Aleph
Tool for indexing large amounts of both documents (PDF, Word, HTML) and structured (CSV, XLS, SQL) data for easy browsing and search. It is built with investigative reporting as a primary use case.
Aleph vs SiYuan
Two self-hosted Knowledge Management Tools apps, compared on the facts we track: GitHub popularity and activity, license, language, Docker images and a rough hosting estimate.
Side by side
| Aleph | SiYuan | |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Tool for indexing large amounts of both documents (PDF, Word, HTML) and structured (CSV, XLS, SQL) data for easy browsing and search. It is built with investigative reporting as a primary use case. | Privacy-first personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang. |
| GitHub stars | 2,501 | 47,089 |
| Forks | – | 3.1k |
| Open issues (incl. PRs) | – | 10 |
| Commits (12 months) | 4 | 10.2k |
| Last activity | 2025-12-19 | 2026-10-29 |
| Latest release | 4.1.7 (2025-10-27) | v3.8.10-alpha.5 (2026-11-03) |
| Maintenance health | Maintained | Active |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language / platform | Docker, K8S | Docker, Go |
| Docker Hub image | alephdata/aleph | – |
| Docker pulls | 2308.9k | – |
| Est. server size | ~2 GB, 1 vCPU | ~512 MB, 1 vCPU |
| Est. hosting from | $10/mo | $3.5/mo |
| Categories | Search Engines, Knowledge Management Tools | Knowledge Management Tools |
| Links | Website · Source | Website · Source |
What the numbers say
- SiYuan is more popular on GitHub: 47.1k stars vs 2.5k for Aleph.
- SiYuan had more commits in the last 12 months (10,170 vs 4).
- SiYuan has more recent repository activity (2026-10-29 vs 2025-12-19).
- SiYuan published a release more recently (v3.8.10-alpha.5 on 2026-11-03; Aleph's latest is 4.1.7 on 2025-10-27).
- Aleph is licensed under MIT, SiYuan under AGPL-3.0. Aleph's license is permissive; SiYuan's is copyleft (changes you distribute must stay open).
- SiYuan is written in Go; the language of Aleph is not listed upstream.
- Deployment options listed upstream: Aleph: Docker, K8S; SiYuan: Docker.
- Only Aleph has a Docker Hub image that we detected (alephdata/aleph).
- Our rough hardware estimate is lighter for SiYuan (~512 MB server) than Aleph (~2 GB); this is an estimate from the stack and category, not a benchmark.
Summary: Aleph leads on Docker Hub availability; SiYuan leads on GitHub popularity, commit activity and recent activity. The right choice depends on the features you need — read both project descriptions and docs.
This summary is generated from GitHub, Docker Hub and awesome-selfhosted data as of 2026-11-05. It does not rate features or quality.
Get the Docker images
Aleph
docker pull alephdata/alephImage on Docker Hub. Ports, volumes and environment variables differ per app; follow the official docs.
Frequently asked questions
Is Aleph or SiYuan more popular?
SiYuan has more GitHub stars (47,089 vs 2,501 for Aleph, as of 2026-11-05). Stars measure interest, not quality.
Which is more actively maintained, Aleph or SiYuan?
SiYuan had more commits over the last 12 months (10,170 vs 4). The last recorded activity was 2025-12-19 for Aleph and 2026-10-29 for SiYuan. Our health labels: Aleph is “Maintained”, SiYuan is “Active”.
What licenses do Aleph and SiYuan use?
Aleph: MIT. SiYuan: AGPL-3.0. Aleph's license is permissive; SiYuan's is copyleft (changes you distribute must stay open).
Can I run Aleph and SiYuan with Docker?
Aleph has a Docker Hub image (alephdata/aleph). We did not find one for SiYuan, though the upstream listing mentions Docker as a deployment option.
Read more
SiYuan
Privacy-first personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang.
Browse all self-hosted Knowledge Management Tools apps.