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Comparison · Collab
Docspell vs SiYuan
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Docspell and SiYuan — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Docspell vs SiYuan: at a glance
What is Docspell?
Docspell's tagged releases stopped in 2025; the upload API only moves on the nightly.
No numbered release has landed since 0.43.0, which was itself a fixes-and-dependencies close-out. Work continues on the rolling nightly tag, where the current build adds optional priority to upload metadata, returns file keys and job ids from the upload API, and exposes a secured endpoint to fetch a file by key. That is real API surface, but it reaches only users willing to run nightly builds.
What is SiYuan?
SiYuan re-tagged the same 3.8.2 changelog three times in thirty hours
The 3.8.2 line is a cumulative train: every tag republishes the full release list rather than a delta. Beta.1 was the superset, and beta.2, beta.3 and beta.4 all landed within thirty hours carrying a byte-identical changelog. The substance in that shared list is editor ergonomics (scrolling the viewport without moving the caret, configurable cursor surrounding lines), a broad mobile pass (configurable bottom bar, swipe gestures, marketplace access), and continued build-out of the AI Agent introduced in 3.8.0.
Docspell vs SiYuan: editorial side-by-side
Docspell
2.5COLLAB
Docspell's tagged releases stopped in 2025; the upload API only moves on the nightly.
◆ Current state
No numbered release has landed since 0.43.0, which was itself a fixes-and-dependencies close-out. Work continues on the rolling nightly tag, where the current build adds optional priority to upload metadata, returns file keys and job ids from the upload API, and exposes a secured endpoint to fetch a file by key. That is real API surface, but it reaches only users willing to run nightly builds.
◆ Where it's heading
The project is drifting toward nightly-only distribution: contributors keep landing work, maintainers keep not cutting tags. The newest additions cluster on programmatic ingestion — a caller submitting a document, then retrieving it by key — which points at Docspell being shaped as a component other systems feed rather than a standalone archive.
◆ Prediction
The upload-API work in #3338 is the most likely core of a next tagged release if one is cut. Whether the tagged line resumes at all is not readable from these notes.
SiYuan
6.3COLLAB
SiYuan re-tagged the same 3.8.2 changelog three times in thirty hours
◆ Current state
The 3.8.2 line is a cumulative train: every tag republishes the full release list rather than a delta. Beta.1 was the superset, and beta.2, beta.3 and beta.4 all landed within thirty hours carrying a byte-identical changelog. The substance in that shared list is editor ergonomics (scrolling the viewport without moving the caret, configurable cursor surrounding lines), a broad mobile pass (configurable bottom bar, swipe gestures, marketplace access), and continued build-out of the AI Agent introduced in 3.8.0.
◆ Where it's heading
Two surfaces are absorbing most of the work. The Agent keeps gaining reach rather than changing shape — image upload in agent chat, independent execution across sessions, skill inline markers, kernel log access for error analysis — all extensions of the capability 3.8.0-alpha.1 established. The plugin API is the other growth area, adding roughly a dozen hooks this cycle covering dock visibility, link interception, asset upload interception and breadcrumb buttons.
◆ Prediction
With four betas out and the changelog frozen since beta.1, the next tag in this line is most likely a 3.8.2 stable release.
Alternatives to Docspell and SiYuan
Other Collab products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Docspell or SiYuan.
Hive
Hive is building the plumbing its Buzz AI snippets need to run on real team data
Mattermost
Mattermost is selling sovereignty and air-gapped AI, with releases buried in the argument
Paperless-ngx
Paperless-ngx is patching hard behind a 3.1 release that made AI a workflow step
Read the Docs
Read the Docs ships a dated release every week, and this one is documentation and dependencies
Zoho Sign
Zoho Sign is clearing the exit path off Docusign while stacking up regional legal assurance
See all Docspell alternatives → · See all SiYuan alternatives →
Recent activity from Docspell and SiYuan
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4d agoSiYuanFourth 3.8.2 beta re-tags an unchanged changelog
- 4d agoSiYuanThird 3.8.2 beta ships beta.1's changelog verbatim
- 4d agoSiYuanSecond 3.8.2 beta leaves the changelog unchanged
- 5d agoSiYuanBeta.1 adds caret-free scrolling and mobile draft recovery
- 6d agoSiYuanCustomizable startup screens and SVG notebook icons
- 6d agoSiYuanv3.8.2-alpha.6: Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/dev' into dev
- 14d agoDocspellNightly adds upload priority and a file-key download endpoint
- 1y agoDocspell0.43.0 closes the tagged history with fixes and maintenance
- 2y agoDocspell0.42.0 hardens the Nix module and adds vertical Japanese OCR
- 2y agoDocspell0.41.0 swaps the HTTP stack from blaze to ember
- 3y agoDocspell0.40.0 gathers fixes, a Nix flake, and Ukrainian support
- 3y agoDocspell0.39.0 lets OIDC and local accounts share an identity
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Docspell and SiYuan?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. SiYuan is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Docspell better than SiYuan?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. SiYuan is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Collab products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Docspell?
Top Docspell alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Docspell alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/docspell for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to SiYuan?
Top SiYuan alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "SiYuan alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/siyuan for the full list with editorial commentary on each.