QOwnNotes vs TagSpaces

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureQOwnNotesTagSpaces
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseBookmarks & Read-It-Later
LicenseGPL-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageC++TypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcedocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 5,836★ 5,224
First released20142014
ReplacesEvernote, OneNoteEvernote, Raindrop.io

Why pick each one

Choose QOwnNotes if…

  • Pairs well with Nextcloud
  • Notes remain plain files
QOwnNotes details

Choose TagSpaces if…

  • Strong privacy
  • Cross-platform
TagSpaces details

Frequently asked questions

Is QOwnNotes or TagSpaces better?

Neither is universally better. QOwnNotes has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are QOwnNotes and TagSpaces free and open-source?

Yes. QOwnNotes is licensed under GPL-2.0 and TagSpaces under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run QOwnNotes and TagSpaces with Docker?

QOwnNotes: check the project docs for container support. TagSpaces: yes.

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