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Best Self-Hosted Microsoft OneNote Alternatives in 2026

Microsoft OneNote is a digital notebook app with freeform note-taking, drawing, and web clipping integrated with Microsoft 365.

38 Self-Hosted Alternatives to Microsoft OneNote

AppFlowy

69K

An open-source Notion alternative with AI, wikis, projects, and databases — cross-platform (desktop, mobile, web) with offline-first architecture and full data ownership.

documents AGPL-3.0

AFFiNE Community Edition

66K

An open-source workspace that merges docs, whiteboards, and databases into one platform — a privacy-focused alternative to Notion and Miro with AI built in.

documents

Memos

58K

A private Twitter for your brain — open, type, done. Self-hosted in 30 seconds, runs forever on a $3/month VPS.

documents MIT

Joplin

54K

Open-source note-taking app with end-to-end encryption, Markdown support, and sync across all devices via Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, or your own server.

documents

SiYuan

42K

SiYuan is a privacy-first, local-first personal knowledge management system with block-level references, bidirectional links, end-to-end encrypted sync, and spaced repetition.

documents AGPL-3.0

Outline

38K

The self-hosted team wiki with a Notion-quality editor — real-time collaboration, beautiful UI, and no per-seat pricing.

knowledge base BSL-1.1 Medium difficulty

TriliumNext Notes

35K

Trilium is an open-source solution for note-taking and personal knowledge bases. Use it locally or sync with your own server.

documents AGPL-3.0

Etherpad

18K

Etherpad handles highly customizable online editor providing collaborative editing in real-time as a self-hosted solution.

documents Apache-2.0

Docs

16K

Collaborative document editor with real-time editing, version control, and secure sharing

documents MIT

Obsidian LiveSync

9.8K

Obsidian LiveSync gives you community-implemented sync plugin for Obsidian on your own infrastructure.

documents MIT

Blinko

9.7K

Blinko is a TypeScript-based application that provides personal note tool with AI features.

documents GPL-3.0

HedgeDoc

7K

HedgeDoc lets you run realtime collaborative markdown notes on all platforms, formerly known as CodiMD and HackMD CE entirely on your own server.

documents AGPL-3.0

Standard Notes

6.4K

Standard Notes handles cross-platform note-taking app as a self-hosted solution.

documents AGPL-3.0

Livebook

5.7K

Livebook is a self-hosted note-taking replacement for Evernote, Firebase, and more.

documents Apache-2.0

Librum

5.3K

Librum is a self-hosted e-books & digital libraries replacement for Evernote and Microsoft OneNote.

documents GPL-3.0

SilverBullet

4.9K

SilverBullet is a self-hosted note-taking replacement for Evernote and Microsoft OneNote.

documents MIT

flatnotes

2.8K

Released under MIT, flatnotes provides database-less note-taking web app that utilises a flat folder of markdown files for storage on self-hosted...

documents MIT

NoteDiscovery

2.4K

NoteDiscovery is a JavaScript-based application that provides lightweight Obsidian-like note-taking app.

documents MIT

Jotty

1.7K

Jotty is a self-hosted note-taking tool that provides lightweight but powerful alternative for managing your personal, file based, notes and checklists.

documents AGPL-3.0

Haptic

1.7K

Haptic gives you local-first, privacy-focused home for Markdown notes on your own infrastructure.

documents AGPL-3.0

Alexandrie

1.3K

Alexandrie lets you run modern and elegant note-taking app entirely on your own server.

documents MIT

XWiki

1.2K

XWiki is a self-hosted note-taking tool with support for Note Taking, Wiki, Workspace.

documents LGPL-2.1

Zen Notes

1.1K

Zen Notes handles minimal note-taking app storing Markdown notes in local SQLite database. Features instant search as a self-hosted solution.

documents AGPL-3.0

Journiv

981

Journiv handles private journaling app as a self-hosted solution.

documents

Many Notes

928

Many Notes lets you run markdown note-taking web application designed for simplicity entirely on your own server.

documents MIT

Notesnook

863

For note-taking, Notesnook is a self-hosted solution that provides and encrypted notes.

documents AGPL-3.0

Anchor

726

Self-hosted note-taking tool that provides offline-first note-taking app.

documents AGPL-3.0

Nextcloud Notes

710

Nextcloud Notes lets you run distraction-free notes and writing entirely on your own server.

