Open source note-taking apps, including Obsidian alternatives

Notes outlive apps. The tool you choose today may hold years of writing, so the most important question is not which app has the most features, but what happens to your notes if you leave. Open source apps answer part of that question: the code stays available, and file formats are documented.

Obsidian is often the app people compare against. It stores notes as Markdown files, which is excellent, but the app itself is not open source. The six projects below are. We checked licenses and recent releases on October 5, 2026.

Quick comparison

App	Style	Where notes live	License
Joplin	Notebooks and to-dos	Markdown in a local database, many sync options	AGPL-3.0
Logseq	Outliner with daily journals	Local, check the current storage format	AGPL-3.0
Trilium Notes	Deep hierarchy and scripting	Database, optional sync server	AGPL-3.0
SiYuan	Blocks you can reference anywhere	Local workspace	AGPL-3.0
Zettlr	Markdown writing workbench	Plain Markdown files	GPL-3.0
AppFlowy	Notion-style workspace	Local or AppFlowy Cloud	AGPL-3.0

Joplin: the Evernote replacement

Joplin organizes Markdown notes into notebooks, with to-dos, tags, attachments, and a web clipper. It runs on desktop and mobile, and syncs through Joplin Cloud, Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, or a file system. Turn on end-to-end encryption explicitly if you need it.

Logseq: for daily journaling and connected thoughts

Logseq is an outliner. Every line is a block, every day starts with a journal page, and backlinks connect ideas across pages. It suits people who think in bullets and want structure to emerge over time. Logseq 2.0 was released in July 2026; check the current storage and sync options before migrating a large graph.

Trilium Notes: for a large personal knowledge base

Trilium Notes is built for depth. Notes can sit in several places in a tree at once, and it supports note types such as code, canvas, and relation maps, plus scripting. It is maintained by the TriliumNext community and stores notes in a database, with an optional server for sync and web access.

SiYuan: block references everywhere

SiYuan treats every paragraph as a block you can reference or embed in other documents. That makes it strong for structured research and reuse. It is local-first; official cloud sync is a paid add-on, and you can sync through your own storage instead.

Zettlr: for academic and long-form writing

Zettlr works directly on a folder of plain Markdown files, the same approach that makes Obsidian popular. It adds citation management with Zotero support, Zettelkasten-style links, and export through Pandoc. It is the best choice here if your notes become papers, theses, or books.

AppFlowy: if you came from Notion

AppFlowy is closer to Notion than to a notebook: documents, databases, boards, and calendars in one workspace. It belongs in this list if your notes are really project information.

The best Obsidian alternative depends on why you use Obsidian

• You like plain Markdown files in a folder: Zettlr.
• You use daily notes and backlinks: Logseq.
• You have thousands of notes in a deep structure: Trilium Notes.
• You reuse paragraphs across documents: SiYuan.
• You want notebooks and sync on every device: Joplin.

Whatever you choose, export a few notes on the first day and open them in another app. If you can get your writing out cleanly, you are not locked in. For more swaps, see our open source ChatGPT alternatives or browse the directory.