QST 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 QST with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Joplin Logseq Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes
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 Obsidian 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
Feature QST SiYuan Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License GPL-2.0 AGPL-3.0 Language Perl TypeScript Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 512 MB Deployment bare-metal docker, binary, source GitHub stars — ★ 45,670 First released 2020 2020 Replaces — Notion, Evernote
Why pick each one
Choose QST if… Released under the GPL-2.0 license Written in Perl Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM QST details Choose SiYuan if… Powerful block-based model Works offline and self-hosted SiYuan details
Frequently asked questions Is QST or SiYuan better? Neither is universally better. SiYuan has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are QST and SiYuan free and open-source? Yes. QST is licensed under GPL-2.0 and SiYuan under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run QST and SiYuan with Docker? QST: check the project docs for container support. SiYuan: yes.