documents AGPL-3.0

Note Mark

628

Note Mark gives you lightning fast and minimal web-based Markdown notes app on your own infrastructure.

documents AGPL-3.0

Glass Keep

551

Self-hosted note-taking tool that provides glassy Keep-style notes app.

documents MIT

Poznote

547

Poznote gives you lightweight yet powerful web app for note-taking on your own infrastructure.

documents MIT

DailyTxT

455

DailyTxT is a self-hosted note-taking tool that provides encrypted diary Web application to save your personal memories of each day. Includes a search.

documents MIT

DumbPad

432

DumbPad is a JavaScript-based application that provides stupidly simple modern notepad.

documents GPL-3.0

Owlistic

419

Self-hosted note-taking tool that provides real-time note-taking and to-do app.

documents GPL-3.0

Silicon Notes

265

Silicon Notes is a self-hosted note-taking tool that provides web-based personal knowledge base with few frills.

documents

Sticky

166

Sticky gives you digital sticky note application for organizing thoughts, ideas, and tasks on your own infrastructure.

documents MIT

Nanote

150

Nanote is a TypeScript-based application that provides lightweight note-taking app.

documents AGPL-3.0

eziwiki

94

For note-taking, eziwiki is a self-hosted solution that provides lightweight wiki and documentation generator.

documents MIT

Why Look for Microsoft OneNote Alternatives?

Microsoft OneNote is a digital notebook app with freeform note-taking, drawing, and web clipping integrated with Microsoft 365.

Self-hosted alternatives give you full data ownership, predictable costs, and zero vendor lock-in. You run the software on your own infrastructure and control everything.

38 Best Open-Source Alternatives to Microsoft OneNote

AppFlowy

AppFlowy: Open-source AI-powered workspace. — 68,609 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full AppFlowy review

AFFiNE Community Edition

AFFiNE: Docs, whiteboards, databases in one. — 66,033 GitHub stars. Licensed under NOASSERTION.

Read full AFFiNE Community Edition review

Memos

Note-taking app built for instant capture — 57,913 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full Memos review

Joplin

Secure note-taking and to-do app — 53,917 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full Joplin review

SiYuan

Privacy-first personal knowledge management software — 41,894 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full SiYuan review

Outline

Organize your team’s knowledge effortlessly with Outline. — 37,619 GitHub stars. Licensed under Custom.

Read full Outline review

TriliumNext Notes

Hierarchical note-taking and knowledge base app — 35,058 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full TriliumNext Notes review

Etherpad

Modern, real-time collaborative document editor. — 18,181 GitHub stars. Licensed under Apache-2.0.

Read full Etherpad review

Docs

Collaborative note-taking, wiki, and documentation platform — 16,253 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full Docs review

Obsidian LiveSync

Community-implemented sync plugin for Obsidian — 9,798 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full Obsidian LiveSync review

Blinko

Personal AI note-taking tool — 9,705 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full Blinko review

HedgeDoc

Web-based, self-hosted, real-time markdown editor. — 7,007 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full HedgeDoc review

Standard Notes

Encrypted note-taking app for digitalists — 6,350 GitHub stars. Licensed under GPL-3.0.

Read full Standard Notes review

Livebook

Interactive and collaborative code notebooks — 5,739 GitHub stars. Licensed under Apache-2.0.

Read full Livebook review

Librum

Application designed to make reading enjoyable and straightforward for everyone — 5,279 GitHub stars. Licensed under GPL-3.0.

Read full Librum review

SilverBullet

Note-taking application optimized for people with a hacker mindset — 4,860 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full SilverBullet review

flatnotes

Database-less note-taking web app — 2,810 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full flatnotes review

NoteDiscovery

Lightweight Obsidian-like note-taking app — 2,367 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full NoteDiscovery review

Jotty

Simple app for checklists and notes — 1,689 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full Jotty review

Haptic

Local-first, privacy-focused home for Markdown notes — 1,653 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full Haptic review

Alexandrie

Modern and elegant note-taking app — 1,300 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full Alexandrie review

XWiki

Light and powerful collaboration and documentation platform — 1,217 GitHub stars. Licensed under LGPL-2.1.

Read full XWiki review

Zen Notes

Simple Markdown note-taking app — 1,063 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full Zen Notes review

Journiv

Private journaling app — 976 GitHub stars. Licensed under Custom.

