Open Source Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools using CSS

A curated collection of the best free and open source tools for writing things down and finding them again, covering notes, outlines, linked thinking and personal wikis using CSS.

Affine

An all-in-one workspace merging documents, whiteboards and databases, built local-first for teams that want to own their knowledge base.

Alternative to:

Notion

Docs, whiteboards, and databases in one privacy-first workspace

Stars
73,918
Forks
5,413
Last commit
1 day ago

Joplin

An offline-first note and to-do app in Markdown, synced with end-to-end encryption across desktop, mobile and the cloud you choose.

Alternative to:

Evernote

Encrypted note-taking that syncs across all your devices

Stars
56,910

SiYuan

Privacy-first knowledge management app built on content blocks, with Markdown WYSIWYG editing, two-way links and local or Docker hosted storage.

Alternative to:

Notion

Privacy-first knowledge management with block-level linking

Stars
46,971

Logseq

Privacy-first outliner for knowledge management and collaboration, storing notes as local Markdown or Org-mode files you keep control of.

Alternative to:

Notion

Privacy-first knowledge base that connects your notes

Stars
45,404

Khoj

Personal AI app that searches your documents and the web, running on your own machine or scaling to a team deployment.

Alternative to:

ChatGPT

AI second brain for research, automation, and personal agents

Stars
37,858

Tolaria

Desktop app for markdown knowledge bases where every vault is a git repository, for note takers who want plain files.

Alternative to:

Notion

Local-first, Git-native personal knowledge base with AI

Stars
20,372

Docmost

An open source collaborative wiki and documentation app for teams that want spaces, permissions and real-time editing on their own servers.

Alternative to:

Notion

Self-hosted wiki with AI, compliance, and real-time editing

Stars
22,120

SurfSense

Open web research platform giving AI agents structured live data from social, search and commerce sources through one API.

Alternative to:

Glean

Privacy-first knowledge base with any AI model you choose

Stars
16,656

Notesnook

End-to-end encrypted note taking across web, desktop and mobile, for people who want privacy without giving up a usable app.

Alternative to:

Notion

Zero-knowledge encrypted notes that sync across all devices

Stars
14,844

Zotero

A free reference manager that collects sources while you browse, organizes and annotates them, and generates citations in over 9,000 styles.

Alternative to:

EndNote

Collect, organize, cite, and share research in one place

Stars
15,772

Blinko

A self-hosted note app for capturing fleeting thoughts fast, with natural language retrieval over everything you have written.

Alternative to:

Notion

AI-Powered Note Taking App

Stars
11,124

Anarlog

A local-first meeting notepad for people who want AI notes without a bot on the call or a cloud transcript.

Alternative to:

Granola

Private meeting notes, no bots, files you own

Stars
9,612

Standard Notes

An end-to-end encrypted notes app that syncs across desktop, mobile and web for people who want their notes unreadable to the host.

Alternative to:

Notion

Secure, encrypted notes for your digital life

Stars
6,684

Deta Surf

Local-first AI notebook and browser that keeps files, web pages and notes in one place so research and writing happen side by side.

Alternative to:

NotebookLM

Browser and notebook combined with local-first AI

Stars
3,611

XWiki

A Java wiki platform that doubles as an application runtime, letting teams build structured collaborative applications on top of their own documentation.

Alternative to:

Notion

Open-source knowledge management and collaboration platform

Stars
1,327

Zen

A single-binary self-hosted notes app that stores standard markdown in SQLite, organizes by tags, and searches with BM25 ranking.

Alternative to:

Notion

Clean, distraction-free note-taking with local storage

Stars
1,194

Beaver Notes

A local-first markdown notes app for desktop and mobile, with no account wall, no editor telemetry, and sync you choose yourself.

Alternative to:

Evernote

Local-first notes app with no cloud, no AI, no tracking

Stars
1,357

Darkwrite

Offline note-taking app with a rich editor, custom themes and fonts, for people who want notes stored only on their device.

Alternative to:

Notion

Distraction-free note-taking with powerful features

Stars
318

OpenNotas

Markdown notes in a progressive web app, encrypted before they sync, for anyone who wants a simple cross-platform notebook.

Alternative to:

Evernote

Fast, secure, and free personal note-taking app

Stars
179

itsnotes

A self-hosted sticky notes app that keeps the Google Keep feel but adds folders, list views, timeline markers and a two-way Markdown mirror.

Alternative to:

Apple Notes

Self-hosted sticky notes with better organization

Stars
41

Justnote

A privacy-focused note-taking app with end-to-end encryption on Stacks, for people who want to own both their notes and their account.

Alternative to:

Evernote

Privacy-focused note-taking made simple and fast

Stars
67

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Stars
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Stars
Forks
Last commit

Stars
Forks
Last commit

Open Source Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools using CSS

A curated collection of the best free and open source tools for writing things down and finding them again, covering notes, outlines, linked thinking and personal wikis using CSS.

Affine

Joplin

SiYuan

Logseq

Khoj

Tolaria

Docmost

SurfSense

Notesnook

Zotero

Blinko

Anarlog

Standard Notes

Deta Surf

XWiki

Zen

Beaver Notes

Darkwrite

OpenNotas

itsnotes

Justnote

Affine

Joplin

SiYuan

Logseq

Khoj

Tolaria

Docmost

SurfSense

Notesnook

Zotero

Blinko

Anarlog

Standard Notes

Deta Surf

XWiki

Zen

Beaver Notes

Darkwrite

OpenNotas

itsnotes

Justnote

Open-Notebook