The most feature-complete open-source alternative to Google's NotebookLM — a self-hosted research platform where you upload PDFs, videos, audio files, and web pages into organized notebooks, then chat with your content, generate multi-speaker podcasts, and run semantic search across everything without sending a single byte to Google's servers. The podcast engine supports 1-4 fully customizable speakers with backstories, personalities, and expertise profiles, generating professional audio dialogue through OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Google TTS, or completely local text-to-speech via Kokoro for maximum privacy. Content processing uses token-based chunking with RAG-powered retrieval grounded in your uploaded sources, while both full-text keyword search and semantic vector search via SurrealDB enable conceptual discovery across all notebooks. The 18+ supported AI providers include OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Groq, Ollama, LM Studio, and more — configurable per task so you can route cheap models to summarization and powerful models to analysis. Content transformations extract insights, generate summaries, create study guides, and produce structured outputs from any source material. The MCP integration connects Open Notebook to Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP clients for seamless workflow integration. A full REST API on port 5055 enables complete automation of notebook management, source upload, and podcast generation. Deploy via Docker Compose with the application container, SurrealDB v2 on RocksDB, and optional TTS containers. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. MIT licensed.

Speakr transforms audio recordings into organized, searchable, AI-enhanced notes with speaker recognition that identifies who said what across your entire recording library. The Python/Flask backend with Vue.js 3 and Tailwind CSS frontend deploys via Docker on port 8899, offering multiple transcription engines through auto-detected connectors: WhisperX for local processing with speaker diarization and voice embeddings, OpenAI Whisper and GPT-4o-transcribe, Mistral Voxtral for cloud diarization, AssemblyAI for multi-hour files, and any custom ASR webservice. Speaker voice profiles use embedding comparison to recognize individuals across different recordings automatically, while custom vocabulary biases the transcriber toward domain-specific jargon. The AI layer goes well beyond transcription: customizable summaries with per-recording, per-tag, and per-folder prompt templates; event extraction surfacing action items and calendar events; per-recording chat with streaming responses; and Inquire Mode for semantic search and natural-language queries across your entire library simultaneously. Smart tags execute custom AI prompts on transcripts for automatic categorization. The REST API with Swagger documentation supports signed webhooks integrating with n8n, Zapier, and Make. Auto-export pushes to Obsidian and Logseq, auto-processing watches directories, and the installable PWA provides mobile-first, offline-capable access with share-target support. 3,600+ stars since May 2025. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. AGPL-3.0 licensed.

Standard Notes keeps your notes, files, and tags encrypted on your device before anything touches the network, meaning the server stores only ciphertext it cannot read. Cross-platform sync across desktop, mobile, and web delivers fast, conflict-free updates on unlimited devices with the same zero-knowledge guarantee that only your password can decrypt your content. The V2 server architecture condenses everything into four Docker containers consuming roughly 570MB RAM total (down from 13 containers and 1.7GB in the legacy setup), with startup under one minute. Revision history automatically preserves every version of every note, so recovering deleted text or reverting to a previous state never depends on manual backups. A nested tag system organizes thousands of notes with hierarchical categorization that goes well beyond flat folder structures, while search operates entirely on client-side decrypted content. File attachments of any type encrypt and sync alongside notes with identical end-to-end protection. Multiple editor options span plain text, Markdown with preview, and rich formatting to fit different writing workflows. Two-factor authentication via TOTP with email backup codes adds a second barrier beyond your password. An optional separate container serves the web frontend, providing browser access to your encrypted vault without depending on standardnotes.com infrastructure. With 5,500+ GitHub stars and active development, the project continues expanding editor plugins and sync improvements.

A web interface for a folder of Markdown files - Flatnotes is exactly that, and the discipline of that design is why people love it. Every note is a plain .md file in a single flat directory: no database, no proprietary format, no hierarchy to maintain, no export step if you ever leave. Edit notes in the browser or open the same files in VS Code or Obsidian, sync them with Syncthing or rsync while the app is running - the Whoosh-powered search index synchronizes incrementally, so external edits just show up. The interface is a clean Vue.js app with both WYSIWYG and raw Markdown editing modes (TOAST UI Editor), instant full-text search behind the "/" shortcut with partial-match support, wikilinks for cross-note references, and automatic tag extraction from #hashtags in note bodies. Light and dark themes and a mobile-responsive layout make it pleasant everywhere. Authentication is flexible for a personal tool: none, read-only, username/password, or TOTP two-factor. A documented REST API covers create/read/update/delete for automation. The operational story is the quiet selling point - the only state is the notes folder and a rebuildable index, so backup is copying a directory. For a personal notepad that respects your data, Flatnotes nails minimal.