Read full Journiv review

Many Notes

Markdown note-taking app designed for simplicity — 924 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full Many Notes review

Notesnook

Open source and encrypted notes — 861 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full Notesnook review

Anchor

Offline-first note-taking app — 716 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full Anchor review

Nextcloud Notes

Distraction-free notes and writing — 706 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full Nextcloud Notes review

Note Mark

Lightning fast and minimal web-based Markdown notes app — 631 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full Note Mark review

Glass Keep

Glassy Keep-style notes app — 548 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full Glass Keep review

Poznote

Lightweight yet powerful web app for note-taking — 539 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full Poznote review

DailyTxT

Encrypted daily diary and journaling app — 453 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full DailyTxT review

DumbPad

Stupidly simple modern notepad — 430 GitHub stars. Licensed under GPL-3.0.

Read full DumbPad review

Owlistic

Real-time note-taking and to-do app — 419 GitHub stars. Licensed under GPL-3.0.

Read full Owlistic review

Silicon Notes

Web-based personal knowledge base with few frills — 265 GitHub stars. Licensed under Custom.

Read full Silicon Notes review

Sticky

Digital sticky note application for organizing thoughts, ideas, and tasks — 166 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full Sticky review

Nanote

Lightweight note-taking app — 149 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Read full Nanote review

eziwiki

Lightweight wiki and documentation generator — 94 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.

Read full eziwiki review

Why Self-Host Instead of Microsoft OneNote?

  • Data ownership. Your data stays on your server, not on Microsoft OneNote’s infrastructure.
  • Predictable costs. Pay a fixed VPS cost instead of growing per-user or per-usage fees.
  • No vendor lock-in. Export and migrate your data anytime. You control the database.
  • GDPR and compliance. Hosting your own tools simplifies data residency and compliance requirements.

How much can you save?

1100

Microsoft OneNote (Microsoft 365 Personal)

$10/mo

Billed monthly

$120/year

AppFlowy (self-hosted)

$10/mo

VPS hosting only. $0 per-user fees.

$320 year 1 (incl. $200 setup)

Your annual savings

$0

At this scale the setup cost offsets savings in year 1. Year 2+: -$0/year.

AppFlowy runs on a $10/mo VPS with unlimited users. Setup by upready.dev starts at $200 (one-time). Microsoft OneNote pricing as of March 2026.

Why teams switch from Microsoft OneNote

  • Data ownership. Your data stays on your server -- not on Microsoft OneNote's infrastructure.
  • Predictable costs. Pay a fixed VPS cost instead of growing per-user or per-usage fees.
  • No vendor lock-in. Export and migrate your data anytime. You control the database.
  • GDPR and compliance. Hosting your own tools simplifies data residency and compliance requirements.

Head-to-Head Comparisons

AFFiNE Community Edition vs Calibre Web Automated

Both are document management tools. AFFiNE Community Edition has 3 unique features, Calibre Web Automated has 3.

AFFiNE Community Edition vs DSpace

Both are document management tools. AFFiNE Community Edition has 4 unique features, DSpace has 3.

AFFiNE Community Edition vs Etherpad

Both are document management tools. AFFiNE Community Edition has 3 unique features, Etherpad has 5.

AFFiNE Community Edition vs NoteDiscovery

Both are document management tools. AFFiNE Community Edition has 3 unique features, NoteDiscovery has 3.

AFFiNE Community Edition vs Silicon Notes

Both are document management tools. AFFiNE Community Edition has 4 unique features, Silicon Notes has 3.

AFFiNE Community Edition vs Logseq

Both are document management tools. AFFiNE Community Edition has 4 unique features, Logseq has 3.

AFFiNE Community Edition vs Stirling-PDF

Both are document management tools. AFFiNE Community Edition has 4 unique features, Stirling-PDF has 4.

AFFiNE Community Edition vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. AFFiNE Community Edition has 4 unique features, SiYuan has 3.

Anchr vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Anchr has 6 unique features, Memos has 5.

Anchr vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Anchr has 6 unique features, SiYuan has 1.

Autocaliweb vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Autocaliweb has 3 unique features, SiYuan has 2.

BentoPDF vs Memos

Both are document management tools. BentoPDF has 2 unique features, Memos has 5.

BookStack vs Outline

BookStack for structured documentation (books/chapters/pages hierarchy). Outline for team knowledge bases with a Notion-like editing experience. Both are excellent -- your choice depends on content structure preference.

BookHaven vs Memos

Both are document management tools. BookHaven has 4 unique features, Memos has 4.

Briefkasten vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Briefkasten has 3 unique features, Memos has 4.

Briefkasten vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Briefkasten has 4 unique features, SiYuan has 1.

Calibre Web Automated vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Calibre Web Automated has 3 unique features, Memos has 6.

Calibre Web Automated vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Calibre Web Automated has 2 unique features, SiYuan has 1.

Colanode vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Colanode has 3 unique features, Memos has 3.

Crawl4AI vs flatnotes

Both are document management tools. Crawl4AI has 3 unique features, flatnotes has 6.

Crawl4AI vs Nanote

Both are document management tools. Crawl4AI has 3 unique features, Nanote has 6.

Crawl4AI vs NoteDiscovery

Both are document management tools. Crawl4AI has 3 unique features, NoteDiscovery has 3.

Docspell vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Docspell has 2 unique features, SiYuan has 2.

Docuseal vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Docuseal has 4 unique features, Memos has 3.

Docspell vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Docspell has 2 unique features, Memos has 6.

Documenso vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Documenso has 1 unique feature, Memos has 4.

DSpace vs Memos

Both are document management tools. DSpace has 2 unique features, Memos has 6.

DSpace vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. DSpace has 2 unique features, SiYuan has 2.

Etherpad vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Etherpad has 4 unique features, Memos has 5.

Etherpad vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Etherpad has 5 unique features, SiYuan has 2.

Glass Keep vs Logseq

Both are document management tools. Glass Keep has 3 unique features, Logseq has 1.

Glass Keep vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Glass Keep has 3 unique features, SiYuan has 1.

Grimoire vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Grimoire has 7 unique features, Memos has 5.

Huly vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Huly has 4 unique features, SiYuan has 3.

HymnoScribe vs Memos

Both are document management tools. HymnoScribe has 2 unique features, Memos has 6.

Jelu vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Jelu has 5 unique features, Memos has 5.

Karakeep HomeDash vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Karakeep HomeDash has 3 unique features, Memos has 6.

Logseq vs Silicon Notes

Both are document management tools. Logseq has 2 unique features, Silicon Notes has 2.

Logseq vs Poznote

Both are document management tools. Logseq has 2 unique features, Poznote has 3.

Logseq vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Logseq has 2 unique features, SiYuan has 2.

Logseq vs TriliumNext Notes

Both are document management tools. Logseq has 1 unique feature, TriliumNext Notes has 3.

Mantium vs Memos

Both are document management tools. Mantium has 2 unique features, Memos has 6.

Memos vs NeonLink

Both are document management tools. Memos has 6 unique features, NeonLink has 2.

Memos vs Poznote

Both are document management tools. Memos has 6 unique features, Poznote has 3.

Memos vs Shiori

Both are document management tools. Memos has 6 unique features, Shiori has 4.

Memos vs Silicon Notes

Both are document management tools. Memos has 6 unique features, Silicon Notes has 2.

Minne vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Minne has 2 unique features, SiYuan has 2.

NoteDiscovery vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. NoteDiscovery has 3 unique features, SiYuan has 2.

NoteDiscovery vs Stirling-PDF

Both are document management tools. NoteDiscovery has 4 unique features, Stirling-PDF has 4.

Outline vs Wiki.js

Both Outline and Wiki.js are strong open-source options in the documents space. Outline has 38k GitHub stars and Wiki.js has 28k. Compare their features, deployment, and community to choose the right fit for your needs.

Poznote vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Poznote has 3 unique features, SiYuan has 2.

Poznote vs Stirling-PDF

Both are document management tools. Poznote has 4 unique features, Stirling-PDF has 4.

Silicon Notes vs SiYuan

Both are document management tools. Silicon Notes has 2 unique features, SiYuan has 2.

SiYuan vs Trilium Notes

Both are document management tools. SiYuan has 2 unique features, Trilium Notes has 4.

SiYuan vs TriliumNext Notes

Both are document management tools. SiYuan has 2 unique features, TriliumNext Notes has 4.

TriliumNext Notes vs Xournalpp

Both are document management tools. TriliumNext Notes has 3 unique features, Xournalpp has 5.

Browse more Documents & Knowledge Base tools

Explore 226 open-source documents & knowledge base tools you can self-host.

View Documents & Knowledge Base →

Read Full Reviews