Tangent Notes 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?
Tangent Notes
Local-first Markdown note editor with linked notes
VS
org-roam
Plain-text personal knowledge management for Emacs
| Feature | Tangent Notes | org-roam |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Emacs Lisp |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source | source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 534 | ★ 6,007 |
| First released | 2022 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Obsidian, Roam Research | Roam Research, Obsidian |
Why pick each one
Choose Tangent Notes if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in TypeScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
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 Tangent Notes or org-roam better?
Neither is universally better. org-roam has the larger community, while Tangent Notes is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Tangent Notes and org-roam free and open-source?
Yes. Tangent Notes is licensed under MIT and org-roam under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Tangent Notes and org-roam with Docker?
Tangent Notes: check the project docs for container support. org-roam: check the project docs for container support.