cross-posted from: https://lemdro.id/post/17051418
I love the idea of having all my quick notes, to-do lists, knowledge base, journal, plans, etc., in one single, neatly organized place. Why wouldn’t I? But deciding on which Notion alternative to use is overwhelming.
There are so many options, and all claim to be the best. Online opinions are all over the place (as expected), and these apps aren’t exactly simple—they’re complex for good reasons, but that makes choosing one even harder. And don’t get me started on the endless YouTube videos on the topic—I could spend weeks or months researching this and testing every single one of them, but honestly, this is not how I wanna spend my time so I will ask you guys instead.
My Current Setup:
Markor: Used it for quick thoughts, journaling, and to-do lists but stopped using it because it’s not suited for everything, and there’s no sync between Android and Linux (becsuse it is android only).
Obsidian: Currently using it as my knowledge base and for long notes, simple to-do lists, and occasional journaling. Haven’t fully migrated to it or created an organized setup because I’m looking for a FOSS Notion alternative.
Standard Notes: Good for quick notes, but most features are paywalled, making it feel limited.
jtx Board: My go-to for journaling—it’s simple and quick to use.
What I need:
- FOSS, but only if it’s just as good as proprietary options in:
- Auto-sync between my Android phone and Linux desktop
- Journaling
- Quick notes
- To-do lists
- Planning
- Managing personal projects
- Writing down thoughts
- A really good Android app
- Easy to use
- Free for personal use
What I don’t care about:
Collaboration. This is for my personal use—no sharing, no team features.
Given my messy current setup and specific requirements, can anyone give me some recommendations?
Since you’re already using Standard Notes - have you checked out Awesome Standard Notes? You can use the community extensions - editors, themes, etc. - even with the free plan.
It’s my main note-taking app, but I also got the 5 year paid plan for $150 (IIRC) a few years ago, and prices have increased substantially since then. If I weren’t locked into a lower rate, I’m not sure I’d subscribe at the current rates (though I would look into the self-hosted Pro discount before ruling it out). That said, if you don’t need note linking, queries, and those sorts of things, then I think the free plan of Standard Notes + community extensions is a great option. If I self-hosted the server, the main thing I’d be missing over the paid plan is nested tags.
Logseq (repo) might meet your needs if you’re okay setting up a sync service like Syncthing on every client you use. Of course, you could use Dropbox, Google Drive, etc., but I recommend against it without a layer like Cryptomator in between, since your data is store in the clear. IMO it doesn’t really make sense to self-host Logseq - just use the native app that’s available on basically every platform. I find Logseq kinda confusing, honestly, but it has a lot of compelling features.
SilverBullet may be what you’re looking for. It must be self-hosted and has a PWA instead of native apps, but the PWA on mobile at least is quite good. Since it uses Markdown files for its notes, you could use it with some other tool on the machine hosting those files, if you wanted. I have it self hosted myself and it’s the best alternative I’ve found to Notion and Obsidian when it comes to querying my own notes and so on.
Someone else posted about Outline and I think it’s a fantastic, polished option. I know that you said this is for solo use, so you probably don’t care about its collaboration features, but you also mentioned managing personal projects, and its integrations (e.g., Airtable) could be useful for that. I have it self-hosted and it is a bit more complicated than other options, but I don’t think I ran into any particular issues. I’m using it with Authelia as an OIDC provider and can share my docker-compose file and other config if that would be helpful. They also have a paid, hosted option, which you can try out for 30 days if you want to see if it’s right for you before you put the time and effort into self-hosting it. One of my most-used editors in Standard Notes is the Rich Markdown Editor, which is based off the editor used in Outline. However, unlike SilverBullet and Standard Notes,
Hedgedoc is another option that may be worth looking into. It’s my go-to collaborative editor / gist replacement. Personally, I prefer it over Outline. Its main shortcomings are that:
But it does have several built-in integrations, like Mermaid and multiple other diagramming tools, inline images (just drag and drop), syntax highlighting for code, Gist embeds, Youtube embeds, optional Vim/Emacs keybindings, a slide deck presentation mode, inline CSV tables, etc., and that’s all without needing to mess with plugins or switch between editors.
I hadn’t used AnyType before today, but it’s been on my radar since late 2020, and it’s pretty powerful. It’s not perfect, but it seems to check off everything you’re looking for. It does have a bit of a learning curve, but it’s been easy to jump in and take notes.
It’s hard to know which to recommend you try, though, because your list of criteria don’t all map neatly to features. For example, what do you want from planning vs managing personal projects? What do you mean by “journaling?” Is having a “journal” section where notes get dates sufficient? Do you like the way Standard Notes or Logseq handle journaling, or are you looking for features like what jtxBoard has?
I’m assuming the following for my table below:
[1]: For Standard Notes, I’m not assuming that you’re self-hosting the server, but I am assuming that you’re installing community extensions, particularly Rich Markdown Editor or something similar.
[2]: For Silver Bullet, I’m assuming that you’re installing community plugins.
I recommend you try AnyType and/or SilverBullet first, depending on which one looks more appealing to you.