Note-taking apps have come a long way since Google Keep allowed us to merely jot down notes and lists. They’ve been inching closer to full-fledged document editors with advanced formatting. Many even include bookmarking features. Today, there are much better open-source privacy-friendly alternatives to Google Keep.
Cloud
Joplin
Joplin offers a commendable range of features that cater to various collaborative note-taking needs. Markdown support, organization through categories and tags provide a solid foundation. E2EE synchronization across all your devices makes it reliable and secure. Web clippings, to-do lists, and a plugin system further enhance its versatility.
Collaborative editing is great for teamwork and knowledge sharing. For sync, you get a few options here including Nextcloud, WebDAV and even offline sync to a file. You can also sync to their cloud, for a monthly fee, or opt for their (beta) self-hosted sync server.
Notesnook
Notesnook is my favorite option on this list, but it’s far from perfect. Right off the bat, you can tell these guys really care about UX. Despite being packed to the brim with features, it’s an absolute joy to use. At no moment does it feel cramped or overwhelming, but you also never miss an important feature. The mobile experience is identical to the desktop, so there’s no inferior experience on the go. All their client apps support 2FA, while mobile apps also support biometric app lock.
Markdown is fully-supported. Their tagging and color-based categorization system are wonderful and very easy to use. The whole UI is very customizable and themable. It even comes with a built-in focus mode to eliminate distractions and focus on writing. It even includes a powerful internal linking “referencing” feature between your notes. You also get a bookmarking extension to save links in the browser, along with a screenshot of the webpage.
My favorite feature is the ability to “publish” any note with the click of a button. This shared link can be password-protected or even set to expire after a set period of time. There’s even a “Monographs” section to keep track of your notes that are currently shared. You also reminders, both one time and recurring. Recurring reminders are a premium feature though.
When it comes to sync, all your notebooks backup to Notesnook’s servers using E2EE. You can disable sync both on a per-device basis and a per-note basis. Self-hosting is on the roadmap, but isn’t yet available at the time of writing. That’s the only thing stopping me from switching to it as my main writing app.
Standard Notes
Standard Notes is very similar to Notesnook, with a few philosophical differences. Standard Notes is a good app, but without the enhanced attention to UX that you can feel with Notesnook. The features that each decided to paywall also differ. Standard Notes requires a subscription for any advanced functionality, customization and even plugins. The worst part is that even self-hosting doesn’t grant you access to all their features for free. You still have to pay an “offline license” to enjoy them.
It’s not all bad though. It’s very modern-looking and usable, especially if you don’t need their advanced functionality. As for sync, any Standard Notes instance can pull server duty by flipping a switch, even on the free version! We love to see easy self-hosting like this. Especially since their dedicated self-hosted offering is complex, bulky, and not very maintained.
Standard Notes offers a basic bookmarking extension, but it’s very basic and only saves links from your browser. Premium unlocks markdown, spreadsheets, and even OTP. The latter allows you to use Standard Notes as a 2FA client. Plugins add even more note types like math and whiteboard. Speaking of 2FA, you can also secure Standard Notes itself using 2FA or using a passcode.
The unique selling point is deep integration with their own blogging service, Listed. Just like Notesnook, you can easily “publish” any note. Except unlike Notesnook, the note isn’t published in a vacuum. It’s published on your own complete blog website, courtesy of Listed. That’s pretty cool if you’re not technical enough to set up your own blog, or simply don’t want to go through the hassle. Once you’re happy with your writing, it takes two clicks to publish it directly from your writing app.
Sadly, while Listed itself is free, using your own custom domain is subscription-only. It was possible in the past to get around that by self-hosting, but they recently shut that down in a recent update. And sure, it’s open-source, so you can always reverse those changes, but that’s one extra hoop to jump through.
Overall, Standard Notes is a very compelling, albeit confusing, offering. While backups to their servers use E2EE, it’s unfortunate how difficult self-hosting is.
Turtl
For collaborators and teams, Turtl is a good option. It supports project management with granular permissions and access rights. Spaces allow for different categories which can be further organized using tags. This allows for powerful search and sorting features using date and tags.
Turtl supports markdown, bookmarks and math stuff that I don’t understand. Passwords are a supported use case, but I’d recommend a dedicated password manager.
It’s completely open-source, self-hostable and cross-platform with dedicated clients for every platform. Like most options on this list, Turtl allows you to make offline backups by exporting. You can also make use of their plans to sync E2EE with their servers for a quick and easy solution. Their plans are affordable and scale by storage and user-count.
Offline
Carnet
Carnet is a drop-in replacement for Google Keep. They are pretty matched in features, minus of course the Google Assistant integration. Of course, Carnet works completely offline and optionally syncs to your Nextcloud server. Carnet offers native apps for Android and Linux (and by extension MacOS). There’s no Windows app, but since it’s open-source and uses Electron, you can make your own.
Easy Notes
EasyNotes is another clone of Google Keep with customizable Material 3 design. The UI is very minimalist to help you focus on your writing, but it’s replete with formatting options. It supports markdown, including to-do lists, with a button to preview rendered output.
Like most offline apps, you can backup to a local file. From there, you can sync that file to your other devices using a cloud service provider like Nextcloud or SyncThing.
Markor
Compared to other options on this list, Markor isn’t the most modern looking. It uses early versions of Material Design, which you might be a fan of. Looks aside, it’s a very advanced open-source note-taking app.
The coolest part about Markor is that it saves notes as .md and .txt files, not using proprietary formats. This means you can easily sync your notes to other devices or share them without needing this functionality to be built-in.
Notally
Notally is a very simple, minimalist, and light-weight note-taking app for Android. While it doesn’t support markdown, it uses Android’s basic formatting features. At its 1.8MB apk size, it supports regular notes and task lists.
The UI is where Notally really shines. Each note can be assigned a different color, whether in list view or grid view. This makes for a very good looking interface. Organizing via labels is also supported, as are daily backups to a local file.
Omni
Omni is likely as powerful as Markor if not more. The UI/UX are leagues ahead though, making the app look more complete. Omni also allows you to organize your notes using tags and categories. You can then visualize your notes using home screen widgets. It’s also the only option here that supports Google Assistant, to create notes with your voice.
As polished as the Android experience is however, sync is a notable oversight by the developer. This is likely owing to the fact that the desktop version of the app hasn’t received updates in many years.
Orgzly
If you’re looking for something a bit more advanced, Orgzly is a good contender. It brings Org mode to Android. That’s a Linux system of notes, tasks, literate programming and project management. Orgzly also supports heirarchies and even calendar reminders and deadlines.
Orgzly support offline sync and also via WebDAV to a server of your choice.