Assembly Line

Alternatives to OneNote in 2026

3 commercial products, led by Obsidian, Notion and Evernote. 30 open-source projects you can run yourself, led by AppFlowy, AFFiNE and Memos.

Open source

  1. 1
    AppFlowy AppFlowy-IO

    Bring projects, wikis, and teams together with AI. AppFlowy is the AI collaborative workspace where you achieve more without losing control of your data. The leading open source Notion alternative.

    Complete system Usable You want a Notion alternative that keeps data local or on your own server.

    ★ 78k AGPL-3.0 Dart Active, pushed today
  2. 2
    AFFiNE toeverything

    There can be more than Notion and Miro. AFFiNE(pronounced [ə‘fain]) is a next-gen knowledge base that brings planning, sorting and creating all together. Privacy first, open-source, customizable and ready to use.

    Complete system Usable You want an open alternative to Notion that also does visual whiteboarding and can run offline.

    ★ 74k See repository TypeScript Active, pushed today
  3. 3
    Memos usememos

    Memos is an open-source, self-hosted note-taking app that brings your everyday thoughts together in a personal timeline. Your data stays yours, and you choose what to keep private or share.

    Complete system Production-ready You want a quick place to jot thoughts and links on your own server.

    ★ 64k MIT Go Active, pushed today
  4. 4
    Joplin laurent22

    Joplin - the privacy-focused note taking app with sync capabilities for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

    Complete system Production-ready You want an Evernote replacement you control, across all your devices.

    ★ 57k See repository TypeScript Active, pushed today
  5. 5
    SiYuan siyuan-note

    An open-source, privacy-first, self-hosted knowledge workspace where humans and AI agents work together 开源、隐私优先、自托管的知识工作空间,让人与智能体在此协作

    Complete system Production-ready You want Logseq or Roam-style block linking with richer document editing.

    ★ 47k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  6. 6
    Trilium TriliumNext

    Build your personal knowledge base with Trilium Notes

    Complete system Usable You want a deep, scriptable personal knowledge base and like tree-structured notes.

    ★ 39k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  7. 7
    Notesnook streetwriters

    A fully open source & end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote.

    Complete system Production-ready Privacy matters most and you want encrypted notes synced across devices.

    ★ 15k GPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  8. 8
    VNote vnotex

    A pleasant note-taking platform with native speed, majoring in Markdown, MindMap, Typst, and plain text.

    Complete system Usable You want a fast desktop Markdown notes app rather than an Electron one.

    ★ 13k LGPL-3.0 C++ Active, pushed today
  9. 9
    NoteGen codexu

    Capture first. Organize later. A local-first Markdown app that turns scattered records into clear notes with AI.

    Complete system Usable You collect scattered snippets during the day and want AI to draft notes from them.

    ★ 13k GPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  10. 10
    Rnote flxzt

    Sketch and take handwritten notes.

    Complete system Usable You take handwritten notes on a Linux laptop or tablet.

    ★ 12k GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed yesterday
  11. 11
    MiaoYan tw93

    ⛷ A quiet, local-first Markdown writing app for Mac, to help you write great sentences.

    Complete system Usable You want a quiet, distraction-free Markdown editor on macOS.

    ★ 8.7k MIT Swift Active, pushed today
  12. 12
    Nb xwmx

    CLI and local web plain text note‑taking, bookmarking, and archiving with linking, tagging, filtering, search, Git versioning & syncing, Pandoc conversion, + more, in a single portable script.

    Developer tool Production-ready You live in the terminal and want notes and bookmarks in plain files versioned with Git.

    ★ 8.5k AGPL-3.0 Shell Active, pushed yesterday
  13. 13
    FSNotes glushchenko

    Fast Markdown note-taking app for Mac and iPhone

    Complete system Production-ready You use Apple devices and want a native app over plain Markdown files.

    ★ 7.6k MIT Swift Active, pushed today
  14. 14
    Jrnl jrnl-org

    Collect your thoughts and notes without leaving the command line.

    Developer tool Production-ready You want to keep a journal or work log from the terminal.

    ★ 7.4k GPL-3.0 Python Active, pushed today
  15. 15
    PlainApp plainhub

    🔥 PlainApp is an open-source app that lets you securely manage your phone from a web browser. Access files, media, contacts, SMS, calls, and more through a simple, easy-to-use interface on your desktop.

    Complete system Usable You want to move files and handle messages on your Android phone from your computer without cloud services.

    ★ 7.1k AGPL-3.0 Kotlin Active, pushed today
  16. 16
    massCode massCodeIO

    A free, open-source developer workspace. Snippets, notes, HTTP requests, calculations, and dev tools in one local-first app.

    Developer tool Usable You want one free app for snippets and notes instead of several paid ones.

