Obsidian 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?
Compare Obsidian with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Joplin Logseq Paperless-ngx Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Focalboard Notable Docmost BookStack Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Notesnook Gollum Zettlr Quartz VNote MarkText Workspace Self-hosted LiveSync Leantime Blinko Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor nb Notes Markor Sync QOwnNotes TagSpaces Papra Mindforger Web CherryTree Archivy Flatnotes Dnote Trilium Notes Next MindForger WizNote Zim QuillPad Beavers Notes Notesnook Sync Server OutWiker Tiddloid MyTetra WikidPad
Compare SiYuan with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Joplin Plane Logseq Paperless-ngx Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Karakeep ArchiveBox Focalboard Notable Docmost Super Productivity Wekan Linkwarden BookStack Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Omnivore OpenProject Notesnook Gollum Habitica Self-Hosted Zettlr Quartz VNote Wallabag MarkText Workspace Planka Self-hosted LiveSync Shiori Leantime Linkding Blinko git-bug Kanboard Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor nb Notes Floccus Dillinger Kaneo Buku Athens Research org-roam Taskwarrior Markor Sync Livebook QOwnNotes SilverBullet TagSpaces Papra DokuWiki Mindforger Web CherryTree Shaarli Pinry Archivy Flatnotes Dnote Trilium Notes Next NoteDiscovery MindForger WizNote BatNoter Notea AppFlowy Cloud Jotty Atomic Server Knowledge RocketNotes QuillPad Beavers Notes Outline Desktop Writing Many Notes Notabase Notesnook Sync Server mdSilo Note Mark Turtl RedNotebook Tangent Notes DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes WiseMapping MyTetra Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx QST
Feature Obsidian SiYuan Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License Proprietary AGPL-3.0 Language JavaScript TypeScript Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 512 MB Deployment binary docker, binary, source GitHub stars ★ 20,632 ★ 45,670 First released 2020 2020 Replaces Evernote, Notion, OneNote Notion, Evernote
Why pick each one
Choose Obsidian if… Notes stay portable and local Highly extensible Obsidian details Choose SiYuan if… Powerful block-based model Works offline and self-hosted SiYuan details
Frequently asked questions Is Obsidian or SiYuan better? Neither is universally better. SiYuan has the larger community, while Obsidian is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Obsidian and SiYuan free and open-source? Yes. Obsidian is licensed under Proprietary and SiYuan under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Obsidian and SiYuan with Docker? Obsidian: check the project docs for container support. SiYuan: yes.