nb Notes 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?
nb Notes
Command-line note-taking, bookmarking, and archiving tool
VS
SiYuan
Privacy-first personal knowledge management system
| Feature | nb Notes | SiYuan |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Shell | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 8,343 | ★ 45,670 |
| First released | 2019 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Evernote, Notion | Notion, Evernote |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is nb Notes or SiYuan better?
Neither is universally better. SiYuan has the larger community, while nb Notes is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are nb Notes and SiYuan free and open-source?
Yes. nb Notes is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SiYuan under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run nb Notes and SiYuan with Docker?
nb Notes: check the project docs for container support. SiYuan: yes.