this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2024
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I'm completely new to selfhosting but see a lot of potential. I wonder if anyone knows a good way to self host a notetaking app? The point is that I need to access my notes on multiple devices so self hosting them could be a nice idea. I currently use google keep and goodnotes but would like to leave those behind...

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[–] Mora@pawb.social 31 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I've used Joplin before which was okay-ish (but borked the e2e encryption during an update).

Now I would recommend Silverbullet if you are really keen on self hosting a notes app.

But the notes that work best for me is simply Obsidian + Syncthing-Fork (you could self host a syncthing server), thanks to its sheer ability to adapt to nearly any use case thanks to its plugin.

[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 16 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

If you go this route, OP, and have an Android phone, then you should know the (very sad and disappointing) news that SyncThing for Android is about to be shut down.

https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing-android

[–] Mora@pawb.social 36 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)
[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago

Oooohh. TIL. Thanks!

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[–] twinnie@feddit.uk 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

What was wrong with Joplin? I was thinking about giving it a try.

[–] paradox2011@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Not the OP, but I believe they're talking about the upgrade from 128 bit AES to 256 bit AES. It created some compatibility issues between clients for a few days as the ones that weren't updated yet couldn't decrypt the newer 256 AES encrypted notes. That was my experience anyways. It's a great app/server from my personal experience.

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[–] mojolobo@lemmy.jrvs.cc 20 points 3 months ago (3 children)

After trying a bunch, I'm using Obsidian + now. Good thing with Obsidian is your notes are ultimately a bunch of plaintext files, so you can do whatever you want with them, and it comes with clients for most platforms.

Another option is Trilium, it is pretty powerful, and has a webapp so as long as you can access a browser, you'll be able to access your notes. https://github.com/zadam/trilium

[–] Artaca 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Been using Logseq since February and it's been a game changer. My only gripes are a) inability to access via browsers, and b) lack of a quick note function. Sometimes I still use Keep to jot something down and transfer later. Logseq spends a solid 5+ seconds syncing upon opening, which can feel like an eternity when trying to quickly log something.

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago

For browser, there is a webapp that can be selfhosted. See here https://github.com/logseq/logseq/blob/master/docs/docker-web-app-guide.md

I think you need chromium browsers due to the API they use, but it should work.

[–] homegrowntechie@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

+1 for the open source option: Trilium The project is being maintained here: https://github.com/TriliumNext/Notes

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[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 18 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I use Memos and love it.

https://www.usememos.com/

I connect to it from my desktop at home and from my phone via a WireGuard VPN and it's everything I need. Worth a look, I think.

[–] precarious_primes@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 months ago

Memos fits a wide variety of uses and is the first note system that has clicked for me. I use it for quick notes so I don't forget things, journal-like entries, save for later (like Pocket), shopping lists and other todos.

[–] rolltidehero@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Looks great! Does it have handwriting support?

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[–] darcmage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 3 months ago

Welcome to the rabbit hole of selfhosted note-taking apps. https://selfh.st/apps/?tag=Note-Taking

Unfortunately, this is going to be a bit of a journey. You'll probably end up going through a few of these options until you find one that works for you and fits your workflow.

[–] bastion@feddit.nl 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Trilium. You'll be ~~glass~~ glad you tried it.

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Are you threatening to nuke my home if I don't!?

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[–] homegrowntechie@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Trilium is an excellent option, however, the original project is no longer maintained. There is a new community fork that is active here: https://github.com/TriliumNext/Notes

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[–] woodgen@lemm.ee 12 points 3 months ago

Results from me asking this 1Y ago: https://lemm.ee/post/4593760

Went with Joplin and using it since.

[–] variants@possumpat.io 12 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I setup nextcloud and just use that to backup my Obsidian notes. But I also use next cloud deck depending on the type of notes or list I'm making

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nextcloud has a Notes app too

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 months ago

This is what I use

[–] warm@kbin.earth 4 points 3 months ago

Obsidian but with syncthing here, just syncs the files across my devices.

[–] Zeoic@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You should take a look at the selfhosted live sync plugin for obsidian. It's been working flawlessly for me for the past year.

[–] stom@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't it actually require you to sign up to an account on some app hosting platform, rather than self host it?

