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
memos
Note Taking
Open-source, self-hosted note-taking built for quick capture — Markdown-native, lightweight, and fully yours.
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.
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.
Alexandrie
Collaboration · Knowledge Management · Note Taking
The open-source, offline-first Notion, Obsidian & Confluence alternative with multi-tenant teams, OIDC/SSO, and one-command Docker deployment.
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 · Voice AI
Local-first AI dictation that understands your active app — private, offline, and built for speed.
NoteDiscovery
Knowledge Management · Note Taking · Productivity
A self-hosted markdown knowledge base with MCP-powered AI integration, graph views, LaTeX math, and built-in drawing — your notes stay on your server, forever.
flatnotes
Knowledge Management · Note Taking
Self-hosted, database-free note-taking with plain Markdown files, full-text search, wikilinks, and zero proprietary lock-in.
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.
Kuku
Note Taking
A local-first, open-source Markdown knowledge workspace for macOS — plain files, personal wiki and Second Brain workflows, AI-assisted diffs, and encrypted sync, built as an Obsidian alternative.
OpenScreen
Design Tools · Note Taking · Productivity
Free, open-source screen recorder with zooms, annotations, and system audio capture
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.