SiYuan vs Shiori

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?
FeatureSiYuanShiori
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseBookmarks & Read-It-Later
LicenseAGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, sourcedocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 45,670★ 11,574
First released20202017
ReplacesNotion, EvernotePocket, Raindrop.io

Why pick each one

Choose SiYuan if…

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

Choose Shiori if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 11.6k GitHub stars
Shiori details

Frequently asked questions

Is SiYuan or Shiori better?

Neither is universally better. SiYuan has the larger community, while Shiori is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are SiYuan and Shiori free and open-source?

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

Can I run SiYuan and Shiori with Docker?

SiYuan: yes. Shiori: yes.

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