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[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I'd vote for anytype or obsidian

Anytype has a learning curve, But it has built-in encryption and IPFS syncing provided by the company. The templating system is really slick and the relational aspect is pretty solid.

Obsidian + syncthing fork is a really solid contender. It's much easier to work with out of the box but the features are a little more generic.

Neither of these are really self-hosted, so much as they are contained in their own ecosystem. You get some measure of higher availability that you have to really work for if you're really self-hosting a product.

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[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Obsidian is pretty neat. Can use it with Syncthing, although I guess you need Syncthing-Fork on Android now.

[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Obsidian is not open source but i also think it's pretty neat.

[–] DampSquid@feddit.uk 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What's this about Syncthing now?

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Dev discontinued the app due to google being difficult to maintain.

[–] DampSquid@feddit.uk 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Ah damn. Thanks for the info

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[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 3 months ago

I use nextcloud notes because I already have nextcloud and my needs are not that sophisticated

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

Nextcloud is a really good all-in-one solution for self hosting data

[–] jjlinux@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 months ago

I use Joplin, no complaints.

[–] christov@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I've been getting on well with notesnook, the self hosting is in beta right now but its just a docker container. Docs are coming for self hosting in the near future.

https://notesnook.com/

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[–] desentizised@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago

My solution is basically what @mojolobo mentions with Nextcloud behind it and I love the concept. Because Obsidian (via a WebDAV plugin on the phone) just syncs with the "Notes" folder in my Nextcloud root it really is just a bunch of .md (markdown) files. It gives me an added sense of security (on top of the self-hosting aspect) because I can see those files everywhere I have Nextcloud installed, I can edit them manually if I wanted to. On the PC you just point the Obsidian app to the folder, on phones you do it via a WebDAV plugin.

[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 5 points 3 months ago

It's still in alpha but hoarder is promising

It's designed to organize bookmarks, but can also support markdown notes with picture (a single picture, not multiple pictures)

Unfortunately at the moment the mobile app is so alpha that doesn't support creation or editing such notes, only new bookmarks or new photos.

It uses a headless chromium to make screenshots for URLs.

Optionally, can use a bullshit generator like ollama or openai api keys to automatically create a lot of useless tags to each note

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

I use https://silverbullet.md and love it, it's a bit more than a note taking app, but it's definitely worth it.

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Probably Joplin is the easiest to use. Looks like OneNote but it's different in many ways.

[–] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Appflowy if Notion appels you. It is not 1.0 yet so some features you need might not be there.

https://appflowy.io/

[–] morethanevil@lemmy.fedifriends.social 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Outline or Affine are better choices for a notion replacement imo 🤔

[–] tyler@programming.dev 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Man we need a giant comparison table. I looked into these but have been trying out SiYuan.

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[–] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Never heard of them. Will check them out sometime. Thx.

Affine is a newer project and has interesting features. Outline is more mature. I prefer outline a little bit more 😌

[–] higgsboson@dubvee.org 4 points 3 months ago

I use Joplin on top of Nextcloud.

[–] bricklove@midwest.social 4 points 3 months ago

I'm just using a self hosted git repo with markdown files. I was having trouble finding something open source that I could edit with vim that also had a good mobile solution. I also didn't want to get locked into a file format that was specific to an app.

Markdown is ubiquitous and I use git all the time as a developer so it was easier to tack something onto an existing workflow. It's a little janky but at least I won't be screwed by devs abandoning whatever app I was using.

[–] piotrkulpinski@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)
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[–] Wuttin@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Logseq + SyncThing-Fork for me. The killer feature I was looking for to switch from Evernote was voice recording support, logseq is the first thing I've found that does a decent job of it while having a solid Workflowy-style "bullets all the way down" interface, which I've come to appreciate. The mobile app still leaves a lot to be desired, it's a little clunky with lots of buttons and very limited swipe gestures. Gets the job done anyhow, and the desktop app is amazing.

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[–] jeena@piefed.jeena.net 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I use radicals for CalDAV and save notes there together with my calendars. On Android there is jtx Board which let's you work with them. Sadly on Linux I couldn't find anything so I started writing something myself but don't have much time to work on it https://github.com/jeena/JNotes

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