With over 10,800 GitHub stars earned in under two years, Blinko has emerged as the privacy-first answer to cloud-dependent note-taking tools by combining instant thought capture with AI-powered retrieval that actually understands what you wrote rather than just matching keywords. The core engine uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation to build vector embeddings of every note in your PostgreSQL database, enabling natural language queries like "what were my thoughts on the database migration last Tuesday" to surface relevant content through semantic understanding rather than exact string matching. AI integration supports both cloud providers — OpenAI, MiniMax, and compatible endpoints — and fully local inference through Ollama running models like Llama 3.2 on your own hardware, ensuring your notes never leave your network when privacy demands it. Built on Next.js with a React frontend, the web interface presents notes as cards with full Markdown support including code blocks, LaTeX, and rich formatting, with a clean input bar for capturing fleeting thoughts in seconds. The Tauri-based desktop and mobile clients extend access to macOS, Windows, Linux, and Android with native performance characteristics. Notes are stored as plain text in PostgreSQL with vector indexes that update incrementally as new content arrives, and the embedding index can be rebuilt on demand when switching between AI providers. Multiple users can share a single instance with individual accounts, and data exports to standard formats. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. GPL-3.0 licensed.

TriliumNext organizes notes in an infinitely deep tree where any single note can be cloned into multiple branches without duplication, building personal knowledge bases that mirror how ideas actually connect rather than forcing a single rigid folder hierarchy. Carrying forward the original Trilium project under active community stewardship with nearly 37,000 GitHub stars, the application is built on TypeScript with a CKEditor 5 WYSIWYG editor supporting rich text, tables, images, KaTeX math expressions, Mermaid diagrams, Excalidraw canvases, mind maps, spreadsheets with XLSX and CSV import/export, and code blocks with full syntax highlighting. A built-in JavaScript scripting engine runs on both frontend and backend, enabling custom widgets, automated workflows, scheduled tasks, and direct interaction with external REST services through a typed Script API. Full-text and fuzzy search with attribute-based queries locates any note instantly across databases tested at over 100,000 notes without performance degradation. The v0.104 release introduced importers for OneNote, Notion, Google Keep, Anytype, and Obsidian alongside 16 dedicated security fixes. Per-note AES encryption, OpenID Connect authentication, and TOTP two-factor protection safeguard sensitive content. The sync server keeps desktop clients, the progressive web app, and mobile devices in lockstep with zero third-party cloud dependency. Web Clipper captures content directly from browsers. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. AGPL-3.0 licensed.

With over 2,200 GitHub stars and a philosophy that your notes should be files you own rather than rows in a database, ZenNotes is the keyboard-first Markdown editor that runs as a self-hosted web app backed by a Go server accessible from any browser on your network. Every note is a plain .md file in a vault directory you mount, with zero proprietary lock-in. Modal editing with real Vim motions, leader-key flows, and a command palette keeps your hands on the keyboard through edit, split, and preview modes. The rendering engine handles KaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, TikZ graphics, and JSXGraph plots directly from Markdown syntax alongside wiki links and callout blocks. A first-party MCP server ships in the box with one-click integration for Claude Desktop and Cursor, letting AI assistants read and write the same Markdown files on disk without sync layers or duplicate copies. The bundled zen CLI provides note creation, search, tagging, task toggling, and piped capture with JSON output for shell scripting. Board views render plain CSV files as Kanban columns. Daily notes, quick capture, archive, and trash round out the vault workflow. The Go backend serves the browser frontend on port 7878 with token-based authentication, configurable browse roots, TLS proxy support, and file permission hardening at 0600/0700 defaults. Deploy via the multi-arch Docker image for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. MIT licensed.

