SHSelfHostIndex

Many Notes vs SiYuan

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?
MA Many Notes Markdown note-taking web app designed for simplicity VS SI SiYuan Privacy-first personal knowledge management system
FeatureMany NotesSiYuan
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguagePHPTypeScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, sourcedocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 1,037★ 45,670
First released20242020
ReplacesObsidian, NotionNotion, Evernote

Why pick each one

Choose Many Notes if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (1k GitHub stars)
  • Written in PHP
Many Notes details

Choose SiYuan if…

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

Frequently asked questions

Is Many Notes or SiYuan better?

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

Are Many Notes and SiYuan free and open-source?

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

Can I run Many Notes and SiYuan with Docker?

Many Notes: yes. SiYuan: yes.

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