Jotty vs Scratch

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

Jotty

AGPL-3.0

Lightweight self-hosted app for managing personal file-based notes and checklists.

Visit Full details

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.

Visit Full details

Side-by-side comparison

	Jotty	Scratch
License	AGPL-3.0	MIT
Self-hostable	Yes	Yes
GitHub Stars	1,992	1,564
Forks	114	150
Open Issues	74	77
Last Commit	Aug 29, 2026	Jul 28, 2026
First Released	Aug 11, 2025	Jan 31, 2026
Categories	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools
Tags	#note taking #self hosted #homelab	#markdown #note taking #offline #cross-platform #desktop-app

GitHub stars over time

Jotty1,992

Scratch

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

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

SilverBullet

Markdown-based note-taking app with powerful live queries, templates, and a pluggable scripting system for power users.

Alternative to:

Notion