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Comparison · Collab
SiYuan vs Flarum
A side-by-side editorial comparison of SiYuan and Flarum — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
SiYuan vs Flarum: at a glance
What is SiYuan?
SiYuan ships polish at alpha-train speed while turning database blocks into a core surface.
SiYuan is a local-first notebook shipping on a near-daily pre-release train: four v3.7.4 alphas in nine days on top of the v3.7.3 stable. The work is overwhelmingly refinement — drag-and-drop cues, paste handling, font loading, dialog ordering, export correctness. The one area getting structural attention is the database block, which gained column alignment, relation backlinks, per-item templates and deep links in v3.7.3.
What is Flarum?
Flarum's 2.0 has been in release-candidate territory for most of a year.
Flarum is an open-source forum framework whose entire recent release history is the 2.0 train — beta.8 in March, then five release candidates from April through July. The candidates ship on a three-to-six week rhythm, and most of them publish nothing beyond a pointer to the changelog file in the tag. The last releases carrying visible detail were the earlier ones, where the work was database and rendering performance plus extension-compatibility fixes.
SiYuan vs Flarum: editorial side-by-side
SiYuan
5.0COLLAB
SiYuan ships polish at alpha-train speed while turning database blocks into a core surface.
◆ Current state
SiYuan is a local-first notebook shipping on a near-daily pre-release train: four v3.7.4 alphas in nine days on top of the v3.7.3 stable. The work is overwhelmingly refinement — drag-and-drop cues, paste handling, font loading, dialog ordering, export correctness. The one area getting structural attention is the database block, which gained column alignment, relation backlinks, per-item templates and deep links in v3.7.3.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run through this window. Mobile parity is the louder one: Android, iOS and HarmonyOS keep getting treatment at the same time as the desktop build rather than trailing it, with audio recording, S Pen hover popovers, batch file insert and custom font import all landing on mobile first. The quieter thread promotes the database block from a table widget toward an addressable object with its own templates, links and backlinks. Neither has produced a headline release; both advance one version at a time.
◆ Prediction
The alpha train points to v3.7.4 landing as a stable release assembled from this mobile and database work. The entries give no signal about anything beyond that.
Flarum
2.5COLLAB
Flarum's 2.0 has been in release-candidate territory for most of a year.
◆ Current state
Flarum is an open-source forum framework whose entire recent release history is the 2.0 train — beta.8 in March, then five release candidates from April through July. The candidates ship on a three-to-six week rhythm, and most of them publish nothing beyond a pointer to the changelog file in the tag. The last releases carrying visible detail were the earlier ones, where the work was database and rendering performance plus extension-compatibility fixes.
◆ Where it's heading
The substance that is visible points at making large forums viable: eliminating N+1 queries on the discussion list, adding a composite index to fix slow unread-notification counts, and caching scheduler timestamps. Those are the changes a forum makes when instances have outgrown the original query patterns. The steady RC cadence with no beta regression suggests a stabilisation grind rather than continued feature work — but the opaque release notes make the remaining scope hard to read from outside.
◆ Prediction
A 2.0 stable release is the obvious next step, though five candidates without a published scope makes the timing unclear. Watch whether rc.6 arrives on the same three-to-six week spacing or the gap widens.
Alternatives to SiYuan and Flarum
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 SiYuan or Flarum.
Notion
Notion is turning Custom Agents into event-driven workers with their own runtime and billing.
Slack
Slack is shipping its developer platform to coding agents, not only to developers.
Hive
AI Proofing gets its manual controls back while Hive builds out creative review and resourcing.
AFFiNE
AFFiNE ships twice a day on two trains, and it is all storage plumbing and window polish.
Zettlr
A markdown editor grinding through polish, with custom shortcuts finally landing after years
See all SiYuan alternatives → · See all Flarum alternatives →
Recent activity from SiYuan and Flarum
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 14h agoSiYuanS Pen hover, mobile audio recording, faster sync
- 2d agoSiYuanAudio recording on Android and HarmonyOS, sync performance
- 5d agoSiYuanRelation-selector row opening fix
- 7d agoSiYuanCallout blocks become flashcards; export fixes
- 11d agoSiYuanDatabase items gain templates, deep links and backlinks
- 12d agoSiYuanPre-release staging for v3.7.3
- 23d agoFlarumFlarum 2.0 release candidate 5
- 1mo agoFlarumFlarum 2.0 release candidate 4
- 1mo agoFlarumFlarum 2.0 release candidate 3
- 2mo agoFlarumFlarum 2.0 release candidate 2
- 3mo agoFlarumFlarum 2.0 RC1 fixes discussion-list and notification query costs
- 4mo agoFlarumFlarum 2.0 beta 8 smooths discussion loading
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SiYuan and Flarum?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. SiYuan is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 SiYuan better than Flarum?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. SiYuan is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 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.
What are the best alternatives to Flarum?
Top Flarum alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Flarum alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/flarum for the full list with editorial commentary on each.