Open-source Zoho Notebook alternatives

Memos is a personal timeline for quick notes that you host yourself. The idea is to write first and organize later: you save a thought in Markdown without choosing a title or folder, optionally attach images and files, and it lands on a chronological feed.

Finding things again relies on search, tag filters and a view of any given day on the timeline. You can pin important memos and save frequently used filters as views. New memos are private, and you decide per memo whether to keep it to yourself, show it to signed-in users or invite specific people, or make it public with a link. The project advertises zero telemetry and a full export of your data.

Memos is MIT licensed and built with Go on the back end, React on the front end and SQLite for storage. The quickest way to run it is a Docker container, with other options in the deployment guide, and there is a live demo to try first. Releases follow a year-and-month version scheme.

Joplin is a note-taking and to-do application, free and open source, that can manage large collections of notes organized into notebooks. Notes are written in Markdown, are searchable, can be tagged, and can be edited either in the app or in your own text editor. Apps are available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

The app is offline first, so all your data lives on your phone or computer and stays accessible without a connection. Notes can be synchronized with end-to-end encryption through services such as Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive and Joplin Cloud, and topics also mention WebDAV. Full-text search is available on every platform, and plugins and themes let you customize the app. A web clipper saves pages, and notes exported from Evernote can be imported with formatting, attachments and metadata intact; plain Markdown files can be imported as well.

The repository license is listed as 'Other', so check its terms if you plan to redistribute. Joplin is a popular choice for people who want an Evernote replacement that keeps data local or on storage they already control.

Notesnook is a note-taking app that puts privacy first. Everything is encrypted on your device with XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2 before it syncs, following zero-knowledge principles, and the whole thing is open source. It is presented as an end-to-end encrypted alternative to Evernote, aiming to show that privacy does not have to cost convenience.

The repository contains all the code needed to build and use the web, desktop and mobile clients. They are built mainly with TypeScript and React, with Electron for desktop and React Native for mobile, and parts of the code base are still being ported from JavaScript. A server component written with .NET appears in the topics. The website covers the full feature list, roadmap and downloads, and the team encourages community involvement through Discord.

Notesnook is licensed under GPL-3.0. A hosted sync service is operated by the company behind it, and the open-source code lets you inspect how encryption is handled. It suits people moving away from Evernote or other cloud notes who want strong encryption and cross-platform apps.

Standard Notes is a note-taking app with end-to-end encryption, built for digitalists and professionals, aiming to keep notes, files and life's work in one secure place. Only the user can read their notes, and sync across devices is encrypted by default.

You register for an account on the web app and install clients for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. The README highlights fast, free and encrypted sync on an unlimited number of devices, public source code, the option of hosting your own server with a few steps, and a focus on longevity and sustainability. A companion service called Listed turns notes into an online publication with email newsletters, and developers can build and publish extensions.

The web app compiles to static HTML, JavaScript and CSS files that can be served from any web server, and the README includes build and development instructions. Standard Notes is written in TypeScript and licensed under AGPL-3.0, with a forum and help pages for support. It suits privacy-minded users who want encrypted notes with the option to host their own backend.

Simplenote Electron is the open-source desktop and web client for Simplenote, a note-taking service from Automattic. The app is built with React and packaged with Electron, which lets the same codebase run in a browser and as an installable application, with packages producible for macOS, Windows and Linux.

Notes are synchronized through the Simperium library, and the interface is written in TypeScript with ReactJS. The repository documents how to build packages and how to run unit tests. Local development currently requires an existing account on the test server or access to production credentials, because the email-first signup flow no longer allows creating accounts in the test database, and sharing and publishing features do not work in development builds.

The code is released under GPL-2.0 and follows the coding guidelines used by wp-calypso. As a client for the hosted Simplenote service, it is meant for people who already use that service rather than for self-hosting their own notes server.

Blinko is a card-style note-taking app with AI features, designed for people who want to capture fleeting ideas the moment they happen. It is self-hosted and puts privacy first, so your notes stay on a server you control. The interface is built with Next.js and React in TypeScript, backed by PostgreSQL.

Its AI-enhanced retrieval uses retrieval-augmented generation, so you can find notes by asking in natural language rather than remembering keywords. Notes use Markdown and the project is tagged for memos and notebooks. A live demo, official site, documentation and English and Chinese Telegram communities are linked from the README.

Blinko is licensed under GPL-3.0 and installed on your own server, typically with Docker. It suits individuals who want a private alternative to cloud note and memo apps and are comfortable connecting their own AI provider.

Jotty is a self-hosted application for managing personal checklists and notes. It is easy to deploy, keeps all data on your own server, and can encrypt and decrypt notes for extra privacy. It was previously known as rwMarkable and is released under the AGPL-3.0 license.

The interface offers task lists with drag-and-drop ordering, a rich text editor for notes, keyboard shortcuts, translations, and custom themes and emojis. Data is stored as files rather than in a database, which keeps backups simple. For access control it supports single sign-on through OIDC and multi-factor authentication, and it exposes an API.

Docker Compose is the recommended way to install it, and the documentation covers initial setup, data storage, the versioning scheme, and encryption. Jotty suits homelab users and individuals who want a simple, private alternative to cloud to-do and note apps.

Flatnotes is a self-hosted, database-less note-taking web app that keeps all notes as markdown files in a single flat folder. Its design principle is a distraction-free app that puts note content first: there are no folders or notebooks, only your notes, backed by search and tagging. The code is written in Vue and licensed under the MIT license.

A second principle is that your notes are never held hostage. Because they are ordinary markdown files without a database or proprietary format, you can move them to another app at any time. The only thing flatnotes caches is the search index, which syncs incrementally on every search and at startup, so you can add, edit or delete files outside the app even while it runs.

Features include a mobile-responsive interface, raw and WYSIWYG markdown editor modes, advanced search, tagging, a customizable home page, wikilinks between notes, light and dark themes, a REST API and several authentication options from none to read-only, username and password, or two-factor authentication. A quick full-text search is available with the slash key. A demo resets every 15 minutes, and PikaPods offers hosting.

NotallyX, published under the Crustack account, is a minimalistic note-taking app for Android that extends the original Notally app. It lets you write rich text notes with bold, italics, monospace and strike-through, and create task lists with subtasks and automatic sorting of checked items to the end.

Further features include reminders with notifications, attachments of pictures, PDFs and other files, sorting by title or date, colors, pins and labels, clickable links for phone numbers, emails and URLs, undo and redo, a home screen widget, locking by biometrics or PIN, configurable auto-backups, quick audio notes and list or grid views. Notes can be imported from Evernote, Google Keep and Quillpad.

The developer notes that the app was temporarily removed from the Google Play Store after users reported data loss, and strongly advises setting up automatic backups, ideally also backup on save. It is written in Kotlin, licensed under GPL-3.0, supports Android Lollipop and up, and has occasional beta releases.