What is OpenNote used for?

OpenNote is a discontinued, MIT-licensed, open-source progressive web app for self-hosted note-taking, built as an alternative to Microsoft OneNote and Evernote with CouchDB sync. It is a good fit for offline note-taking with CouchDB sync.

Is OpenNote open source?

Yes. OpenNote is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at JLiscom/OpenNote and is written mainly in JavaScript.

Yes. OpenNote is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host OpenNote?

Yes. OpenNote can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is OpenNote an alternative to?

OpenNote is an open-source alternative to Evernote and Microsoft OneNote. Other open-source alternatives to Evernote include SiYuan, Trilium Notes and Standard Notes.

Is OpenNote actively maintained?

The most recent commit to OpenNote was on 27 February 2023, and the latest release is 18.03.00, published on 11 March 2018. The project has 1.7k stars on GitHub.

OpenNote: open-source alternative to Evernote

About OpenNote

OpenNote was a web-based, offline-capable note-taking application built to be an open alternative to Microsoft OneNote and Evernote. It targeted people who wanted to self-host their notes and retain ownership of their data rather than relying on a closed, cloud-hosted service, with a progressive web app design that worked on both touch and mouse-driven devices.

Features included a bring-your-own-server model, multi-user support, full-text search, offline-first operation as an HTML5 app, synchronization via CouchDB through PouchDB, drag-and-drop folder organization with rename and delete support, tagging, a responsive layout, and a command-line interface for exporting notes as text files.

The README states plainly that the project has 'received the kiss of death': the author no longer uses it personally, having switched to a plain text editor with Markdown, git and Syncthing for their own note-taking. OpenNote is written in JavaScript using AngularJS, jQuery and Bootstrap, distributed via Docker or manual download, and released under the MIT license, so existing deployments remain usable but should not expect further development.

Key features

Self-hosted, bring-your-own-server notes
Offline-first progressive web app
CouchDB sync via PouchDB
Multi-user support with tagging and search
CLI export of notes to text files

Good fit for

→Self-hosted alternative to OneNote or Evernote
→Offline note-taking with CouchDB sync

Built with: JavaScript
Tags: note-taking; self-hosted; pwa; couchdb; offline-app; angularjs; deprecated

OpenNote: questions and answers

What is OpenNote used for?: OpenNote is a discontinued, MIT-licensed, open-source progressive web app for self-hosted note-taking, built as an alternative to Microsoft OneNote and Evernote with CouchDB sync. It is a good fit for offline note-taking with CouchDB sync.
Is OpenNote open source?: Yes. OpenNote is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at JLiscom/OpenNote and is written mainly in JavaScript.
Is OpenNote free?: Yes. OpenNote is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host OpenNote?: Yes. OpenNote can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is OpenNote an alternative to?: OpenNote is an open-source alternative to Evernote and Microsoft OneNote. Other open-source alternatives to Evernote include SiYuan, Trilium Notes and Standard Notes.
Is OpenNote actively maintained?: The most recent commit to OpenNote was on 27 February 2023, and the latest release is 18.03.00, published on 11 March 2018. The project has 1.7k stars on GitHub.