polarvsTrilium Notes
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| polar | Trilium Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71/100 | 83/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 13 in Billing | #2 of 42 in Knowledge Management |
| GitHub stars | 10 436 | 38 611 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +157 | +636 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 14 |
| Latest release | @polar-sh/cli@3.0.0 · 16 Oct 2026 | v0.106.1 · 23 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Advanced | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Main language | Python | Typescript |
Which one should you pick?
Trilium Notes scores 83/100 against 71/100 for polar, so it is the safer default.
Trilium Notes ships more often: 14 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for polar.
If you want the quickest setup, Trilium Notes is easier to run; polar needs more configuration.
Trilium Notes is growing faster right now (+636 stars in 30 days).
polar details →Trilium Notes details →
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