- Powerful for terminal users
- Versioned with Git
Watch out for
- Command-line only
- No graphical client
Frequently asked questions
Is Khoj or nb Notes better?
Neither is universally better. Khoj has the larger community, while nb Notes is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Khoj and nb Notes free and open-source?
Yes. Khoj is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and nb Notes under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Khoj and nb Notes with Docker?
Khoj: yes. nb Notes: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Khoj or nb Notes?
nb Notes has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Khoj. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.