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Open Paper vs SurfSense

Learn how Open Paper and SurfSense differ in their key features, development activity, technology stack and community adoption, so you can decide which of these ai research assistants is best for you.

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Open Paper

AI
A focused reader for academic papers that combines annotation tools with AI-powered understanding to help you get more from research.
510stars+27(+5.6%)

Last 30 days

Screenshot of Open Paper

SurfSense

AI
Self-hostable NotebookLM alternative that lets teams build searchable knowledge bases from diverse sources, with support for any LLM and no data limits.
16,603stars+337(+2.1%)

Last 30 days

Screenshot of SurfSense

Detailed Comparison

Both Open Paper and SurfSense have their unique strengths and serve similar purposes effectively. Consider your specific needs regarding popularity, growth, activity, maturity, licensing and features when making your decision.

SurfSense wins
Community & Popularity

SurfSense significantly outpaces Open Paper in community adoption with 16,603 stars compared to 510 stars on GitHub. This 32.6x difference suggests SurfSense has a much larger and more active community. In terms of developer contributions, SurfSense has 1,596 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.

Open Paper wins
Growth Momentum

Open Paper is growing faster, adding 27 stars in the last 30 days (+5.6%) against adding 337 stars for SurfSense (+2.1%). Open Paper is the smaller project of the two, so it is closing the gap rather than extending a lead.

Comparable
Development Activity

Both projects show recent activity, with Open Paper last updated 21 hours ago and SurfSense 14 hours ago.

Comparable
Project Maturity

Both projects started around the same time, with Open Paper beginning 2 years ago and SurfSense 2 years ago.

Comparable
Licensing

The projects use different licenses: Open Paper is licensed under AGPL-3.0 while SurfSense uses Apache-2.0. Consider the licensing requirements when choosing for your project.

Comparable
Use Cases & Features

Both tools serve similar use cases in AI Research Assistants. However, they also have distinct specializations: SurfSense extends into Personal Knowledge Management (PKM), Enterprise Knowledge Search.

SurfSense wins
Hosting & Deployment

SurfSense provides self-hosting options for complete data control and customization, while Open Paper may be primarily cloud-based or require different deployment approaches.