HelixNotes vs Scratch

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

HelixNotes

AGPL-3.0

A fast, privacy-first local markdown note-taking app built with Tauri and SvelteKit. Your notes stay as plain .md files on your device.

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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

	HelixNotes	Scratch
License	AGPL-3.0	MIT
Self-hostable	No	Yes
GitHub Stars	157	1,564
Forks	16	150
Open Issues	57	77
Last Commit	Jul 23, 2026	Jul 28, 2026
First Released	Feb 9, 2026	Jan 31, 2026
Categories	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools
Tags	#markdown #notes #knowledge-management #productivity #privacy	#markdown #note taking #offline #cross-platform #desktop-app

GitHub stars over time

HelixNotes

Scratch1,564

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