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.
Obsidian
Local-first knowledge base on a folder of Markdown files
VS
SiYuan
Privacy-first personal knowledge management system
| Feature | Obsidian | SiYuan |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 96 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| 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 | ★ 21,797 | ★ 46,488 |
| First released | 2020 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Evernote, Notion, OneNote | Notion, Evernote |
What are Obsidian and SiYuan?
Obsidian
Obsidian is a powerful personal knowledge base that works on a local folder of plain Markdown files. While the app is proprietary, your notes remain fully local and portable, and self-hosted sync is possible via plugins.
- Plain Markdown file storage
- Bidirectional links and graph view
- Large community plugin ecosystem
- Local-first and private
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
Obsidian vs SiYuan: key differences
Obsidian is written in JavaScript, while SiYuan is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — Proprietary for Obsidian versus AGPL-3.0 for SiYuan. Obsidian 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 21,797. SiYuan lists first-class Docker deployment; Obsidian does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Obsidian if…
- Notes stay portable and local
- Highly extensible
Watch out for
- Core app is closed source
- Official sync is a paid service
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 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.
Which is lighter on resources, Obsidian or SiYuan?
Obsidian 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.