Best Open Source Alternatives to Obsidian

Compare the best free and open-source alternatives to Obsidian — self-hosted and desktop replacements you fully control, ranked by GitHub stars, license and platform support.

Curated by open-source.store · Updated November 2026 · 17 alternatives

Obsidian

Proprietary SaaS

PricingFreemium

Platformsdesktop, mobile, windows, macos, linux, android, ios

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Obsidian alternatives compared

Open-source alternatives to Obsidian, compared by stars, license and platform
Tool		License	Platforms	Self-hosted
AppFlowy	78,111	AGPL-3.0	LinuxmacOSWindowsandroid	No	Oct 2026	Visit
Joplin	56,994	MIT	LinuxmacOSWindowsandroid	No	Nov 2026	Visit
Logseq	45,460	AGPL-3.0	LinuxmacOSWindowsWeb	Yes	Nov 2026	Visit
Trilium Notes	38,669	AGPL-3.0	LinuxmacOSWindowsDocker	Yes	Nov 2026	Visit
Tolaria	20,445	AGPL-3.0	LinuxmacOSWindows	No	Nov 2026	Visit
Foam	17,474	MIT	LinuxmacOSWindowsWeb	No	Oct 2026	Visit
Notesnook	14,881	GPL-3.0	LinuxmacOSWindowsWeb	Yes	Nov 2026	Visit
AnyType	9,043	—	LinuxmacOSWindows	No	Nov 2026	Visit
Dendron	7,466	Apache-2.0	LinuxmacOSWindowsWeb	No	Nov 2025	Visit
Standard Notes	6,695	AGPL-3.0	LinuxmacOSWindowsDocker	Yes	Nov 2026	Visit

Top open-source Obsidian alternatives

AppFlowy78,111AGPL-3.0

AppFlowy is an open-source, local-first alternative to Craft and Notion that provides block editing, Kanban boards, and offline databases with zero fees.

LinuxmacOSWindowsandroidios

vs Obsidian: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed AGPL-3.0.

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Joplin56,994MIT

Joplin is an open-source, encrypted note-taking app that replaces Evernote with offline-first Markdown, terminal CLI access, and flexible self-hosted sync.

LinuxmacOSWindowsandroidios

vs Obsidian: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed MIT.

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Logseq45,460AGPL-3.0

Logseq is an open-source, local-first outliner and personal knowledge base that replaces Roam Research with private, bidirectional markdown notes.

LinuxmacOSWindowsWebandroid

vs Obsidian: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed AGPL-3.0.

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Trilium Notes38,669AGPL-3.0

Trilium Notes is an open-source personal knowledge base replacing Evernote with deep hierarchical note trees, note cloning, and private local storage.

LinuxmacOSWindowsDockerWeb

vs Obsidian: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed AGPL-3.0.

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Tolaria20,445AGPL-3.0

Tolaria is an open-source desktop markdown note-taking app with built-in Git versioning, opinionated note types, and local AI agent context.

LinuxmacOSWindows

vs Obsidian: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed AGPL-3.0.

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Best Open Source Alternatives to Obsidian

Obsidian

Obsidian alternatives compared

Top open-source Obsidian alternatives

The modern standard for Protobuf workflows

Mentoring for backend developers. Consulting for startups.

More alternatives to Obsidian

Foam

Notesnook

AnyType

Dendron

Standard Notes

SilverBullet

Org-roam

CherryTree

Darkwrite

Orgnise

OpenNotas

Justnote