Backed by over 45,000 GitHub stars and described as the tool that replaces Notion, Evernote, and Anki in a single Docker container, SiYuan is the privacy-first knowledge management system where every paragraph, heading, and list item is a uniquely addressable content block. The block-level architecture enables bidirectional links, transclusion embeds, and SQL query blocks that dynamically aggregate content across your entire workspace, while the knowledge graph visualization maps relationship networks between documents and blocks. Built-in databases support table views with relation and rollup columns, filter composition, sorting, and template-based calculations for structured data management alongside freeform notes. The FSRS spaced repetition engine turns any content block into a flashcard with scientifically calibrated review scheduling, eliminating the need for separate memorization tools. AI integration connects to OpenAI-compatible APIs for writing assistance, translation, summarization, and Q&A chat, with semantic search using embeddings and reranking for intelligent content retrieval. The Bazaar community marketplace delivers plugins, themes, templates, and widgets through a managed extension system with TypeScript plugin APIs. End-to-end encrypted synchronization works across S3-compatible storage, WebDAV servers, or SiYuan's own cloud service, while Tesseract OCR extracts searchable text from images and the web clipper captures pages from Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. Export targets include Markdown with assets, PDF, Word, and HTML. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. AGPL-3.0 licensed.

Alexandrie provides a structured knowledge base with an extended Markdown editor, granular per-document permissions, and offline editing through its progressive web app. The CodeMirror 6 editor goes well beyond standard Markdown with colored containers, academic callout blocks, KaTeX math expressions, syntax-highlighted code blocks, footnotes, interactive checkboxes, cards, panels, and a custom snippet system with import and export. Full-text search via the Ctrl+K command center returns instant results with content snippets and relevance ranking across all workspaces. Five permission levels covering None, Read, Write, Admin, and Owner apply per document and per user, while OIDC single sign-on integrates with Google, GitHub, Microsoft, Discord, and any OpenID Connect provider. Documents organize into a hierarchical tree of workspaces, categories, and nested entries with tags, bookmarks, pinned notes, and custom icons. Integrated Kanban boards handle task management within each workspace without switching applications. The PWA installs on any device for full offline editing with seamless sync when connectivity returns. Voice-to-text dictation captures notes hands-free, and one-click ZIP backup exports all documents, files, and settings as a portable archive. Over 2,000 GitHub stars and 41 releases back the project. The Docker Compose stack orchestrates the Nuxt 4 frontend, Go Gin backend, MySQL 8 database, and S3-compatible RustFS object storage. Running on a VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. MIT licensed.

With nearly 600 GitHub stars and a feature set that rivals commercial note apps, Glass Keep is the self-hosted Google Keep alternative that wraps a full-featured notes system in a glassmorphism UI with blurred backdrops, translucent modals, and smooth transitions. The React and Vite frontend renders notes in a masonry card grid with pinning, color themes, tag chips, and drag-and-drop reordering. Text notes support Markdown with headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, blockquotes, and fenced code blocks, while checklists offer inline editing, drag-to-reorder items, and direct toggle from the grid without opening the note. A freehand drawing mode provides customizable brush sizes and colors for handwritten notes. The private AI assistant runs an optimized Llama 3.2 (1B) model entirely inside the Docker container using RAG over your own notes, answering queries like "what are my AWS commands?" without any data leaving your server. Deep search spans titles, Markdown text, tags, checklist items, and image names. Import notes from Google Keep via Takeout JSON files or export your entire vault as JSON with per-note Markdown downloads. The Express backend with better-sqlite3 requires no external database. Real-time collaboration enables shared checklists with live item toggling. Dark and light themes persist across sessions, and the PWA manifest supports installation on any device. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. MIT licensed.

The entire wiki - content, code, and interface - is built from "tiddlers," small addressable units of information that link, transclude, tag, and filter into each other: TiddlyWiki is a non-linear personal notebook with a design philosophy unlike anything else in this catalog. Instead of pages in a hierarchy, you compose views by pulling tiddlers together on demand, which is why researchers, zettelkasten practitioners, and GTD devotees have sworn by it for two decades. The whole application is JavaScript, and the UI itself is written in hackable WikiText - customization goes as deep as rewriting the interface from inside the wiki. Self-hosting runs the Node.js version, which upgrades the classic single-HTML-file architecture in the ways that matter for a server: every tiddler is stored as an individual text file (Git-friendly, organizable), edits save through the HTTP API from any modern browser including phones, and one installation can serve multiple wikis blending shared and unique content. The plugin ecosystem covers graph visualizations, themes, languages, and hundreds of community extensions, declared per-wiki in a simple tiddlywiki.info file; the newer MultiWikiServer plugin adds multi-user accounts and tiddler sharing. Your notes stay usable for decades, independent of any corporation - the project's founding promise. BSD-licensed.

