org-roam vs SilverBullet
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?
org-roam
Plain-text personal knowledge management for Emacs
VS
SilverBullet
Hackable note-taking for the self-hosted web
| Feature | org-roam | SilverBullet |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Emacs Lisp | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,007 | ★ 5,796 |
| First released | 2020 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Roam Research, Obsidian | Notion, Obsidian |
Why pick each one
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 org-roam or SilverBullet better?
Neither is universally better. org-roam has the larger community, while SilverBullet is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are org-roam and SilverBullet free and open-source?
Yes. org-roam is licensed under GPL-3.0 and SilverBullet under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run org-roam and SilverBullet with Docker?
org-roam: check the project docs for container support. SilverBullet: yes.