Best Open Source Alternatives to Roam Research

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

Curated by open-source.store · Updated November 2026 · 13 alternatives

Roam Research

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Roam Research alternatives compared

Open-source alternatives to Roam Research, compared by stars, license and platform
Tool		License	Platforms	Self-hosted
Logseq	45,460	AGPL-3.0	LinuxmacOSWindowsWeb	Yes	Nov 2026	Visit
Open-Notebook	41,480	MIT	Web	No	Nov 2026	Visit
Tolaria	20,445	AGPL-3.0	LinuxmacOSWindows	No	Nov 2026	Visit
Foam	17,474	MIT	LinuxmacOSWindowsWeb	No	Oct 2026	Visit
AnyType	9,043	—	LinuxmacOSWindows	No	Nov 2026	Visit
Dendron	7,466	Apache-2.0	LinuxmacOSWindowsWeb	No	Nov 2025	Visit
SilverBullet	6,451	MIT	LinuxmacOSWindowsDocker	Yes	Nov 2026	Visit
Athens Research	6,300	MIT	LinuxmacOSWindowsWeb	Yes	Feb 2023	Visit
Org-roam	6,050	GPL-3.0	LinuxmacOSWindows	No	Apr 2026	Visit
Deta Surf	3,617	Apache-2.0	LinuxmacOSWindows	No	Aug 2026	Visit

Top open-source Roam Research alternatives

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 Roam Research: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed AGPL-3.0.

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Open-Notebook41,480MIT

Open-Notebook is a self-hosted alternative to NotebookLM for document research, offering multi-model support, private data storage, and custom podcasts.

Web

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

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