Any recommendations for a self hosted note taking app that runs on everything with a screen and is designed for multi device usage?
Also a modern, powerful and puristic UI would be a must have to compete with Keep.
I am looking for this app every now and then but am always disappointed by the choices.
I recently tried Joplin on Android, but was very dissatisfied with the usabilty.
The FOSS self hosted alternatives for smart home and porn are better than the commercial ones, can’t be that hard for notes, can it?
I want this sooooo bad.
Mind sharing what were your issues with Joplin?
My only issue is that it does not have any widgets on Android. So, I use Nextcloud Notes when I need that. But Joplin is actually great. You can self host a joplin server or sync using a Nextcloud server. It supports advanced markdown and I like the UI as well.
You can try Bookstack, but it will work on a web browser only. Another option is Obsidian, but I think only the apps are FOSS, the backend is not.
I like Joplin too, and I use it when I can instead of Keep. It supports a pretty good range of synchronization mechanisms. But it doesn’t have the collaboration capability of Keep, so when I’m doing shared shopping lists or to do lists, I still end up using Keep.
Right, obsidian didn’t appeal to me since it’s proprietary.
I probably will look into setting up a Joplin server and maybe write a frontend for it. Also didn’t try frontend options on PC yet.
Until now I only tried the Android app and while it looked quite mature, I didn’t get quite the UX from it I was anticipating.
Some things that bothered me:
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Creating a note requires 2 clicks, 1 should be fine.I want to start writing and decide whether its a todo later.
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Tag management. In Keep #tags are parsed from text automatically. Although there is a conflict with markdown syntax, having to issue 3 clicks to add a tag seems bothersome
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Tags are not shown in the main menu, but are another view.
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Didn’t figure out what notebooks are supposed to be, but i guess some kind of directory system. Don’t see the point when having a tag system. In the end they are too prominent in the UI.
But the synchronization options and markdown capabilities are a big plus. mardown is actually a feature missing in keep.
If you like obsidian but want a FOSS alternative, you might want to try out emacs org-mode and org-roam.
Here is an example video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyhPmypHDEw
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=AyhPmypHDEw
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I haven’t used vim in a while, so not sure. But you can use vim key bindings in emacs with evil-mode.
Org-mode can also be exported into markdown.
Markdown is cool since it’s used in a lot of places. But org-mode has so many more features and can be a drop in replacement in most cases.
What about Obsidian?
I actually stumbled upon it, but even though they have an active github account and there is an Arch Linux package, the software is proprietary. So I would rather patch the FOSS alternatives to my desire.
Logseq is pretty similar to Obsidian, and it’s FOSS. It’s still really young, but I’ve enjoyed using it more than Obsidian for my personal note taking style. It’s block-based and focused on daily journals, so instead of folders of individual notes the tags/references become interlinked pages. It’s been cool to see my daily logs become a web of concepts. Syncing is a new function they’re adding for supporters, but it can be done with Syncthing if you’re nasty.
It’s definitely a different way of note taking than Keep or Joplin and maybe not for everyone, but I hope I’m at least doing it justice and piqued someone’s curiosity!
I was going to recommend Logseq as well. I use the git plug-in on laptops and Working Copy (git on iOS) and some automations to sync it on mobile.
I’ve had success with Standard Notes personally. I’ve just used the basic default server, but I know you can self host it. Best of luck!!
Oh, I didn’t realize it was open source from the look of the website. But it actually is! And it’s active. https://github.com/standardnotes/app
I will check it out.
Quillpad is open source and pretty much identical to Google Keep - you can use Nextcloud to sync across devices.
All I really want is a way to import my lists, my many many lists.
Hmm, latest commit 7 years ago… It was also not easy to find the “upstream” repo, the link on the website 404s. https://github.com/cognirel/Quillpad-Server
It’s here:
