I’m completely new to selfhosting but see a lot of potential. I wonder if anyone knows a good way to self host a notetaking app? The point is that I need to access my notes on multiple devices so self hosting them could be a nice idea. I currently use google keep and goodnotes but would like to leave those behind…
I use radicals for CalDAV and save notes there together with my calendars. On Android there is jtx Board which let’s you work with them. Sadly on Linux I couldn’t find anything so I started writing something myself but don’t have much time to work on it https://github.com/jeena/JNotes
It’s still in alpha but hoarder is promising
It’s designed to organize bookmarks, but can also support markdown notes with picture (a single picture, not multiple pictures)
Unfortunately at the moment the mobile app is so alpha that doesn’t support creation or editing such notes, only new bookmarks or new photos.
It uses a headless chromium to make screenshots for URLs.
Optionally, can use a bullshit generator like ollama or openai api keys to automatically create a lot of useless tags to each note
I use Memos and love it.
I connect to it from my desktop at home and from my phone via a WireGuard VPN and it’s everything I need. Worth a look, I think.
Memos fits a wide variety of uses and is the first note system that has clicked for me. I use it for quick notes so I don’t forget things, journal-like entries, save for later (like Pocket), shopping lists and other todos.
Looks great! Does it have handwriting support?
Results from me asking this 1Y ago: https://lemm.ee/post/4593760
Went with Joplin and using it since.
Appflowy if Notion appels you. It is not 1.0 yet so some features you need might not be there.
Man we need a giant comparison table. I looked into these but have been trying out SiYuan.
Yea… I may put one together because I’ve tried so many just trying to find the right fit and that includes handwriting support. I wish Obsidian had better handwriting support because it’s my favorite notes app.
Never heard of them. Will check them out sometime. Thx.
Affine is a newer project and has interesting features. Outline is more mature. I prefer outline a little bit more 😌
My solution is basically what @mojolobo mentions with Nextcloud behind it and I love the concept. Because Obsidian (via a WebDAV plugin on the phone) just syncs with the “Notes” folder in my Nextcloud root it really is just a bunch of .md (markdown) files. It gives me an added sense of security (on top of the self-hosting aspect) because I can see those files everywhere I have Nextcloud installed, I can edit them manually if I wanted to. On the PC you just point the Obsidian app to the folder, on phones you do it via a WebDAV plugin.
I use https://silverbullet.md and love it, it’s a bit more than a note taking app, but it’s definitely worth it.
I setup nextcloud and just use that to backup my Obsidian notes. But I also use next cloud deck depending on the type of notes or list I’m making
Obsidian but with syncthing here, just syncs the files across my devices.
Nextcloud has a Notes app too
This is what I use
You should take a look at the selfhosted live sync plugin for obsidian. It’s been working flawlessly for me for the past year.
Doesn’t it actually require you to sign up to an account on some app hosting platform, rather than self host it?
No, but that is an option if you dont have the hardware to self host it. I have it on one of my vms on my server in the basement.
EDIT: I just took another look at the github repo and it kind of looks like you can’t just selfhost it, but you can, the main readme is just a little confusing. Click on the “Setup your CouchDB” link in the manual section and the selfhosted via docker guide is there.
I use Joplin, no complaints.
Nextcloud is a really good all-in-one solution for self hosting data
Probably Joplin is the easiest to use. Looks like OneNote but it’s different in many ways.
After trying a bunch, I’m using Obsidian + <your choice of sync plugin> now. Good thing with Obsidian is your notes are ultimately a bunch of plaintext files, so you can do whatever you want with them, and it comes with clients for most platforms.
Another option is Trilium, it is pretty powerful, and has a webapp so as long as you can access a browser, you’ll be able to access your notes. https://github.com/zadam/trilium
Been using Logseq since February and it’s been a game changer. My only gripes are a) inability to access via browsers, and b) lack of a quick note function. Sometimes I still use Keep to jot something down and transfer later. Logseq spends a solid 5+ seconds syncing upon opening, which can feel like an eternity when trying to quickly log something.
For browser, there is a webapp that can be selfhosted. See here https://github.com/logseq/logseq/blob/master/docs/docker-web-app-guide.md
I think you need chromium browsers due to the API they use, but it should work.
+1 for the open source option: Trilium The project is being maintained here: https://github.com/TriliumNext/Notes
Welcome to the rabbit hole of selfhosted note-taking apps. https://selfh.st/apps/?tag=Note-Taking
Unfortunately, this is going to be a bit of a journey. You’ll probably end up going through a few of these options until you find one that works for you and fits your workflow.
You can browse the collection on OpenAlternative here: https://openalternative.co/categories/notetaking
Thanks a lot!
I use nextcloud notes because I already have nextcloud and my needs are not that sophisticated