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?
Memos is self hostable and is “cross platform” by nature of being web-based only. There is a 3rd party mobile app MoeMemos but it doesn’t add anything special over the quite excellent progressive web app for plain Memos. Of course you can’t use it offline since it’s web-based. But I have an always on VPN connection between my phone and my server so home so it’s fine.
Notesnook is recently open source, but as of yet not self hostable. It is on the roadmap though. This one is privacy/security oriented and has native apps for just about everything as well as a web interface.
Quillpad is the closest interface-wise to Keep, but it can only sync with Nextcloud and I can’t run that beast on my old hardware. Too clunky and slow.
I’ve been on this hunt for awhile but I realized that I use Keep differently than other folks on the same journey. It’s mostly a list focused service for me. Sometimes with check boxes, sometimes not. Most of the FOSS not taking apps can use some markdown, but that is a bear to use on mobile without a quick way to inject a checkbox. Memos has a button for a few formatting items on each “post” and thankfully one is the Markdown checkbox shortcut.
For notes, personal knowledge management, and everything else I use and love Obsidian.
I really like Quillpad on mobile. I have my own Nextcloud instance and it works great. I only wish that Nextcloud Notes/Quillpad allowed for a few more levels in its notebook/notes hierarchy for better categorization.
I’ve tried Obsidian/Logseq with Folder Sync As a companion app and just didn’t like the clunkiness of it.
100% agree on clunkiness of homebrew sync option for Obsidian. I ended up paying for their sync service, which is expensive for what it is. But I use it a ton and it’s saved me so much time that I feel it’s worth it. And it’s about as flawless a sync option as their is.
I would also use Quillpad if they offered another sync option.
Might not the thing you are looking for, but I tried to find a replacement for Keep a year ago and somehow stuck with a todo.txt file. It can be edited in a normal text editor but I use todo. Tx
I’m a big fan of Logseq. I use Syncthing to sync a folder between my desktop and phone and it works great. Tagging, everything is in markdown, and it’s easy to navigate around.
I use a basic markdown editor on android called Markor. Is Logseq the same? Or is it more than that?
Definitely more. It’s geared to note taking, with hashtags, wiki-like linking, and loads of other features. The main page is here.
i made the same migration from markor (files in a folder) to logseq. there’s a lot to be gained - always-preview alone is a game changer - but on mobile the visibility of the keyboard can be fiddly. once in a while you’ll feel like you’re in vi, it has such a mind of its own. but i’m not planning to go back
Is there any mobile app for it?
Yeah, it’s on the Apple app store, and the Android version is available directly from their GitHub release page as an APK, or on F-Droid.
I don’t even need it to be (self)hosted, it can be an offline Android app that looks and behaves like Keep, but is not made by Google.
So notes arranged together, tick boxes, reminders, dark theme.
Honestly, the closest I have found is https://github.com/baggachipz/tinylist It looks like keep, can share and edit files with other people, which is something a lot of things are lacking and I use it extensively for that. Also, I don’t like the recommendations of using MD apps/files for a simple checklist/random notes app. That’s way too much for something this simple and I use Obsidian as well. But they serve much different purposes.
It allows you to host your own database for it, and there is a guide on it.
Hey, that TinyList.app is actually very good but unfortunately it’s missing a quite crucial feature - reminders… Nevertheless I will be watching its career with great interest.
that would be only limited to one device though. screenshot looks good.
Have a look at Obsidian. It runs on a variety of devices, you can sync either with their system, or pretty much anything else, as it just stores your notes as markdown files, and you can arrange notes like that with the canvas system.
I actually had Obsidian installed and it looks like something I’d like if I spend more time on a computer but nowadays I’m mostly using phone for Internet activity. I couldn’t get canvas to work on my phone for some reason. It also lack reminders which is wuite crucial for me.
Fair point about reminders, that’s not something I use it for, so I didn’t think of it. Canvas seems to be working now, and there are regularly push updates, so one of those might have fixed it.
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.
Automattic, who owns Wordpress, also owns Standard Notes.
Do you have a receipt for that?
Oops, I got confused with Simplenote, guess it’s a new recommendation then.
Gotcha, thanks for the clarification
I second Standard Notes. My focus is very geared towards privacy and security and Standard Notes excels at that as well.
Anything wrong with Nextcloud Notes?
I guess it does a job, but will lack some features like tagging I am accustomed to from keep. Also I would need to maintain a whole nextcloud instance for it.
It has “categories”. Not sure if thats the same thing
I replaced keep with nextcloud notes many years ago
I’m really enjoying Otterwiki. Everything is saved as markdown, attachments are next to the markdown files in a folder, and version control is integrated with a git repo. Everything lives in a directory and the application runs from a docker container.
It’s the perfect amount of simplicity and is really just a UI on top of fully portable standard tech.
For the record, I also found that turtl is FOSS and seems to have a decent UI. I will give it a try.
In another comment you complained about the latest commit being made 7 years ago. Just a heads up, this project also seems pretty abandoned.
Did you try it?
