HelixNotes vs kuku

Comparing two open source alternatives to Obsidian and Notion and Evernote and Microsoft OneNote. Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.

HelixNotes

AGPL-3.0

A fast, privacy-first local markdown note-taking app built with Tauri and SvelteKit. Your notes stay as plain .md files on your device.

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kuku

MIT

Open-source local-first Markdown workspace for macOS with wiki, AI editing, and encrypted sync.

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Side-by-side comparison

	HelixNotes	kuku
License	AGPL-3.0	MIT
Self-hostable	No	Yes
GitHub Stars	155	226
Forks	15	42
Open Issues	57	7
Last Commit	Jul 23, 2026	Sep 6, 2026
First Released	Feb 9, 2026	Jan 28, 2026
Categories	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools Wiki Software
Tags	#markdown #notes #knowledge-management #productivity #privacy	#markdown #note taking #wiki #local-first #ai

GitHub stars over time

HelixNotes

kuku226

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