org-roam vs Trilium Notes
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
Trilium Notes
Hierarchical note-taking for building knowledge bases
| Feature | org-roam | Trilium Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Emacs Lisp | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,007 | ★ 37,298 |
| First released | 2020 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Roam Research, Obsidian | Evernote, Notion |
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
Choose Trilium Notes if…
- Powerful for big knowledge bases
- Flexible structure
- Scriptable
Frequently asked questions
Is org-roam or Trilium Notes better?
Trilium Notes is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider org-roam if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are org-roam and Trilium Notes free and open-source?
Yes. org-roam is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Trilium Notes under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run org-roam and Trilium Notes with Docker?
org-roam: check the project docs for container support. Trilium Notes: yes.