Notes & Knowledge Base Tools

Best Notes & Knowledge Base tools by public signals

These picks are computed from scored public evidence. Use the openness column in the ranking to separate OSI-approved, source-available, open-core, proprietary, and unverified-license tools.

Best overallTrilium.cc98 score License-safe pickTrilium.ccOSI-approved OSS Fastest shippingTrilium.cc99 shipping

Use Case Rankings

Ordered by ToolVitals score, then health, shipping, confidence, GitHub stars, and name.

#	Tool	Health	Shipping	Openness	Stars	Score	Status
01	Trilium.cc Personal knowledge base	98	99	OSI-approved OSS	37.8k	98	Active
02	Trilium Build your personal knowledge base with Trilium Notes	98	99	OSI-approved OSS	37.8k	98	Active
03	Athenaeum Open source knowledge management pipeline.	97	98	OSI-approved OSS	12	97	Active
04	Logseq A privacy-first, open-source platform for knowledge management and collaboration. Download link: http://github.com/logseq/logseq/releases. roadmap: https://logseq.io/p/NX4mc_ggEV	97	97	OSI-approved OSS	44.9k	97	Active
05	Anarlog Open source Granola AI alternative.	96	98	OSI-approved OSS	9.3k	97	Active
06	Minutes Privacy-first conversation memory layer with AI search.	96	97	OSI-approved OSS	1.5k	97	Active
07	Notesnook A fully open source & end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote.	96	96	OSI-approved OSS	14.6k	96	Active
08	AFFiNE 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.	96	95	OSI-approved OSS	72.5k	96	Active
09	Memos Open-source, self-hosted note-taking tool built for quick capture. Markdown-native, lightweight, and fully yours.	96	95	OSI-approved OSS	63k	96	Active
10	Saber The cross-platform open-source app built for handwriting	96	95	OSI-approved OSS	4.8k	96	Active
11	Freeplane Open-source mind mapping and knowledge organization application.	96	95	OSI-approved OSS	4.4k	96	Active
12	SiYuan A privacy-first, self-hosted, fully open source personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang.	95	98	OSI-approved OSS	46.3k	96	Active
13	SilverBullet An open source personal productivity platform built on Markdown, turbo charged with the scripting power of Lua	96	95	OSI-approved OSS	6k	95	Active
14	Understand Anything Interactive knowledge base for code and documents.	96	94	OSI-approved OSS	82.5k	95	Active
15	note-gen Cross-platform Markdown AI note-taking software.	95	96	OSI-approved OSS	12.8k	95	Active
16	QOwnNotes QOwnNotes is a plain-text file notepad and todo-list manager with Markdown support and Nextcloud / ownCloud integration.	95	95	OSI-approved OSS	5.9k	95	Active
17	Basic Memory AI conversations that actually remember. Never re-explain your project to your AI again. Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tyvKNccgqN	95	95	OSI-approved OSS	4k	95	Active
18	NoteDiscovery Your Self-Hosted Knowledge Base	94	93	OSI-approved OSS	2.8k	94	Active
19	Butterfly Powerful, minimalistic, cross-platform, opensource note-taking app.	93	95	OSI-approved OSS	2k	94	Active
20	massCode Open-source developer workspace for snippets, notes, calculations, and dev tools.	93	91	OSI-approved OSS	7k	92	Active
21	Poznote Personal note-taking and documentation platform.	91	95	OSI-approved OSS	813	92	Active
22	Standard Notes Think fearlessly with end-to-end encrypted notes and files. For issues, visit https://standardnotes.com/forum or https://standardnotes.com/help.	91	90	OSI-approved OSS	6.6k	90	Active
23	Eidos An extensible framework for Personal Data Management.	88	94	OSI-approved OSS	3.2k	90	Active