    ★ 7.1k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  17. 17
    App standardnotes

    Think fearlessly with end-to-end encrypted notes and files. For issues, visit https://standardnotes.com/forum or https://standardnotes.com/help.

    Complete system Production-ready You want long-term encrypted notes from an established privacy company.

    ★ 6.7k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  18. 18
    SilverBullet silverbulletmd

    The malleable knowledge base for you and your team. Powered by Markdown and Lua.

    Complete system Usable You are technical and want a note system you can script and extend yourself.

    ★ 6.4k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed today
  19. 19
    QOwnNotes pbek

    QOwnNotes is a plain-text file notepad and todo-list manager with Markdown support and Nextcloud / ownCloud integration.

    Complete system Production-ready You use Nextcloud and want a native desktop notes app over your files.

    ★ 5.9k GPL-2.0 C++ Active, pushed today
  20. 20
    Floral Notepaper Achilng

    花笺,轻量优雅的跨平台桌面便签工具,支持 Markdown 编辑与预览

    Complete system Usable You want simple Markdown sticky notes on your desktop.

    ★ 5.6k MIT Rust Active, pushed today
  21. 21
    TagSpaces tagspaces

    TagSpaces is an offline, open source, document manager with tagging support

    Complete system Usable You want to tag and browse files across folders without a database or cloud.

    ★ 5.4k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  22. 22
    Saber saber-notes

    The cross-platform open-source app built for handwriting

    Complete system Usable You want handwritten notes that work across tablets and computers without a proprietary service.

    ★ 5k GPL-3.0 Dart Active, pushed today
  23. 23
    Freeplane freeplane

    Application for Mind Mapping, Knowledge Management, Project Management. Develop, organize and communicate your ideas and knowledge in the most effective way.

    Complete system Production-ready You want a free mind mapper with scripting and formulas and do not mind a Java desktop interface.

    ★ 4.4k GPL-2.0 Java Active, pushed 3 days ago
  24. 24
    Personal Management System Volmarg

    Your web application for managing personal data.

    Complete system Usable You want one self-hosted place for assorted personal records and are comfortable running Symfony.

    ★ 4.2k MIT PHP Active, pushed 4 days ago
  25. 25
    Marksman artempyanykh

    Write Markdown with code assist and intelligence in the comfort of your favourite editor.

    Developer tool Production-ready You write Markdown notes or docs in Neovim, Emacs, Helix or VS Code and want link navigation and checks.

    ★ 3.4k MIT F# Active, pushed 2 months ago
  26. 26
    Flatnotes dullage

    A self-hosted, database-less note taking web app that utilises a flat folder of markdown files for storage.

    Complete system Usable You want simple browser-based notes with files you can open in any editor.

    ★ 3.3k MIT Vue Active, pushed 2 months ago
  27. 27
    TreeSheets aardappel

    Hierarchical spreadsheet: a free-form data organizer that replaces outliners, mind maps and spreadsheets.

    Complete system Production-ready You think in nested structures and want a fast, free desktop organiser.

    ★ 3.2k Zlib C++ Active, pushed 7 days ago
  28. 28
    Dnote dnote

    A simple command line notebook

    Developer tool Usable You want to save small learnings from the terminal and search them later.

    ★ 3.1k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed 16 days ago
  29. 29
    EdgeEver tianma-if

    AI-native knowledge base & Evernote/Obsidian alternative with instant sync & native MCP. Free on Cloudflare or self-hosted via Docker.

    Complete system Experimental You want an Evernote-style app on your own Cloudflare account with AI agent access.

    ★ 3.1k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  30. 30
    Alexandrie Smaug6739

    📚 The open-source, offline-first Notion, Obsidian & Confluence alternative. Advanced Markdown, multi-tenant teams, OIDC/SSO, and local S3 backups. Deploy in one command.

    Complete system Usable A small team wants self-hosted notes and wiki pages with a Markdown-first editor.

    ★ 2.9k MIT Vue Active, pushed 17 days ago

Commercial

  1. 1
    Obsidian Dynalist Inc.

    The free and flexible app for your private thoughts.

    Complete system Production-ready You want notes as plain files you own, work offline, and are happy to tune your setup with plugins.

    6.2k readers a month Since 2020 Commercial
  2. 2
    Notion Notion Labs

    Build Custom Agents, search across all your apps, and automate busywork. The AI workspace where teams get more done, faster.

    Complete system Production-ready A small or mid-size team wants one flexible tool for docs, wiki and light project tracking.

    4.1k readers a month Since 2016 Commercial
  3. 3
    Evernote Bending Spoons

    Our note taking app helps you capture and prioritize ideas, projects and to-do lists, so nothing falls through the cracks. Start your free trial today!

    Complete system Production-ready You already keep years of notes in Evernote, or want strong web clipping and scanned-document search.

    2k readers a month Since 2008 Commercial

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