SHSelfHostIndex

SiYuan vs Turtl

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?
SI SiYuan Privacy-first personal knowledge management system VS TU Turtl Encrypted note-taking and bookmarking for privacy
FeatureSiYuanTurtl
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseAGPL-3.0GPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, sourcebare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 45,670★ 632
First released20202014
ReplacesNotion, EvernoteEvernote, Google Keep

Why pick each one

Choose SiYuan if…

  • Powerful block-based model
  • Works offline and self-hosted
SiYuan details

Choose Turtl if…

  • Strong privacy guarantees
  • Stores notes, files, and bookmarks
Turtl details

Frequently asked questions

Is SiYuan or Turtl 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 SiYuan and Turtl free and open-source?

Yes. SiYuan is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Turtl under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run SiYuan and Turtl with Docker?

SiYuan: yes. Turtl: check the project docs for container support.

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