Open Source Note Taking Apps
Discover the best open source note taking apps to capture ideas, organize your thoughts. Find tools for personal or team knowledge management.
Apps in Note Taking
Joplin
Note Taking
The privacy-first, open-source note-taking app with end-to-end encrypted sync, AI assistance, and a powerful plugin ecosystem across every platform.
Notesnook
File Storage · Note Taking · Security
End-to-end encrypted, open-source note-taking where your data stays yours — even from the server.
AFFiNE
Collaboration · Note Taking · Productivity
Write, draw, and plan in one infinite canvas — the open-source alternative to Notion and Miro that keeps your data yours.
anytype-ts
Collaboration · Knowledge Management · Note Taking
A local-first, end-to-end encrypted knowledge OS that lets you build notes, tasks, wikis, and entire apps — with your data stored offline and synced peer-to-peer.
open-notebook
AI Assistants · Note Taking
A privacy-first, self-hosted AI research notebook with 18+ model providers, multi-speaker podcast generation, and full REST API—your open-source alternative to Google Notebook LM.
Docmost
CMS · Collaboration · Note Taking
Self-hosted collaborative wiki and knowledge base with real-time editing, diagrams, AI assistance, and enterprise access controls — a modern alternative to Confluence and Notion.
Standard Notes
Note Taking
End-to-end encrypted notes and files — private by design, built to last, and fully self-hostable.
supermemory
AI Development · AI Memory · Note Taking
The state-of-the-art memory and context engine for AI agents — ranked #1 on all three major AI memory benchmarks.
Epicenter
Developer Tools · Knowledge Management · Note Taking
A local-first monorepo led by Whispering, an open-source speech-to-text app, built on an MIT toolkit that turns your data into plain Markdown and SQLite files you own instead of a database you rent.
NoteGen
AI Assistants · Knowledge Management · Note Taking
Capture anything first, then let AI transform your scattered records into polished, structured Markdown notes with RAG-powered knowledge retrieval.
Anarlog
AI Assistants · Note Taking · Productivity
Anarlog is an open-source, local-first AI meeting notetaker that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings entirely on your device — no cloud lock-in, no mandatory account, and every note saved as a plain markdown file you own forever.
Amical
AI Assistants · Note Taking
Local-first AI dictation that understands your active app — private, offline, and built for speed.
Tolaria
Note Taking
A free, open-source, local-first desktop app for managing markdown knowledge bases on macOS, Windows, and Linux — for second brains, company docs, or AI assistant memory and procedures.
Blinko
Knowledge Management · Note Taking
A self-hosted, AI-powered card note-taking tool that lets you capture fleeting thoughts instantly and retrieve them with natural language search.
faved
Bookmarks Archiving · Knowledge Management · Note Taking
A private, self-hosted bookmark manager built for large collections—nested tags, PWA support, and zero cloud dependency.
About Note Taking
In today’s fast-paced world, the ability to quickly and efficiently record thoughts, ideas, and information is essential. Note taking software provides a digital space to do just that – moving beyond traditional pen and paper to offer powerful features for organization, collaboration, and long-term knowledge management. These tools are designed for a wide range of users, from students and researchers to professionals and creative writers.
Typical features include rich text editing, allowing for formatted notes with headings, lists, and multimedia. Many applications support tagging and categorization to facilitate easy searching and retrieval of information. Advanced functionality often includes linking between notes, creating a personal knowledge base, and even version control to track changes over time. Collaboration features such as shared notebooks and real-time editing enable teamwork and brainstorming.
Note taking apps solve critical problems related to information overload and disorganization. They offer a centralized location for all your thoughts and ideas, reducing the need to sift through multiple documents or physical notebooks. By providing powerful search capabilities and organization tools, these applications help you find what you need when you need it. Beyond personal productivity, collaborative features foster better teamwork and knowledge sharing within organizations. The ability to integrate with other workflows (such as task management systems) further enhances their value, making them a core component of many modern workflows.
