CryptPad
CryptPad ships by season, and spends most of it keeping OnlyOffice documents intact.
Comparison · Collab
SiYuan vs HedgeDoc
A side-by-side editorial comparison of SiYuan and HedgeDoc — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:markdown
SiYuan vs HedgeDoc: at a glance
What is SiYuan?
A relentless release grind hardening databases and cross-platform editing, no single pivot in sight
SiYuan is deep in its 3.7.x cycle, shipping alpha, beta, and stable builds within days of each other. The work concentrates on two fronts: maturing its inline database feature (relation backlinks, column alignment, deep links, item templates) and grinding down cross-platform rough edges across iOS, iPad, Android, and HarmonyOS. This is a local-first notes tool being polished, not redirected.
What is HedgeDoc?
HedgeDoc 1.x releases are now mostly advisories — security in, features rarely.
The 1.x line ships on a roughly six-to-eight-week rhythm, and almost every release leads with security fixes: HTML injection through an email localpart, YAML frontmatter denial-of-service, CSRF in the Gist export, a rate-limit bypass via the CF-Connecting-IP header, SVG upload script execution. Around that, the recent additions are operator controls — an external-link warning page with a whitelist, configurable login and signup rate limits, an option to restrict uploads to registered users or disable them entirely.
SiYuan vs HedgeDoc: editorial side-by-side
SiYuan
6.3COLLAB
A relentless release grind hardening databases and cross-platform editing, no single pivot in sight
◆ Current state
SiYuan is deep in its 3.7.x cycle, shipping alpha, beta, and stable builds within days of each other. The work concentrates on two fronts: maturing its inline database feature (relation backlinks, column alignment, deep links, item templates) and grinding down cross-platform rough edges across iOS, iPad, Android, and HarmonyOS. This is a local-first notes tool being polished, not redirected.
◆ Where it's heading
The database layer is becoming SiYuan's center of gravity — each release adds another Notion-style capability (templates, deep links, backlinks in the attribute panel) rather than editor primitives. In parallel, mobile and HarmonyOS parity keeps eating release notes, suggesting the team is chasing feature symmetry across an unusually wide platform spread. Expect the database to keep accreting relational features until it rivals a light structured-data workspace.
◆ Prediction
The next stable (v3.7.4) will likely consolidate the current alpha database and export fixes without a headline feature; a larger database or AI-editing push is the more probable place a genuine direction change would surface.
HedgeDoc
2.5COLLAB
HedgeDoc 1.x releases are now mostly advisories — security in, features rarely.
◆ Current state
The 1.x line ships on a roughly six-to-eight-week rhythm, and almost every release leads with security fixes: HTML injection through an email localpart, YAML frontmatter denial-of-service, CSRF in the Gist export, a rate-limit bypass via the CF-Connecting-IP header, SVG upload script execution. Around that, the recent additions are operator controls — an external-link warning page with a whitelist, configurable login and signup rate limits, an option to restrict uploads to registered users or disable them entirely.
◆ Where it's heading
This reads as a mature collaborative editor in hardening mode. New settings appear where an administrator needed a lever, not where a user asked for a feature, and the one substantial correctness fix in the window — data loss when five or more people edited a document at once — was a repair to the existing operational-transform client rather than new ground. Node 24 support and the removal of dead config options point the same direction: keeping a working product current.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next 1.x release to follow the same shape — one or more advisories plus a small configuration option — since every release in this window has done so.
Alternatives to SiYuan and HedgeDoc
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 HedgeDoc.
GitHub
GitHub is hardening the registry it owns while Copilot absorbs every new model.
Zoho Sign
Zoho Sign is wiring signatures into agents and into every country's stamp law.
Avoma
Avoma's real work is happening in MCP; its feed is buried under competitor comparison pages.
Bloomfire
Bloomfire's feed is a knowledge-management content mill, batch-publishing SEO on the day it ships.
Paperless-ngx
Paperless-ngx shipped its 3.0 rewrite, then spent a week putting out the fires.
See all SiYuan alternatives → · See all HedgeDoc alternatives →
Recent activity from SiYuan and HedgeDoc
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2d agoSiYuanRelation-selector row opening tweaked (v3.7.4-alpha.2)
- 4d agoHedgeDocHedgeDoc 1.11.1
- 4d agoSiYuanv3.7.4-alpha.1: export fixes, formula clipping, HarmonyOS batch insert
- 8d agoSiYuanv3.7.3 stable: database alignment, relation backlinks, deep links
- 9d agoSiYuanv3.7.3-beta.3: block dragging, search ranking, onboarding
- 9d agoSiYuanv3.7.3-beta.2: pre-release iteration
- 10d agoSiYuanv3.7.3-beta.1: onboarding, editable top-level docs, update flow
- 1mo agoHedgeDocHedgeDoc 1.11.0
- 3mo agoHedgeDocHedgeDoc 1.10.8
- 5mo agoHedgeDocHedgeDoc 1.10.7
- 5mo agoHedgeDocHedgeDoc 1.10.6
- 7mo agoHedgeDocHedgeDoc 1.10.4
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SiYuan and HedgeDoc?
Both compete on the same themes — markdown — within Collab. 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 SiYuan better than HedgeDoc?
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 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 HedgeDoc?
Top HedgeDoc alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "HedgeDoc alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hedgedoc for the full list with editorial commentary on each.