Open Source Note-Taking Software
Note-Taking software provides a digital environment for capturing thoughts, organizing tasks, and building personal knowledge bases. These tools use markdown formatting and bidirectional linking to connect disparate pieces of information into a structured wiki. This type of software suits researchers and writers who need to manage large volumes of text and documentation. Self-hosting these apps ensures that private journals and sensitive research remain on personal hardware. You can synchronize these notes across different devices without relying on external corporate servers to store your intellectual property.
This page lists 43 open source tools in the Note-Taking category. The most popular are AppFlowy, Affine and Memos. Most use the AGPL-3.0 or MIT license, and 22 offer an official Docker image.
Lotion
A desktop client for Notion that provides a multi-tab interface and custom themes for Linux users.
Zim
A graphical text editor for maintaining a collection of wiki pages stored as plain text files.
P3X OneNote
An independent desktop wrapper for OneNote that allows multiple account sessions on Linux and other platforms.
TidGi
A local-first knowledge management tool based on TiddlyWiki with integrated Git backup and blogging capabilities.
jotty·page
A self-hosted application for managing personal checklists and notes using a file-based storage system.
Amical
Local AI dictation and note taking software that formats speech to text based on the active application.
Minutes
Records meetings and voice memos locally to create a queryable markdown archive for AI agents.
Beaver Notes
A local-first note-taking application providing Markdown support, note linking, and encrypted storage for personal knowledge management.
Zen
A minimal note taking application that stores markdown notes in a local sqlite database with full text search.
Many Notes
A Markdown note-taking web application that stores files in the filesystem for full user control.
wastebin
A minimal self-hosted pastebin for storing and sharing text snippets with encryption and markdown support.
Note Mark
A minimal web-based markdown notes application with a responsive interface and local file storage.
Darkwrite
An offline first note editor with rich text formatting, custom themes, and local storage for private note taking.
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