Notea 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.
SiYuan
Privacy-first personal knowledge management system
| Feature | Notea | SiYuan |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 100 · Excellent |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,147 | ★ 46,488 |
| First released | 2021 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Notion, Evernote | Notion, Evernote |
What are Notea and SiYuan?
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
SiYuan
SiYuan is an open-source, privacy-first personal knowledge management system that supports block-level references and bidirectional links. It can run locally or be self-hosted for access across devices.
- Block-level referencing
- Bidirectional links
- Self-hosted or local mode
- End-to-end encrypted sync
Notea vs SiYuan: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Notea's repository is archived and no longer developed, while SiYuan is actively maintained. Both projects are written in TypeScript. Licensing differs — MIT for Notea versus AGPL-3.0 for SiYuan. Notea is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for SiYuan. SiYuan has the considerably larger community, at 46,488 GitHub stars versus 2,147.
Why pick each one
Choose Notea if…
- Simple storage model
- Clean editing experience
Watch out for
- Development has slowed
- Single-user focused
Choose SiYuan if…
- Powerful block-based model
- Works offline and self-hosted
Watch out for
- Documentation strongest in Chinese
- Some advanced features are paid
Frequently asked questions
Is Notea 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 Notea and SiYuan free and open-source?
Yes. Notea is licensed under MIT and SiYuan under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Notea and SiYuan with Docker?
Notea: yes. SiYuan: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Notea or SiYuan?
Notea has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for SiYuan. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.