Files.md vs Scratch

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

Files.md

MIT

A simple local-first note-taking app for your plain .md files with Telegram bot access.

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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

	Files.md	Scratch
License	MIT	MIT
Self-hostable	Yes	Yes
GitHub Stars	4,126	1,564
Forks	214	150
Open Issues	7	77
Last Commit	Jul 29, 2026	Jul 28, 2026
First Released	May 23, 2023	Jan 31, 2026
Categories	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools
Tags	#markdown #notes #local-first #pwa #wiki	#markdown #note taking #offline #cross-platform #desktop-app

GitHub stars over time

Files.md

Scratch1,564

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