###Update###
I tried a bit of Notesnook. While it wasnt bad it didnt quite fit the expectation that obsidian created for me for what I want. Maybe it was user error but I honestly can’t say what specific aspect bothered me.
For now I decided to stay with what I have experience witg and bought a year of Obsidian-sync for 1 Remote-Vault
Thanks to everyone that suggested me solutions to my really specific problem. I appreciate that and I love(d) the discouse I seemingly sparked in this post.
Please continue commenting. Maybe someone else still hasnt found their solution yet :)
Original Post:
Hello fellow lemmy users, for the lack of a better fitting community I hope my request for help fits here the best.
I am a bit of a scatter-brain, have some notes in Google Keep, OneNote, Obsidian and in GitHub or other places. This is partially multiplied by splitting my work stuff with my home stuff.
What I like about every app I use so far
- OneNote: I like the way I can write on something like a canvas. Very useful if the note does fit the general theme of the page but not at the exact position. Also helps by utilizing the big space of a horizontal monitor. Also it now sports a very good mobile editor.
- Obsidian: So easy to backlink between notes and I love the graph view. I also like the extension “code styler” which lets me format inline code blocks with syntax highlighting (e.g.: `{powershell icon} Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Path\To\Folder -Filter XYZ*`).
I like to learn scripting but I also use obsidian for RL-stuff and technical non-code like keeping track of configs, settings, wishlists etc. - Google Keep: I bastardize the check-box feature to keep track of (online) shop orders. Mostly the only reason is that checked items get hidden in a collapsed section
Any other program that let’s me to that (even with plugin/extension) is a valid replacement candidate
What I dislike:
- OneNote:
- Quite difficult to link between notes (unsupported on mobile)
- Limited to 1 folder deep notes. Currently work around that by using the horizontal space or multi notes.
- A bit clunky to edit bigger notes
- By microsoft.
- Obsidian:
- No native way to have everything on a server outside of using the obsidian-sync service for $4 or the community plugin which requires me to use some novel type of db called couch-db (ugh, another service to keep updated/troubleshoot). I can stomach the $4 but am limited to only one vault which I don’t really like.
- Google Keep:
- No real way to have everything backed up. Only use it for quick notes or for my shipment list. Everything else is probably exported to Obsidian/OneNote if I feel like doing house-keeping.
How I currently manage/store my files:
- Right now I use
- OneNote which is stored on OneDrive (I like how Outlook (classic) works and I got 1TB of cloud storage),
- Obsidian which syncs with the plugin “remotely sync” to my OneDrive folder.
- Google Keep: Dunno. Probably some account storage on google
What I want:
- A primarily server-side setup or with a native sync feature that works like on OneNote: The true source is my server or the cloud, the client only streams/caches the data locally. I have no problem with individual markdown files.
I just dislike the general need to sync them manually with external tools like syncthing.
I already have a good backup solution on my main server and secondary server (For the curious: Veeam backup and replication that backs my proxmox VMs). No need to manage another set of backups. Another reason I want everything in one spot as I already have everything scattered. - A tree view of my notes like obsidian and OneNote does. Plus point if the app can even do sections like OneNote does.
- (Optional) A way change-log of the edits done. Some apps do it by implementing git or have a very rudimentary way to manage that
- Mobile/desktop companian app: PWA is okay but I would probably miss out on the caching feature. I would prefer an actual (android) app on my phone. Same for Windows.
What I found so far but have issues so far:
- silverbullet: Server-side but seems to miss the side bar with the tree view (which can probably be added by another extension). Seems like the best candidate so far
- Joplin: Seems alright to use but I can’t use callouts which (to me) is mandatory to use with coding/scripting tasks.
- Obsidian: Fits best of all I found but I dislike the $4. But still miles better as the former option which was (i believe) $15 monthly
- BookStack: I bit limited how it manages the change-log. Seems okay
- Outline: No way to sync it without paying beyond manual sync. Didnt try it out much but I like how it looks.
- Logseq: Same issues as with obsidian: Paid sync. Didnt look much beyond
- Joplin: Sufficient but no callouts :(
- Trilium Notes: Maintenance mode. Not a deal-breaker but I don’t want to migrate something that could maybe die :/
Thanks for reading the wall of text and I wish you a good start into the year of 2025. ✌️
You must log in or register to comment.
Just use obsidian with sync thing.
This.
Also, one of the machines is running the git plugin, so things get saved in my Forgejo as well. I guess I could set it up so they save to hit, but in different branches. 🤔
I use Obsidian primarily and just push everything to git. Remember to gitignore
.obsidian/workspaces.jsonto prevent conflicts on multiple devices.Tried couple of them but still came back to Obsidian with remotely-save (for me it’s S3 but doesn’t matter) for last 2 years. The sheer simplicity plus the fact that I don’t have to synchronize every second (it’s only my notes, no collaboration) beats every other solution.
If you’d like an alternative, see Trillium Next (community driven fork) but despite the fact that it’s great it doesn’t beat my current setup (yet 😉)
Affine is good too, but it is a bit more complicated with the benefit of more features.
