Open Source Craft Alternatives
A curated collection of the 1 best open source alternatives to Craft.
The best open source alternative to Craft is Tolaria. If that doesn't suit you, we've compiled a ranked list of other open source Craft alternatives to help you find a suitable replacement.
Craft alternatives are mainly Note Taking & Knowledge Management. Browse these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Craft.
Desktop app for markdown knowledge bases where every vault is a git repository, for note takers who want plain files.
Tolaria manages markdown knowledge bases on macOS, Windows and Linux. Notes are plain markdown files with YAML frontmatter, so there is no export step and nothing to rescue if you leave. People run second brains in it, organize company docs as context for AI, and store assistant memory and procedures.
Every vault is a git repository, which brings full version history and any git remote you like with no Tolaria server in the path. There are no accounts and no subscriptions, the vault works offline, and the app itself is built with Tauri, React and TypeScript.
The stated principles show up directly in the product.
- Files first: your notes stay portable markdown, readable by any editor and any standard tool.
- Types as lenses: types are navigation aids rather than schemas, with no required fields and no validation to fight.
- Keyboard first: the editor and the command palette are designed for people who would rather not reach for the mouse.
- AI friendly, not AI only: setup paths exist for Claude Code, Codex CLI and Gemini CLI, and an AGENTS file explains the vault to any agent.
- Built from real use: the author keeps a personal vault of more than 10,000 notes in it every day.
Install through Homebrew on macOS or download a release for any of the three platforms, with Windows installers Authenticode signed. First launch offers to clone a getting started vault that walks through the app. Building from source needs Node 20, pnpm 8, stable Rust, and WebKit2GTK with GTK 3 on Linux.
