Best Self-Hosted Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools in 2026
Apps for capturing notes, organizing information, and building personal knowledge systems and second brains.
The top-rated pick is AFFiNE with 68,329 GitHub stars.
12 self-hosted note taking & knowledge management tools — ranked by GitHub stars. Browse all
AFFiNE
Open-source knowledge base combining note-taking, whiteboard, and project planning in one workspace.
memos
A modern, open-source, self-hosted knowledge management and note-taking platform designed for privacy-conscious users and organizations.
Obsidian
Joplin
Privacy-focused, open-source note-taking and to-do app with end-to-end encryption and multi-device sync.
TriliumNext Notes
Hierarchical personal knowledge base with powerful note-taking, rich text editing, and scripting capabilities.
HedgeDoc
Real-time collaborative markdown note editor you can self-host — write together with rich formatting and seamless sharing.
Google Docs
SilverBullet
Markdown-based note-taking app with powerful live queries, templates, and a pluggable scripting system for power users.
Speakr
Self-hosted AI transcription and intelligent note-taking platform that turns audio recordings into organized, searchable notes with speaker identification.
Otter.ai
NoteDiscovery
A self-hosted knowledge base for note-taking with markdown support, Zettelkasten methodology, and Docker deployment.
Jotty
Lightweight self-hosted app for managing personal file-based notes and checklists.
Atomic
A self-hosted personal knowledge base that turns markdown notes into an AI-augmented knowledge graph with semantic search and wiki synthesis.
Pinboard
Journal
A simple self-hosted journal and blog API written in Go, using SQLite for storage.
Day One
Files.md
A simple local-first note-taking app for your plain .md files with Telegram bot access.
Why self-host?
Self-hosting puts you in control. You own your data, avoid vendor lock-in, and eliminate recurring subscription costs. For teams handling sensitive data or operating under strict compliance requirements, running your own infrastructure is often the only viable option.
Want to compare all open source options including cloud-hosted ones? See the best open source note taking & knowledge management tools →