I’ve been using Trilium (https://github.com/zadam/trilium). There are desktop clients, no mobile clients. However the web interface works well enough for me that I don’t mind. The notes update in near-realtime when you make edits through the web app on multiple machines (assuming internet connectivity of course).
If you’re already self-hosting NextCloud you might want to look NextCloud Notes as well.
Obsidian! Getting it to use cloud synced folders is a little tricky but it is a fabulous little program.
Available but not FOSS. Gotta watch the license if you use it for any work.
I’m curious what licensing issues you would run into with obsidian?
Not a huge one, but it is only free for personal and non-profit use. “If your notes contain content directly related to work projects or processes for a greater-than-one-person company, then you require a commercial license.”
Since it is on flathub and they don’t really nag you, I am sure there are people who aren’t really aware.
Good to know thanks for the info. I’ll have to have a bit of a dig myself.
Seconding Obsidian - it’s not FOSS, but the files are just markdown, nothing special, so you’re not locked in. Self hosting is real easy, you just have to Sync the files, and everything follows. I use syncthing between my laptop and phone and am having a good time with it.
Whoops, should have noticed your endorsement of syncthing before posting a comment mentioning this.
While Obsidian does save to individual files, the Markdown they use seems to be a superset of everyday Markdown. Eg, being able to use callouts (eg, Note, Warning, Info, etc) and embedded linking of notes.
The automatic backlinks are fantastic. And I’ve discovered that if I rename a note, all links to that note get updated as well. So no need to worry about orphaning pages.
I’ve added a handful of plugins as well. Off the top of my head, one is a dynamic table of contents (for that page), another helps to compose/edit Markdown tables.
Also a big fan of Obsidian!
For syncing, one option is to use syncthing.
I know someone (whose geek creds are admittedly well beyond mine) who is also a fan. He uses GitHub to sync his notes.
Obsidian is so so good.
I don’t even mind to pay for their sync service to support them. You can even encrypt your vault (notebook) with your own key.
I have been using anytype.io for a few months and love it. Best thing is it’s “local first” so stored on your own devices, just synched online.
What type of file uses? MD?
Yes MD can be used or just enter text into their pro forma objects
Nextcloud notes is the easiest I have found.
That’s a fantasy I’m afraid. Just use Keep.
Why’s that? Keep looks and feels like a pretty basic note taking app, I don’t even see any of the usual google “secret sauce” that would make it better, smarter, or more embedded… what is it about keep that you find inimitable?
Of all the open source note apps I tried over a year ago, they didn’t seem that great. I’m also not interested in self hosting.
I like that Keep let’s you quickly create lists, let’s you add images, you can markup images, you can pin notes, search is fast and it all backs up to the cloud seamelessy. And I can result access it on any device.
In general I think there’s a lot to be said for Google services. Drive is great, put anything in there and have it everywhere and easily share.
Photos is indispensable because it’s so tig byhtly integrated with Android: take a photo and instantly it’s backed up to the cloud. No worry about losing my phone because my memories will be in the cloud.
I use Calendar all the time to manage events and reminders and it works perfectly. Also syncs to my calendar on Mint perfectly. It’s fast, easy to use, let’s you get in and out.
Google Messages now uses RCS which is great, is designed very well, and you can also send and receive messages from the web if you want. Plus it integrates nicely with Phone, Meet and Contacts.
It’s really hard to beat. And this is all free, although I pay €20 a year for the larger storage plan.
You can replicate this in Nextcloud but then you need to self host, set up incoming open ports, sorry about being ddoss’d or hacked, have either a large HDD or external HDD which may fail at any time. And it won’t integrate with Android as well.
I get people’s concern with privacy but I don’t think it’s as big a deal as people make out and end up throwing the baby out with the bath water.
I think you got lost because self-hosting is very much the point of this community :)
The Keep features you enumerated are pretty rudimentary, and none of that requires the sheer engineering power of a Google to be delivered securely and effectively. Take something like quillpad for instance, it shares a lot of UI paradigms with Keep, but expands in every direction to make the note taking experience and keeping them organized better. So indeed, Google Apps as a captive ecosystem is hard to beat, but resisting the urge to put all your eggs in their basket has some enormous perks which people with experience value a lot.
…ssh and vim?
Editing a file with vim though ssh on mobile seems like a pain.
I’ve done it a fair bit and it’s actually pretty painless. If you know how to use vim you save a ton of keystrokes, which makes a big difference on mobile.
I don’t believe this for a single second
Lol
what about emacs?
I use orgzly on android, Emacs on desktop. Syncthing to sync the files.
+1
Honestly, the closest I have found is https://github.com/baggachipz/tinylist It looks like keep, can share and edit files with other people, which is something a lot of things are lacking and I use it extensively for that. Also, I don’t like the recommendations of using MD apps/files for a simple checklist/random notes app. That’s way too much for something this simple and I use Obsidian as well. But they serve much different purposes.
It allows you to host your own database for it, and there is a guide on it.
No dockerhub image is a dealbreaker. Especially for Unraid
Looks like you can host your own database and tie the web app to that. I’m going to try it later today with my unRAID server.
This is awesome! Thanks!
Was going to make the same suggestion. You can try it out at https://tinylist.app
