Pinry vs SiYuan
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?
Pinry
Tiling image board and bookmark system for visual collections
VS
SiYuan
Privacy-first personal knowledge management system
| Feature | Pinry | SiYuan |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Bookmarks & Read-It-Later | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,402 | ★ 45,670 |
| First released | 2012 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Pinterest, Raindrop.io | Notion, Evernote |
Why pick each one
Choose Pinry if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Pinry 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 Pinry and SiYuan free and open-source?
Yes. Pinry is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and SiYuan under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pinry and SiYuan with Docker?
Pinry: yes. SiYuan: yes.