Notea vs NoteDiscovery
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
NoteDiscovery
Self-hosted Markdown knowledge base with graph view
| Feature | Notea | NoteDiscovery |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 87 · Excellent |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,147 | ★ 2,812 |
| First released | 2021 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Notion, Evernote | Obsidian, Notion |
What are Notea and NoteDiscovery?
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
NoteDiscovery
NoteDiscovery is a self-hosted Markdown knowledge base featuring wikilinks, a graph view, a drawing editor, and LaTeX and Mermaid rendering. It is designed for building and exploring a connected personal knowledge base.
- Wikilinks and graph view
- Drawing editor
- LaTeX and Mermaid support
- Self-hosted knowledge base
Notea vs NoteDiscovery: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Notea's repository is archived and no longer developed, while NoteDiscovery is actively maintained. Notea is written in TypeScript, while NoteDiscovery is built with JavaScript. Notea is the more established project (first released 2021), while NoteDiscovery arrived in 2024.
Why pick each one
Choose Notea if…
- Simple storage model
- Clean editing experience
Watch out for
- Development has slowed
- Single-user focused
Choose NoteDiscovery if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Notea or NoteDiscovery better?
Neither is universally better. NoteDiscovery has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Notea and NoteDiscovery free and open-source?
Yes. Notea is licensed under MIT and NoteDiscovery under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Notea and NoteDiscovery with Docker?
Notea: yes. NoteDiscovery: yes.