Notes & Knowledge
Notes & Knowledge Base
Personal notes, knowledge bases, notebooks, and writing 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.
Use Case Rankings
Ordered by ToolVitals score, health, shipping, confidence, and then adoption as a tie-breaker.
| # | Tool | Health | Shipping | Openness | Stars | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 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 | 98 | 100 | OSI-approved OSS | 44.2k | 99 | Active |
| 02 | AFFiNE There can be more than Notion and Miro. AFFiNE(pronounced [Ιβfain]) is a next-gen knowledge base that brings planning, sorting and creating all together. Privacy first, open-source, customizable and ready to use. | 95 | 100 | OSI-approved OSS | 70.9k | 98 | Active |
| 03 | Notesnook A fully open source & end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote. | 94 | 98 | OSI-approved OSS | 14.3k | 97 | Active |
| 04 | Joplin Joplin - the privacy-focused note taking app with sync capabilities for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. | 93 | 100 | License unknown | 55.8k | 97 | Active |
| 05 | SilverBullet An open source personal productivity platform built on Markdown, turbo charged with the scripting power of Lua | 95 | 95 | OSI-approved OSS | 5.7k | 95 | Active |
| 06 | SiYuan A privacy-first, self-hosted, fully open source personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang. | 90 | 95 | OSI-approved OSS | 45.5k | 93 | Active |
| 07 | AnyType Official Anytype client for MacOS, Linux, and Windows | 87 | 98 | License unknown | 8.5k | 93 | Active |
| 08 | Memos Open-source, self-hosted note-taking tool built for quick capture. Markdown-native, lightweight, and fully yours. | 90 | 89 | OSI-approved OSS | 61.9k | 92 | Active |
| 09 | Spool Local search for Claude Code sessions, Codex history, GitHub stars, and other developer knowledge sources. | 84 | 95 | OSI-approved OSS | 586 | 92 | Active |
| 10 | Trilium.cc Personal knowledge base | 88 | 87 | OSI-approved OSS | 37.1k | 90 | Active |
| 11 | Glyph Private desktop workspace for notes, documents, and ideas with built-in AI tools. | 81 | 95 | OSI-approved OSS | 157 | 90 | Active |
| 12 | Eidos An extensible framework for Personal Data Management. | 81 | 93 | OSI-approved OSS | 3.2k | 90 | Active |
| 13 | Saber The cross-platform open-source app built for handwriting | 88 | 89 | OSI-approved OSS | 4.6k | 89 | Active |
| 14 | Trilium Build your personal knowledge base with Trilium Notes | 88 | 87 | OSI-approved OSS | 37.1k | 89 | Active |
| 15 | Poznote Personal note-taking and documentation platform. | 81 | 95 | OSI-approved OSS | 746 | 88 | Active |
| 16 | NoteDiscovery Your Self-Hosted Knowledge Base | 84 | 84 | OSI-approved OSS | 2.7k | 87 | Active |
| 17 | Standard Notes Think fearlessly with end-to-end encrypted notes and files. For issues, visit https://standardnotes.com/forum or https://standardnotes.com/help. | 84 | 73 | OSI-approved OSS | 6.6k | 85 | Active |
| 18 | massCode Open-source developer workspace for snippets, notes, calculations, and dev tools. | 79 | 77 | OSI-approved OSS | 6.9k | 84 | Active |
| 19 | FSNotes Notes manager for macOS/iOS | 77 | 58 | OSI-approved OSS | 7.4k | 74 | Active |
| 20 | TideMind AI-connected note and knowledge management tool. | 74 | 53 | OSI-approved OSS | 8 | 72 | Warning |
| 21 | Blinko An open-source, self-hosted personal AI note tool prioritizing privacy, built using TypeScript . | 69 | 39 | OSI-approved OSS | 10.8k | 66 | Warning |
| 22 | Clearly Markdown editor and knowledge base for Mac, iOS and iPadOS. | 59 | 48 | OSI-approved OSS | 1.1k | 65 | Warning |
| 23 | MyNoteBookLm Open-source note-taking and podcast generation app. | 66 | 40 | License unknown | 0 | 64 | Warning |
| 24 | Notty An open source, minimal AI powered note taking app and powerful markdown editor | 54 | 32 | OSI-approved OSS | 498 | 56 | Warning |
| 25 | dnote Simple command-line notebook. | 64 | 14 | OSI-approved OSS | 3k | 55 | Warning |
| 26 | Surf Personal AI notebooks for files and webpages with note generation. | 60 | 13 | OSI-approved OSS | 3.5k | 54 | Warning |
| 27 | notes Fast and beautiful note-taking app written in C++. | 46 | 7 | OSI-approved OSS | 4.3k | 45 | Critical |
