My personal note taking app, but you probably want to use one of these primarily open-source applications instead:
| Service | Notes |
|---|---|
| Archivy | "Self-hostable knowledge repository" |
| Bear | "Markdown notes you’ll love" (Closed source) |
| bookmarker | "Personal project to help me retain information from books" |
| Buku | "Personal mini-web in text" |
| DayOne | "Beautiful daily journaling mobile and web app" (Closed source) |
| Docmost | "Collaborative wiki and documentation software" |
| Evernote | "Remember everything and tackle any project with your notes, tasks, and schedule all in one place" (Closed source) |
| flatnotes | "Database-less note-taking web app that utilises a flat folder of markdown files" |
| Foam | "A personal knowledge management and sharing system for VSCode" |
| HedgeDoc | "Web-based, self-hosted, collaborative markdown editor" |
| Hypothesis | "Collaboratively annotate the web" (Closed source) |
| Joplin | "Privacy-focused note taking app with sync capabilities for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS" |
| Jot | "Rapid note management for the terminal" |
| Memos | "The pain-less way to create your meaningful notes. Your Notes, Your Way" |
| Monica | "Personal relationship CRM" |
| nb | "Note‑taking, bookmarking, and archiving with linking, tagging, filtering .. + more" |
| Notion | "Write. Plan. Collaborate. With a little help from AI" (Closed source) |
| Notional Velocity (Source) | Introduced ideas that are now more commonplace. Such as "searching for notes is not a separate action; rather, it is the primary interface" |
| nvpy | "Simplenote syncing note-taking application, inspired by Notational Velocity and ResophNotes, but uglier and cross-platformerer" |
| Obsidian | "With thousands of plugins and themes, you can shape Obsidian to fit your way of thinking" (Closed source) |
| Org-Mode | Support Clocking, Capture, and Task/Agenda |
| Org-Roam | "Rudimentary Roam replica with Org-mode" |
| Outline | "The fastest knowledge base for growing teams. Beautiful, realtime collaborative, feature packed, and markdown compatible." |
| Pinboard | "One of the oldest independently run businesses on the web" with a text-first UI |
| Rnote | "Sketch and take handwritten notes" |
| Roam Research | "As easy to use as a document. As powerful as a graph database. Roam helps you organize your research for the long haul" (Closed source) |
| Silicon Notes | "A web-based personal knowledge base with few frills" |
| SimpleNote by Automatic | "All your notes, synced on all your devices" (Closed source) |
| Siyuan | "Fine-grained block-level reference and Markdown WYSIWYG" |
| Standard Notes | "Secure note-taking app" |
| Textpod | "Inspired by 'One Big Text File' idea" |
| TiddlyWiki | "A unique non-linear notebook for capturing, organising and sharing complex information" |
| Trillium Next Notes | "Hierarchical note taking application with focus on building large personal knowledge bases" |
| Untitled | "An open-source app for taking notes that feels awesome to use" |
| Zettlr | "One-Stop Publication Workbench" |
| "Awesome" List of Note Taking Software | "A curated list of awesome note-taking software" |
| Digital Gardens | "Resources, links, projects, and ideas for gardeners tending their digital notes on the public interwebs" |
| Open Source hosted on Pika Pods | Supports self-hosting of Memos, linkding, etc. |
If still interested, these are the high-level commands necessary to run locally
# Initial Setup
brew install mise uv
uv sync
mise install
hk install --mise
# Formatting
mise run format ::: typecheck
hk run pre-commit --all
# Testing
mise run test
mise run test --snapshot-update
uv run ptw .
# Local Development
uv run yak-shears-users list
uv run serve
mise run dev