Yes, I know that the are dozens of notes apps. I’m looking for recommendations based on a few features that I like:
- nice design (including color coding)
- easy checklists
- sharing - this one is key. I use a shared shopping list and we both need to add and edit.
- pinning and archiving (hidden notes)
I don’t mind running it from my homelab server, but that is not a requirement. Does anyone use a notes app that you love? Let me know!
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How about LogSeq ?
Basically unmaintained at this point until they release the DB version “some day”. And you’re delusional if you think they can maintain both versions at the same time. They can’t even update the current production version that they already have without focusing all their efforts on a new app that hasn’t been released yet.
Am I crazy? I’m seeing a github page with commits from 6 days ago. When you unmaintained what do you mean, like no new features?
They’re adding a database to back it?
That’s off putting, I liked its simplicity, and it’s being open source.
https://discuss.logseq.com/t/why-the-database-version-and-how-its-going/26744
I get it. And I don’t necessarily disagree with them, but it gives me concerns over the long term viability of the project. If obsidian did blocks the same way logseq did I’d probably jump ship and use that, but you can’t really brain dump in obsidian the same way you can in logseq.
Same page as you. I found Obsidian but deferred to Logseq instead for two reasons:
- Open source
- The block editor
But seeing this post reaffirms I should find an alternative. They want collaborative features, etc. That roadmap is very different from what I was wanting out of a “second brain”.
I have already been considering switching back to Obsidian and pairing it with Quartz for publishing.
AnyType seemed close as well, but it has a ton of features I wouldn’t use and it’s not clear to me how I could generate a website from it.
I just use NextCloud Notes. Categories are just sub folders, so you can create a Shared category and just share it in Nextcloud.
This feels a lot like Nextcloud Notes but the editor seems a bit clunky (like the web editor).
It’s much more powerful though. Based on Org-Mode.
Obsidian is amazing, though it isn’t FOSS but your notes are saved in Markdown, so even if something happens with the app, they will remain yours.
Another alternative may be Joplin and AnyType, but I think AnyType is also not 100% FOSS.
Logseq
Vikunja seems to check all your boxes
Dokuwiki + wireguard would be different but satisfy since if those needs, try it out of you have time.
Joplin + Syncthing has been great for me. Sync across multiple devices with no third party in between. However the “sharing” in this context is limited to other installations of the entire db. To my knowledge, there’s no way to say “sync these notes with my wife, and these others with my phone only” etc.
Last i looked into it, joplin had a bug which ment syncthing didnt work . Can’t remember the details but the solution was pinning an old version.
I am much much happier with markor notes + syncthing.
Super sinple, 100 % foss, sync what you want .
I guess it’s been a while then. Syncthing works perfectly for me, with the official latest version in Arch, the older version in Debian, the flatpak on Ubuntu, and the forked version on Android, syncing all my Joplin data all over the place.
I don’t much care for the file format though. The appeal of Git Journal is strong.
Syncthing will be discontinued this month. https://forum.syncthing.net/t/discontinuing-syncthing-android/23002
Syncthing on Android will be discontinued, and there’s a fork already, which as I said above, I use.
Oh nice, thanks.
Orgzly
Markor is absolutely amazing. Pair it with syncthing.
Find it will mentained on play, froid and github https://github.com/gsantner/markor
Syncthing is discontinued this month. https://forum.syncthing.net/t/discontinuing-syncthing-android/23002
@gedaliyah i use the tasks.org one
Wait, you use Tasks as Notes? I use this app for tasks and the Nextcloud Notes app for notes. Do you just make a task with no due date?
@fmstrat i use tasks for the parts of keep that involve tasks/lists, i suppose. I do use Notes for actual notes though.
So yeah, not a direct replacement of course.
“I WANT ALL THE CLOUD THINGS RIGHT NOW FOR FREE AND I REFUSE TO COMPROMISE 🦶🦶🦶🦶”
That’s what these requests read like.
