Anchor vs Scratch

Comparing two open source alternatives to Notion and Obsidian and Evernote and Microsoft OneNote. Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.

Anchor

AGPL-3.0

Offline-first, self-hostable note-taking app with rich text, tags, attachments, and cross-device sync via Docker.

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Scratch

MIT

Scratch is a minimalist, offline-first markdown note-taking app for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Plain text files, keyboard-driven, with no cloud lock-in or account required.

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Side-by-side comparison

	Anchor	Scratch
License	AGPL-3.0	MIT
Self-hostable	Yes	Yes
GitHub Stars	1,336	1,578
Forks	56	153
Open Issues	62	81
Last Commit	Sep 12, 2026	Jul 28, 2026
First Released	Dec 1, 2025	Jan 31, 2026
Categories	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools
Tags	#notes #self hosted #offline-first #cross-platform #docker	#markdown #note taking #offline #cross-platform #desktop-app

GitHub stars over time

Anchor

Scratch1,578

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