Jotty vs Journal

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

Jotty

AGPL-3.0

Self-hosted notes and checklists with markdown files, Kanban task projects, SSO, PGP encryption, and a REST API.

Visit Full details

Journal

MIT

Journal is a simple self-hosted journal and blog API written in Go, using SQLite for storage. Build custom clients, capture daily entries, and own your writing on your own server.

Visit Full details

Side-by-side comparison

	Jotty	Journal
License	AGPL-3.0	MIT
Self-hostable	Yes	Yes
GitHub Stars	2,029	43
Forks	119	1
Open Issues	60	—
Last Commit	Oct 22, 2026	May 3, 2026
First Released	Aug 11, 2025	Mar 10, 2016
Categories	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools
Tags	#note taking #self hosted #homelab #markdown #notes	#journaling #blog #memo #self hosted

GitHub stars over time

Jotty2,029

Journal

Similar open source alternatives

AppFlowy

Open source Notion alternative that brings projects, wikis, and teams together with AI while keeping you in control of your data.

Alternative to:

Notion

HelixNotes

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

Alternative to:

Obsidian

Journaler

Journaler is a free, open-source daily journal built with simplicity and privacy in mind. Capture entries in markdown, search past thoughts, and own your data on your own device.

Alternative to:

Day One

Outline

The fastest growing-team knowledge base — beautiful, realtime collaborative, feature packed, and markdown compatible Notion and Confluence alternative.

Alternative to:

Notion

memos

Privacy-first, self-hosted note-taking platform with markdown support, tagging, and built-in AI — a lightweight alternative to Notion and Obsidian.

Alternative to:

Obsidian

AFFiNE

Open-source knowledge base combining note-taking, whiteboard, and project planning in one workspace.

Alternative to:

Notion