Open Source Obsidian Alternatives

AFFiNE is an open source workspace that treats docs, canvas and tables as one surface, removing the split between the app where you write and the app where you draw. The project positions itself as an alternative to Notion and Miro.

It is built on BlockSuite, its own collaborative editor, with y-octo and yjs providing CRDT sync and OctoBase acting as the local-first data engine. Every building block, rich text, sticky notes, embedded web pages, multi-view databases, linked pages, shapes and even slides, can sit on an edgeless canvas.

The feature set covers ground that a knowledge base and a whiteboard usually split between them.

• Edgeless canvas: any block form lives on the same infinite surface, from shapes to slides.
• AFFiNE AI: turns outlines into slides, articles into mindmaps and prompts into prototype pages.
• Local-first storage: your data stays on your disk rather than only in a vendor cloud.
• Real-time collaboration: web and cross-platform clients sync while people edit together.
• Self-hosting: you can manage, fork and run your own instance, with documented setup.

Templates published by the team cover planners, one pagers, lesson plans and note taking layouts. Contributors sign a license agreement before pull requests merge. It suits people who want Notion-style structure and Miro-style freedom without keeping two subscriptions running side by side.

Joplin handles a large number of notes organized into notebooks, all held as Markdown. Notes can be searched, copied, tagged and modified either from the applications themselves or from your own text editor, which keeps the material usable even when Joplin is not the thing opening it.

The app is offline first, so the whole collection lives on your phone or computer and stays reachable with or without a connection. Synchronization is optional and runs through Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive or the project's own paid service, protected end to end by encryption.

Several features exist for moving material in and out.

• Evernote import: formatted content converts to Markdown, and resources and metadata such as geolocation and timestamps come across intact.
• Plain Markdown import: existing Markdown files can be brought in directly.
• Web Clipper: a Firefox and Chrome extension saves pages and screenshots straight into a notebook.
• Full text search: available on every platform the applications run on.
• Plugins and themes: the interface can be customized, and writing your own extension is documented.

Applications exist for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS. Development is funded by donations, which cover the code signing certificates, app store fees and hosting that keep releases shipping, and the project maintains a warrant canary signing key alongside its documentation for anyone who wants to watch for compelled changes.

SiYuan is a personal knowledge management system organized around content blocks. Instead of files referencing each other loosely, every block can be referenced, linked both ways, zoomed into and queried, so notes stay connected without a separate index to maintain.

The editor is Markdown WYSIWYG with list outlining and support for documents running to a million words. It renders mathematical formulas, charts, flowcharts, Gantt charts, timing diagrams and staves, and it handles web clipping and PDF annotation links.

The surrounding features go well past note taking.

• SQL queries: embed query results directly inside a document.
• Database views: organize content in a table view.
• Flashcards: spaced repetition is built into the app rather than bolted on.
• Export: standard Markdown with assets, PDF, Word and HTML, plus copy targets for WeChat MP, Zhihu and Yuque.
• Snippets: template, JavaScript and CSS snippets adjust behavior and appearance.
• AI: writing and question answering through the OpenAI API, with Tesseract OCR alongside.

Desktop and mobile apps cover Android, iOS and HarmonyOS, and a Docker image serves a workspace over port 6806 with a lock screen access code and configurable user and group ids for host mounted directories. An HTTP API and a community marketplace extend it further. Most features are free including commercial use, while some are reserved for paid members.

Logseq is a knowledge management and collaboration platform built around privacy, longevity and user control. Notes live in formats readable without the app, Markdown and Org-mode among them, so the archive outlives whatever software happens to open it today.

Beyond note taking it handles PDF annotation and task management, and a growing ecosystem of plugins and themes shapes it to different workflows. A plugin API is published for building your own. Mobile apps provide access to most of what the desktop application does.

A database version is under active development and worth understanding before committing to it.

• DB graphs: the database version introduces a new graph format, with its own feature overview and a list of changes for existing users.
• Real time collaboration: an RTC sync approach syncs graphs across devices or between people, currently in alpha.
• New mobile app: the database version ships a separate app, on iOS with Android to follow.
• Beta status: data loss is possible, so the maintainers advise automated backups or regular SQLite exports.
• Test channels: a stable branch updates over days or weeks while master changes hourly.

Installing the released version is a download and a launch. Linux users get an installer script that can pin a specific version or install without root for a single user. For the database version the maintainers suggest a dedicated test graph and a project that is not crucial, rather than pointing it at work that matters.

