Trilium Notes 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?
Trilium Notes
Hierarchical note-taking for building knowledge bases
VS
Shiori
Simple bookmark manager built with Go
| Feature | Trilium Notes | Shiori |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Bookmarks & Read-It-Later |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 37,298 | ★ 11,574 |
| First released | 2017 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Evernote, Notion | Pocket, Raindrop.io |
Why pick each one
Choose Trilium Notes if…
- Powerful for big knowledge bases
- Flexible structure
- Scriptable
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
Frequently asked questions
Is Trilium Notes or Shiori 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 Trilium Notes and Shiori free and open-source?
Yes. Trilium Notes is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Shiori under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Trilium Notes and Shiori with Docker?
Trilium Notes: yes. Shiori: yes.