Taskwarrior vs Trilium Notes
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?
Taskwarrior
Command-line task management done right
VS
Trilium Notes
Hierarchical note-taking for building knowledge bases
| Feature | Taskwarrior | Trilium Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,996 | ★ 37,298 |
| First released | 2008 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Todoist, Things | Evernote, Notion |
Why pick each one
Choose Taskwarrior if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 6k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
Choose Trilium Notes if…
- Powerful for big knowledge bases
- Flexible structure
- Scriptable
Frequently asked questions
Is Taskwarrior or Trilium Notes better?
Neither is universally better. Trilium Notes has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Taskwarrior and Trilium Notes free and open-source?
Yes. Taskwarrior is licensed under MIT and Trilium Notes under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Taskwarrior and Trilium Notes with Docker?
Taskwarrior: check the project docs for container support. Trilium Notes: yes.