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.

Notesnook is a note-taking app built to prove that privacy does not have to cost convenience. Everything is encrypted on the device before it leaves, using XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2, which keeps the service itself unable to read a single note. Going fully open source was, in the authors' words, the crucial step toward earning that trust.

This repository is a monorepo holding every client, so the web app, the desktop build and the Android and iOS apps all sit here with the packages they share. A single core carries the logic common to all platforms, with separate packages for cryptography, the editor, the web clipper, a streaming file system over IndexedDB, logging and theming.

The stack is deliberately small and consistent.

• TypeScript and JavaScript: newer code is TypeScript, and the older JavaScript is being ported over gradually.
• React: the front end on every platform.
• React Native: the Android and iOS clients.
• Electron: the desktop client.
• npm: the package manager across every project, with no Yarn or pnpm anywhere.

An importer covers migration from other apps, and Vericrypt exists so the encryption claims can be verified rather than taken on faith. Contribution guidelines, style rules and commit conventions are documented, and each project inside the monorepo carries its own architecture notes for anyone going deeper.

Anytype Desktop is a personal knowledge base that keeps everything on your own machine first. Pages, tasks, wikis and journals are assembled from composable blocks, and you define the types behind them instead of accepting someone else's idea of how your notes should be shaped.

Sync is peer-to-peer and end-to-end encrypted through any-sync, so devices exchange data without a server able to read it. The client is an Electron and TypeScript application talking to a separate core engine over gRPC bindings generated from protobuf definitions, and that engine is extensible through the same API.

Building from source is a multi-step job, and the repository is explicit about each stage.

• Prerequisites: a protobuf compiler on Linux and, on ARM machines, a C++ compiler with Python setuptools so keytar can be rebuilt.
• Middleware: a prebuilt binary and proto assets fetched by a script before anything compiles.
• Protobuf bindings: generated either from a checkout of the core engine or straight from the fetched assets.
• Development server: hot reload through Vite with Electron on top, plus a browser-only web mode.
• Packaging: Electron builds for Linux, Windows and macOS, with flags to skip notarizing and Sentry uploads.

Ready-made installers sit on the releases page for anyone who just wants to use the thing, and translations are managed through Crowdin. The code is published under the Any Source Available License 1.0, which is worth reading before planning anything commercial on top of it.

Beaver Notes is a notes app that starts from a different bargain than most: your notes stay on your device, unindexed and unreadable by anyone else, and you never create an account to write the first one. What makes it worth switching to is mostly an absence of things, no telemetry in the editor, no monthly fee to keep your own writing accessible.

Version 5 is a rewrite rather than an update. The app moved from Electron to Tauri for smaller binaries and better native behavior, and mobile stopped being a separate product when Beaver Pocket was folded back into the main app. It targets macOS, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS.

The core is deliberately ordinary, which is the point.

• Markdown native: notes are plain markdown files, organized with folders, tags and note linking.
• Locked notes: sensitive notes can be locked individually.
• Sync your way: use your own cloud storage, a self-hosted server, or the forthcoming BeaverSync, with no lock-in in any direction.
• Coming in v5: real-time collaboration, version history, backlinks and a plugin system, all of which the old architecture made difficult.
• Community driven: contributors handle translations, documentation and packaging for platforms the maintainers would otherwise miss.

Stable installers are published for every platform, with Linux available as a tarball, an AppImage or a Flathub Flatpak. The v5 beta is built from the tauri branch with yarn and will have rough edges, so bug reports are welcome. The public roadmap takes pushback on priorities.

Darkwrite is a note-taking application that stays out of the way and stays on your machine. Notes are stored locally, none of your data is collected, and there is no server to depend on, so an outage somewhere else never leaves you without your writing.

The editor is the center of it. Formatting, headings, todo lists, numbered lists, links, images and tables are all supported, and a cover image can be added to any note. The application is distributed as a desktop build from the releases page.

Customization goes further than most note apps allow.

• Themes: a set of themes ships with the app and you can write your own instead of choosing between light and dark.
• Fonts: the default note font can be changed, overridden for a single note, or set for the interface with everything else following.
• Export: every note exports as HTML and works elsewhere, so there is no lock-in.
• Backups: a one-click archive captures your notes and restores them later.
• No assistant: the app is built to work without an AI bot attached to it.

Darkwrite is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 or later, with build and development documentation in the repository and a Simplified Chinese translation contributed by the community. It suits someone who wants a private notebook on one machine rather than a shared workspace.