Mark Text 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?
Compare Mark Text with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Joplin Plane Logseq Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Karakeep ArchiveBox Focalboard Notable Docmost Super Productivity Wekan Obsidian Linkwarden BookStack Foam Omnivore OpenProject Notesnook Habitica Self-Hosted Zettlr VNote Wallabag Planka Self-hosted LiveSync Shiori Leantime Linkding Blinko git-bug Kanboard Laverna Anytype Reor nb Notes Floccus Dillinger Kaneo Buku Athens Research org-roam Taskwarrior Markor Sync Livebook QOwnNotes SilverBullet TagSpaces DokuWiki Mindforger Web CherryTree Shaarli Pinry Flatnotes Dnote Trilium Notes Next NoteDiscovery MindForger WizNote BatNoter Notea AppFlowy Cloud Jotty Atomic Server Knowledge RocketNotes QuillPad Beavers Notes Outline Desktop Writing Many Notes Notabase Notesnook Sync Server mdSilo Note Mark Turtl RedNotebook Tangent Notes DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes WiseMapping MyTetra Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx QST
Compare SiYuan with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Joplin Plane Logseq Paperless-ngx Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Karakeep ArchiveBox Focalboard Notable Docmost Super Productivity Wekan Obsidian Linkwarden BookStack Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Omnivore OpenProject Notesnook Gollum Habitica Self-Hosted Zettlr Quartz VNote Wallabag MarkText Workspace Planka Self-hosted LiveSync Shiori Leantime Linkding Blinko git-bug Kanboard Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor nb Notes Floccus Dillinger Kaneo Buku Athens Research org-roam Taskwarrior Markor Sync Livebook QOwnNotes SilverBullet TagSpaces Papra DokuWiki Mindforger Web CherryTree Shaarli Pinry Archivy Flatnotes Dnote Trilium Notes Next NoteDiscovery MindForger WizNote BatNoter Notea AppFlowy Cloud Jotty Atomic Server Knowledge RocketNotes QuillPad Beavers Notes Outline Desktop Writing Many Notes Notabase Notesnook Sync Server mdSilo Note Mark Turtl RedNotebook Tangent Notes DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes WiseMapping MyTetra Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx QST
Feature Mark Text SiYuan Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License MIT AGPL-3.0 Language TypeScript TypeScript Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 512 MB Deployment source docker, binary, source GitHub stars ★ 59,781 ★ 45,670 First released 2017 2020 Replaces Typora Notion, Evernote
Why pick each one
Choose Mark Text if… Released under the MIT license Easy to set up — beginner-friendly Mature project with 59.8k GitHub stars Written in TypeScript Mark Text details Choose SiYuan if… Powerful block-based model Works offline and self-hosted SiYuan details
Frequently asked questions Is Mark Text or SiYuan better? Mark Text is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider SiYuan if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Mark Text and SiYuan free and open-source? Yes. Mark Text is licensed under MIT and SiYuan under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mark Text and SiYuan with Docker? Mark Text: check the project docs for container support. SiYuan: yes.