Laverna vs TagSpaces

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?
FeatureLavernaTagSpaces
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseBookmarks & Read-It-Later
LicenseMPL-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageJavaScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcedocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 9,182★ 5,224
First released20142014
ReplacesEvernote, SimplenoteEvernote, Raindrop.io

Why pick each one

Choose Laverna if…

  • Strong privacy focus
  • No backend required
Laverna details

Choose TagSpaces if…

  • Strong privacy
  • Cross-platform
TagSpaces details

Frequently asked questions

Is Laverna or TagSpaces better?

Neither is universally better. Laverna has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Laverna and TagSpaces free and open-source?

Yes. Laverna is licensed under MPL-2.0 and TagSpaces under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Laverna and TagSpaces with Docker?

Laverna: check the project docs for container support. TagSpaces: yes.

Related comparisons