Regarding Joplin: I don’t know what you mean by callouts, but it does have a plug-in system. Perhaps there is one containing what you need?
If not, and it’s not beyond your skill set, you could build it yourself.
Can I build myself? Nope. ATM I don’t have plans to learn coding
Did I look for a callout plugin? Yep, but maybe I used the wrong search terms
What callouts are: https://help.obsidian.md/Editing+and+formatting/Callouts
Maybe Orgzly?
Am I blind or is it mobile only? Would probably create issues if I use 3rd party plugin features in other apps if I don’t stay markdown-only Also it seems like I have to manually sync the file?
You can sync it using e.g. webdav and use any app you want on another client
Gotcha so it’s just a markdown editor on mobile. Thanks for suggesting an alternative!
Maybe check out TriliumNext.
I can still recommend you Logseq and Obsidian.
They store their database mostly as plain markdown, so you can just use your sync app of choice (Nextcloud, Syncthing, etc.) to sync everything between devices.
Maybe Logseq offers their sync as self hostable service too, I don’t know.
I find Logseq extremely awesome and would recommend it to you.
+1 for logseq & syncthing. I use it across Windows, Linux and Android to my NAS.
synthing has versioning so I don’t lose edits - kinda like OneNote
Another +1 from me. Very similar setup and it’s been working for me for years.
I know this says “Solved” but you should look into Gitjournal. You can use the one free private repo from gitlab to connect to. Just use vscode or similar on PC and Gitjournal on your phone. Version controlled notes, file based instead of database, can organize on PC via folders (Gitjournal recognizes the folders, don’t think it can create them though). I absolutely love it.
Bookmarked. Thank you :)
emacs + org mode.
You can sync the notes files with any app of your choosing (OneDrive, Google Drive, Nextcloud, Syncthing).
I just sync a folder with syncthing and use native markdown editors.
On a desktop I like zettlr. On android I like zettel notes. Both have zettelkasten features which is pretty much just a way to link to other files.
Exactly what I do, too! (Tho I use VS Code and owncloud on desktop, and foldersync on Android.) Only issue I have is occasional file conflicts, if some edits didn’t get sync’d right away. (Tho it hasn’t happened recently, perhaps due to Zettel’s recent file saving updates.)
This is the way
Checkout Notesnook. I’ve tried most of the ones you’ve listed and have been really enjoying how well it works compared to the competition considering its end-to-end encrypted.
A few features:
- Clients and server are open source.
- End-to-end encrypted note syncing.
- You can publish public notes.
- You can publish privates notes that require a password to view.
- You can self-host the sync server.
- You can self-host the publishing server.
- Full offline mode.
- At rest encryption.
- Multi-platform clients with feature parity (Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, MacOS, Web).
- Most if not all of the general features you’d expect from a notes taking application.
One thing I really like about the project is how open they are about what they’re doing, why they’re doing it and what the future holds. It’s been great seeing their roadmap (https://notesnook.com/roadmap/) and seeing promised features land with new ones being added, and I’ve only been using it for less than a year now!
Honestly it seems like Obsidian is the one matching most of your criteria. $4/mo isn’t bad for a bullet proof sync solution with version history, imo. I also have my vault backed up on each client locally for extra protection.
I’d love to suggest Logseq because FOSS, but man does the android app suck.
That said, I find Obsidian really lacks in the simple to-do/checklist function. So I use Quillpad synced to my Nextcloud server for Google Keep-like functionality. Everything else goes into Obsidian.
Note for Obsidian, there is a git plugin that can auto-push/pull from a repo. I put my repo on a server and have multiple devices use it as a sync feature (there is also a VPN to my home network involved). Not sure how well it works on the android app (its pure lazyness as to why I haven’t tried that yet…)
As far as my research today yielded the implementation on Android is error-prone due to no native git integration.
As long as it’s less stable than using remotely-save + OneDrive it’s a pass :/
having a solid git integration that works without much fuzz (e.g. manually committing, annotating) would be lovely though.This seems very error-prone: https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/17odzjb/obsidian_android_syncing_via_github_in_2023/
And this seems very dangerous without a native full integration: https://github.com/Vinzent03/obsidian-git?tab=readme-ov-file#performance-on-mobileObsidian is decent, but it’s not FOSS, and unless you pay for sync and have a small number of extensions, it really doesn’t work well on phone.
This seems to be the most common question in this sub…
Results from me asking this 1Y ago: https://lemm.ee/post/4593760
Went with Joplin and using it since.
Results from the same question 2 months ago: https://lemm.ee/post/45943693
Results from the same question 1 months ago: https://lemmy.world/post/22885340
I think your post was even the one suggested during my post creation. Skimming through your linked posts it seems like joplin and obsidian is used often but I have yet to read about software like notesnook which looked promising.
I just use Joplin, encrypted, and synced through dropbox. Tried logseq, but never really figured out how to use its features effectively. The notebook/note model of Joplin seems more natural to me. My coding/scripting stuff mostly just goes into git repos.
