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Notes & personal knowledge.

Local-first and self-hosted note systems built on plain text and open formats. Twenty years of notes should never depend on one company's runway.

Shelf average
4.3

6 of max 7 listed · Ranked by Arete · No paid placement

01
MemosProvisional
Lightweight self-hosted micro-journal
Indie OSS · Free
Autonomy5
Return4
Efficiency5
Transparency5
4.8
/5
02
ObsidianProvisional
Local-first markdown knowledge base; your files, forever
Bootstrapped, no VC · Free / paid sync & commercial, public
Autonomy5
Return5
Efficiency4
Transparency4
4.5
/5
03
Trilium NotesProvisional
Hierarchical personal knowledge base
Community OSS · Free
Autonomy5
Return4
Efficiency4
Transparency5
4.5
/5
04
JoplinProvisional
E2EE notes with self-hostable sync
Indie bootstrapped · Free / paid cloud sync
Autonomy5
Return4
Efficiency3
Transparency5
4.3
/5
05
ZettlrProvisional
OSS markdown editor for academic writing
Indie OSS · Free / donations
Autonomy5
Return4
Efficiency3
Transparency5
4.3
/5
06
Standard NotesProvisional
E2EE notes built to last decades
Proton-owned · Free / paid features
Autonomy5
Return3
Efficiency3
Transparency4
3.8
/5

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