Look, these people have a product with a good UI and sharing for a reason. Anything else you find that doesn’t hit that mark is because of that. Make concessions for what you really need, build your own, or continue stomping around about it.
They’re just asking for recommendations, calm down…
I pay for all of the software that I use, and encourage others to do so as well. That’s not what this is at all. Pretty much the opposite effect.
I paid for Evernote for years, got a double helping of enshitification.
I pay for Google Workspace. They will Play eventually sunset keep even though I pay for their services because that’s just what they do.
If you don’t host it yourself, they can and will take it away from you.
Yep. You can pay with your data, you can pay a corporation, or you can pay open source developers directly.
If someone can’t afford to pay, or doesn’t believe in it, that’s fine, and that’s part of what open source is, which is amazing. But if you’re in a position to support foss developers, and they created something useful for you, I think it’s the least we can do.
Yes. Yes. And Yes!
Don’t worry, that guy wins most useless comment. You’re post was great.
And yet you are not OP
Yes, it is?
Your rant doesn’t make sense. Asking for suggestions because you’re not OK with being spied on (especially when you’re perfectly willing to absorb the hosting costs yourself or pat for a service that isn’t hostile) is perfectly valid behavior.
It literally is…
Yell louder while providing nothing useful to say.
Things exist. Things you may not know about.
Questions exist.
They are used to ask questions.
There’s only one person stomping around in this post. It isn’t OP.
Or, you know, they could keep using Google Keep.
There’s a corner of the FOSS community that is all like “you should jump ship on literally any software that is not clean and pure of corporate interests” but also “can’t blame FOSS software for not being good unless you’re in the process of making your own”. It’s… kinda confusing.
For note apps I can recommend:
I also found a fork called NotallyX, which includes import functions from Keep and Evernote. Pretty useful for someone migrating.
- amount of backups to keep
also is a nice addition but i like the fact that notally is just 1.9mb. So i keep using notally and delete a dozen backups from time to time :/
yeah, just looking through the notes, it looks like both devs care a lot about their project and just have different visions for what a “Complete” notes app should look like. It’s nice to see, because sometimes when you see a fork of a project it’s because someone abandoned it or there is some kind of community drama, but that doesn’t seem to be the case afaik.
- sharing - this one is key. I use a shared shopping list and we both need to add and edit.
i use and love notally but you can’t share/sync (export/import wouldn’t satisfy the above requirement)
I was using Joplin for a while… Self hosted their server. On two occasions it screwed up on me and wouldn’t load my folders… Luckily I had backups but it was still frustrating. I don’t recommend them purely because the notes are stored in a custom format instead of just plain text files.
My favorite way of doing notes now is with git, currently using a free private repo on gitlab.
Just clone the repo on whatever PC I need them and it has backups and version control.
Then use GitJournal on my phone.
It’s perfect for me. I love it.
Nice, I’ve been doing something similar, using the obsidian-git plug-in for Obsidian and the Working Copy app on iOS.
Obsidian is my front-end, and it saves the notes in markdown files in a git-synced folder on my computer.
The plug-in pushes and pulls automatically, and Working Copy does the same thing on iOS, just before opening the Obsidian app on iOS.
I had similar experiences with Joplin. Would randomly lose quite a lot of data, and exporting to other formats was a hassle. I also cannot recommend.
Nextcloud Notes?
I was skeptical at first but have found it the most useable of all the ones I tried out.
I use standard notes.
What benefits do you find in particular that make it better than hosting yourself?
I believe you can host your data if you prefer
Oh great. Sorry that I didn’t dig in too much further than the front page of the website.
https://github.com/usememos/memos
This has all of that.
Wow, this looks amazing. I’ll have to check it out to see how sharing/collaboration works though.
They make an account on your hosted service. Notes can be set private or public or workspace.
Log in with the default there.
Critically you can’t share to specific accounts, it’s private, completely public or all registered users. Also, sharing is read-only, no collaboration allowed. So sharing sort of yes, but no collaboration say on a shopping list.
Two users can collaborate on a workspace note.