A Day One alternative that keeps your most personal writing on your own server: Journiv is journaling purpose-built for self-hosters. The FastAPI backend runs on SQLite by default with optional PostgreSQL, Redis, and Celery for background work, behind a clean, minimal web UI. Unlike general note-taking apps, it ships the features journaling actually needs: customizable moods and mood groups, activity tracking, goals with automated progress from logged activities, and daily writing prompts filterable by category and difficulty so a blank page never stalls you. Quick Log captures a moment in seconds and expands into a full entry later; "On This Day" resurfaces entries from past weeks, months, and years. Multiple journals separate work, gratitude, and personal writing, with tags and full-text search across everything, plus media uploads with automatic thumbnails and an Immich integration for linking photo-library memories. Analytics chart mood trends and writing patterns over time. Data portability is taken seriously: native import of Day One exports, JSON/Markdown/HTML export, and a standalone HTML viewer that opens your archive in any browser with no server running. OIDC single sign-on works with Authentik or Keycloak, and multi-arch images cover amd64 and arm64.

With a deliberately minimalist design philosophy and zero database dependencies, DumbPad delivers a self-hosted notepad that stores notes as plain text files with real-time auto-saving every 10 seconds and keyboard-shortcut manual saves. The Node.js Express backend serves a vanilla JavaScript frontend that supports multiple named notepads with direct URL linking and shareable links for instant access to specific notes. The split-view editor displays markdown source on the left and rendered preview on the right with a draggable resize handle, while the full preview mode renders complete markdown with GitHub-style alert blocks for Note, Tip, Important, Warning, and Caution callouts, extended table formatting, fenced code blocks with syntax highlighting via highlight.js covering approximately 180 programming languages, collapsible details sections, and checklist support. Fuzzy search matches across both filenames and file contents for fast navigation across large collections. Optional PIN protection secures access with configurable 4 to 10 digit codes, constant-time comparison to prevent timing attacks, brute force lockout after 5 failed attempts with 15-minute cooldown, and IP-based tracking. The Docker container runs as non-root UID 1000 by default with multi-architecture support, CORS origin restrictions for reverse proxy deployments, and persistent data volumes. Notes can be downloaded as text or markdown files, printed with auto-expanded collapsible sections, and imported by placing text files directly into the data directory. On RepoCloud, deploy DumbPad on a dedicated VPS with Docker, root SSH access, and complete control over your note-taking infrastructure, all under the GPL-3.0 license.

PenX delivers an open-source structured note-taking application that functions as a personal database disguised as an elegant editor — combining the outline workflow of Workflowy and Roam Research with the structured data capabilities of Tana through MetaTags that transform every note into a queryable database record. The local-first architecture stores all data on-device using PGLite, an in-process PostgreSQL-compatible engine, ensuring data ownership regardless of cloud connectivity. End-to-end encryption protects all synchronized data so that even the sync server cannot read your notes, tasks, ideas, or documents. GitHub-based version control provides out-of-the-box backup and history with full commit-level recovery. MetaTags are the core innovation — attaching structured tags to any note converts it into a database entry with typed fields, enabling table views, filters, and queries across your knowledge base without imposing rigid folder hierarchies. The daily notes workflow encourages free-form capture while MetaTags handle organization automatically, letting you record thoughts without deciding physical location upfront. AI-driven features assist with content generation, summarization, and intelligent search across your personal data hub. Real-time sync keeps web, desktop, and mobile in perfect alignment. Cross-platform availability includes web, desktop for Windows, macOS, and Linux, iOS, and Chrome extension. Deploy the web service via Next.js with pnpm using tRPC and Prisma. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. AGPL-3.0 licensed.