NoteDiscovery vs org-roam
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?
NoteDiscovery
Self-hosted Markdown knowledge base with graph view
VS
org-roam
Plain-text personal knowledge management for Emacs
| Feature | NoteDiscovery | org-roam |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | Emacs Lisp |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,735 | ★ 6,007 |
| First released | 2024 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Obsidian, Notion | Roam Research, Obsidian |
Why pick each one
Choose NoteDiscovery if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Choose org-roam if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 6k GitHub stars
- Written in Emacs Lisp
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is NoteDiscovery or org-roam better?
Neither is universally better. org-roam has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are NoteDiscovery and org-roam free and open-source?
Yes. NoteDiscovery is licensed under MIT and org-roam under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run NoteDiscovery and org-roam with Docker?
NoteDiscovery: yes. org-roam: check the project docs for container support.