Notable vs Notea
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Notable | Notea |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 28 · At risk | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 23,496 | ★ 2,147 |
| First released | 2018 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Evernote, Notion | Notion, Evernote |
What are Notable and Notea?
Notable
Notable is a note-taking application that stores notes as plain Markdown files on disk. It offers a clean editor, tags, and full-text search while keeping all data in portable files.
- Plain Markdown file storage
- Tag-based organization
- Full-text search
- Clean editor
Notea
Notea is an open-source, self-hosted note-taking application with a Notion-like editor that stores all data on S3-compatible object storage. It runs serverlessly and requires no traditional database.
- Notion-like editor
- Stores data on S3
- No database required
- Markdown support
Notable vs Notea: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Notea's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Notable is actively maintained. Both projects are written in TypeScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Notable versus MIT for Notea. Notable is the more established project (first released 2018), while Notea arrived in 2021. Notable has the considerably larger community, at 23,496 GitHub stars versus 2,147. Notea lists first-class Docker deployment; Notable does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Notable if…
- Notes stay as portable files
- Simple and focused
Watch out for
- Development has slowed
- Desktop only
Choose Notea if…
- Simple storage model
- Clean editing experience
Watch out for
- Development has slowed
- Single-user focused
Frequently asked questions
Is Notable or Notea better?
Notable is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Notea if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Notable and Notea free and open-source?
Yes. Notable is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Notea under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Notable and Notea with Docker?
Notable: check the project docs for container support. Notea: yes.