24	iwe Markdown memory system for you and your AI agent	88	90	OSI-approved OSS	1.6k	89	Active
25	Glyph Private desktop workspace for notes, documents, and ideas with built-in AI tools.	87	93	OSI-approved OSS	167	89	Active
26	Lokus Modern note-taking application with powerful editing capabilities.	83	88	OSI-approved OSS	794	85	Active
27	OpenWriter Markdown-native writing surface for AI agents.	83	87	OSI-approved OSS	27	84	Active
28	FSNotes Notes manager for macOS/iOS	79	78	OSI-approved OSS	7.5k	79	Active
29	Blinko An open-source, self-hosted personal AI note tool prioritizing privacy, built using TypeScript .	80	74	OSI-approved OSS	11k	77	Active
30	TideMind AI-connected note and knowledge management tool.	71	67	OSI-approved OSS	10	69	Warning
31	TidGi Desktop Privacy-in-mind knowledge management desktop note app with auto Git backup and web-clipping support.	68	56	OSI-approved OSS	2k	63	Warning
32	Clearly Markdown editor and knowledge base for Mac, iOS and iPadOS.	63	51	OSI-approved OSS	1.2k	58	Warning
33	Ephe Ephemeral markdown paper for plain Markdown users.	61	47	OSI-approved OSS	583	56	Warning
34	Spool Local search for Claude Code sessions, Codex history, GitHub stars, and other developer knowledge sources.	60	46	OSI-approved OSS	590	55	Warning
35	Atomic Self-hosted, semantically connected personal knowledge base.	55	44	OSI-approved OSS	2k	51	Warning
36	Bangle Web-only WYSIWYG note-taking app that saves notes locally in Markdown.	60	36	OSI-approved OSS	1.2k	50	Warning
37	Noeko Self-hostable intelligent knowledge base.	46	29	OSI-approved OSS	6	39	Critical
38	Notabase Powerful and easy-to-use note-taking app for networked thinking	40	24	OSI-approved OSS	911	34	Critical
39	Notty An open source, minimal AI powered note taking app and powerful markdown editor	39	24	OSI-approved OSS	502	33	Critical
40	SwarmVault Local-first RAG knowledge base compiler with MCP server support.	38	22	OSI-approved OSS	689	32	Critical
41	Lydie Modern writing workspace for structured documents, notes, and knowledge.	37	10	OSI-approved OSS	48	26	Critical
42	dnote Simple command-line notebook.	35	13	OSI-approved OSS	3.1k	26	Critical
43	Meetily Privacy first, AI meeting assistant with 4x faster Parakeet/Whisper live transcription, speaker diarization, and Ollama summarization built on Rust. 100% local processing. no cloud required. Meetily (Meetly Ai - https://meetily.ai) is the #1 Self-hosted, Open-source Ai meeting note taker for macOS & Windows.	37	6	OSI-approved OSS	30.8k	25	Critical
44	Owlistic 🦉 Free open-source notetaking app with real-time sync 🔄⚡️🚀	34	0	OSI-approved OSS	433	21	Critical
45	Surf Personal AI notebooks for files and webpages with note generation.	32	4	OSI-approved OSS	3.6k	21	Critical
46	Lumina Note Markdown note-taking app with live preview, bidirectional links, and AI assistant.	30	5	OSI-approved OSS	913	20	Critical
47	Eclaire Local-first, open-source AI assistant for your data. Unify tasks, notes, docs, photos, and bookmarks. Private, self-hosted, and extensible via APIs.	15	2	OSI-approved OSS	919	10	Critical
48	DevLune Voltex Notes Open-source knowledge base with graph view, markdown editing, cloud sync and plugin ecosystem.	14	4	OSI-approved OSS	2	10	Critical
49	GitJournal Mobile-first note-taking app integrated with Git.	15	0	OSI-approved OSS	4.2k	9	Critical
50	notes Fast and beautiful note-taking app written in C++.	14	0	OSI-approved OSS	4.3k	9	Critical
51	AirDesktop AI-powered note-taking desktop app.	13	2	OSI-approved OSS	0	9	Critical