| 28 | Eclaire Local-first, open-source AI assistant for your data. Unify tasks, notes, docs, photos, and bookmarks. Private, self-hosted, and extensible via APIs. | 42 | 13 | OSI-approved OSS | 890 | 45 | Critical |
| 29 | Noeko Self-hostable intelligent knowledge base. | 51 | 0 | OSI-approved OSS | 6 | 44 | Warning |
| 30 | Lydie Modern writing workspace for structured documents, notes, and knowledge. | 41 | 7 | OSI-approved OSS | 44 | 43 | Critical |
| 31 | GitJournal Mobile-first note-taking app integrated with Git. | 46 | 7 | OSI-approved OSS | 4.2k | 42 | Critical |
| 32 | Memex Browser extension to curate, annotate, and discuss web content. | 36 | 0 | License unknown | 4.7k | 39 | Critical |
| 33 | AirDesktop AI-powered note-taking desktop app. | 33 | 4 | OSI-approved OSS | 0 | 36 | Critical |
| 34 | LocalizeAI App that fetches and summarizes Gmail newsletters for an AI community. | 28 | 0 | OSI-approved OSS | 5 | 35 | Critical |
| 35 | Nexus Lightweight open-source knowledge base program. | 30 | 0 | License unknown | 0 | 33 | Critical |
| 36 | Maila A Gatsby and Node.js powered app that uses OpenAI to make writing faster and more efficient. | 23 | 0 | OSI-approved OSS | 6 | 27 | Critical |
Evidence Watch
Tracked tools with useful public signals but no verdict score yet.
Anarlog
Open source Granola AI alternative.
95 confidenceAthenaeum
Open source knowledge management pipeline.
98 confidenceAtomic
Self-hosted, semantically connected personal knowledge base.
98 confidenceBangle
Web-only WYSIWYG note-taking app that saves notes locally in Markdown.
85 confidenceBasic Memory
AI conversations that actually remember. Never re-explain your project to your AI again. Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tyvKNccgqN
100 confidenceBenotes
Self-hosted notes and bookmarks taking web app.
74 confidenceBoost Note
Open-source markdown note-taking app for developers.
66 confidenceButterfly
Powerful, minimalistic, cross-platform, opensource note-taking app.
92 confidenceClarity
Modern open-source note-taking and workspace application inspired by Notion.
79 confidenceDendron
Knowledge base plugin for VS Code
93 confidenceDevLune Voltex Notes
Open-source knowledge base with graph view, markdown editing, cloud sync and plugin ecosystem.
82 confidenceEphe
Ephemeral markdown paper for plain Markdown users.
73 confidenceFreeplane
Open-source mind mapping and knowledge organization application.
85 confidenceiwe
Markdown memory system for you and your AI agent
95 confidenceJotsy
Self-hosted open-source note-taking app.
73 confidenceJourniv
Self-hosted private journaling app.
94 confidenceKnowledge Base
Local-first knowledge base desktop app with Markdown editing, full-text search, knowledge graphs, and sync support.
88 confidenceLiha
Local-first second brain for knowledge capture and retrieval.
57 confidenceLokus
Modern note-taking application with powerful editing capabilities.
100 confidenceLumen
A free, open-source note-taking app that syncs with markdown files in your GitHub repository
73 confidenceLumina Note
Markdown note-taking app with live preview, bidirectional links, and AI assistant.
77 confidenceMeetily
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.
100 confidenceMinutes
Privacy-first conversation memory layer with AI search.
90 confidenceNotabase
Powerful and easy-to-use note-taking app for networked thinking
71 confidencenote-gen
Cross-platform Markdown AI note-taking software.
93 confidenceNotesify
Cross-platform AI-powered note taking app.
73 confidenceOmni-Notes
Open-source note-taking application for Android.
71 confidenceOpenWriter
Markdown-native writing surface for AI agents.
100 confidenceOwlistic
π¦ Free open-source notetaking app with real-time sync πβ‘οΈπ
78 confidencePGuide Docs
Open-source knowledge base for CS self-study and development.
78 confidenceRevezone
Local-first graphic-centric productivity tool for notes and whiteboards.
71 confidenceSwarmVault
Local-first RAG knowledge base compiler with MCP server support.
98 confidenceTiddlyWiki
A self-contained JavaScript wiki for the browser, Node.js, AWS Lambda etc.
100 confidenceTidGi Desktop
Privacy-in-mind knowledge management desktop note app with auto Git backup and web-clipping support.
94 confidenceUnderstand Anything
Interactive knowledge base for code and documents.
92 confidenceWreeto
Open-source note-taking, knowledge management, and wiki system.
79 confidence