Open-source Roam Research alternatives

Logseq is an open-source platform for knowledge management and collaboration that puts privacy and local storage first. Notes are organized as linked blocks in an outliner, forming a knowledge graph, and topics show it works with both Markdown and Org-mode files and can be backed by Git.

The project is moving toward a database-backed version that introduces DB graphs. That version is in beta, comes with a new iOS mobile app in alpha and a Real Time Collaboration approach to syncing graphs across devices or working with others, also in alpha. Because data loss is possible while these features mature, the maintainers recommend automated backups. A plugin API, themes and a public roadmap round out the ecosystem.

Logseq is written in Clojure and ClojureScript under the AGPL-3.0 license, and desktop builds are available from the releases page. It appeals to researchers, students and knowledge workers who want a personal wiki with bidirectional links and full ownership of their files.

Foam is a personal knowledge management system that lives inside Visual Studio Code and GitHub. It is intended for organizing research, keeping notes you can rediscover, writing long-form content and, if you want, publishing it to the web. The notes are plain Markdown files you own, so you can share and collaborate on them with anyone.

Its features center on linking notes together. A graph visualization shows how notes connect, link autocompletion helps create connections and placeholders, and links are updated automatically when a file is renamed. Foam supports files with the same name in different folders by using the shortest identifier needed, and it helps find and fix ambiguous wikilinks. Link preview, go to definition and peek references let you see where a note is mentioned. Topics include Zettelkasten and PKM workflows.

Foam is a free, open-source VS Code extension written in TypeScript, and its license is listed as 'Other' on GitHub. It requires VS Code, so it suits developers and technical writers already comfortable in that editor who want a notes workflow built on files and Git instead of a separate app.

Neuron is a note-taking and publishing tool built around the Zettelkasten method. You keep a directory of Markdown files, connect them with a flexible linking syntax and hierarchical tags, and neuron can generate a static website from them, so private notes and a public digital garden can come from the same source files.

It is designed to be simple to use, with optional integrations for editors such as Emacs, Vim and VS Code. There is a template repository for publishing a neuron site with GitHub Pages, and the documentation site explains installation and philosophy. Neuron is written in Haskell and licensed under AGPL-3.0.

The README states that neuron is being superseded by Emanote, a successor project by the same author, and directs new users there. Neuron still works as a local tool run on your own machine, with discussion on GitHub and Matrix. It is mainly relevant to people who already maintain notes in neuron or who are interested in plain-text, link-based knowledge management.

Inkstone is a browser-based Markdown notebook for writing, organizing, syncing and backing up personal knowledge, and it runs entirely on Cloudflare Workers. Notes are always plain Markdown, and the deployer keeps control of the database, attachments and runtime, making it a complete self-hosted application. New accounts get two starter notes in Chinese and English.

Writing features include a CodeMirror 6 editor, live preview, split layouts, focus and typewriter modes, autosave and version history. Markdown support covers GFM tables, footnotes, wikilinks, embeds, callouts, math, Mermaid diagrams and front matter. Notes can be organized in nested folders with tags, favorites, archive and trash, with backlinks, block references and a relationship graph, and search uses D1 full-text search with optional semantic search powered by Workers AI. A private remote MCP server with OAuth 2.1 and PKCE is included, along with offline editing, multi-device sync, sharing and WebDAV backups.

Inkstone is built with TypeScript, React, Hono and Cloudflare services such as D1, R2, KV and Durable Objects. The README names the licence as LGPL-3.0-only, while repository metadata lists it as other, and a browser-only demo is available. It suits people who already use Cloudflare and want a private note system they own.

Tangent is a local note writing and personal knowledge management tool, heavily inspired by Obsidian but developed in its own direction. It uses [[Wiki Links]] and a slightly customized Markdown syntax, and notes are styled as you write, with Markdown syntax hidden and revealed as needed.

Other key features include a two-dimensional connected map of your navigation and linking history, a sliding panel interface inspired by Andy Matuschak's notes, a writing focus mode that highlights the current paragraph, line or sentence, note views that show collections as cards or an infinite feed, and a custom query language with autocomplete for complex searches. Notes can embed images, link previews, PDFs, audio and video, including YouTube links. Pre-built binaries are available from the downloads page and Flathub.

This monorepo holds the Electron-based Tangent application, the source of tangentnotes.com, a test workspace generator, an HTML-to-Markdown parser and the query language parser. Tangent is written in TypeScript and licensed under Apache-2.0.

Notabase is a personal knowledge base built for networked thinking. Notes link to one another, so you can move through them like web pages and notice connections you would not have found by filing them in folders. The README describes it as a personal Wikipedia you can edit and browse, and says it draws inspiration from Notion, Obsidian, Typora and Roam Research.

The editor is WYSIWYG with Markdown support. Linked and unlinked references show which other notes mention the one you are viewing, and block references embed a passage from another note that updates when the original changes. Notes can be organized with links, tags and nesting, browsed with page stacking, explored in a graph view and found through full-text search. It installs as a progressive web app for faster loading and offline viewing, and notes sync to the cloud across devices.

You can import or export your notes at any time. Notabase is written in TypeScript and licensed under AGPL-3.0. The project is focused on its hosted experience, but the README says self-hosting or running it locally is possible. It is funded by sponsors and developed in the open.

Archivy is a self-hostable knowledge repository meant to help individuals learn and retain information in their own personal, extensible wiki. It is aimed at people building a 'digital brain' or personal knowledge base who want full control over their data rather than relying on a cloud note service.

Bookmarked web pages have their content saved for digital preservation, and notes support bidirectional links and embedded tags for organizing the knowledge base. Everything is stored as extended markdown files with YAML front matter, which supports footnotes, LaTeX math, syntax highlighting and other markdown extensions, and content can be searched with the help of Elasticsearch. An extensible plugin system and API let power users customize their workflow, and sync options and image upload are also supported.

Archivy is installed with pip or Docker, after which an init command and a CLI-created user account get it running locally on port 5000. It is written in Python and released under the MIT license. The roadmap mentions annotations and a multi-user permission system as upcoming features.

TiddlyRoam is a tool for organizing thoughts, ideas and research as a personal wiki made of small, interconnected notes. It is built on TiddlyWiki and positioned as a free, open-source alternative to Roam Research, helping you discover patterns in your knowledge through bi-directional links.

Two key features are bi-directional links, which show both the pages you link to and the pages that link back to the current one, and interactive graph maps that visualize the structure of your wiki. The whole app is distributed as a single HTML file, tiddlyroam.html, which you open in TiddlyDesktop so that changes can be saved easily.

It is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and designed so that no technical skills are required to start. Developers can customize it using a modular Node.js workflow with a local development server and a build step that produces the single distributable file. It suits individuals building a personal knowledge base that stays on their own machine.