Top 6 Open‑Source Note‑Taking Apps Every Developer Should Try

As programmers, we not only write code but also need to take notes, draft documentation, and create technical articles, so a reliable note‑taking app can dramatically boost productivity.

After Typora became a paid product, I explored other free, open‑source alternatives and compiled six noteworthy projects from GitHub.

Open‑Source Note‑Taking Apps Overview

1. AppFlowy

URL: https://github.com/AppFlowy-IO/appflowy

AppFlowy is a Notion‑like all‑in‑one note app written in Rust and Flutter. It quickly earned over 10k stars, indicating rapid growth. Its sleek, minimalist UI offers a great user experience, but it currently works best on macOS, and building it on Linux can be challenging.

2. Laverna

URL: https://github.com/Laverna/laverna

Laverna is a classic online note‑taking app that has existed for about eight years and has nearly 9k stars. Its standout feature is extreme minimalism—only a note pane, a browsing pane, and a few buttons appear on the homepage.

The editor fully supports Markdown, though it only offers a dual‑column editing mode, which may feel limiting compared to WYSIWYG editors like Typora.

3. Trilium

URL: https://github.com/zadam/trilium

Trilium is a hierarchical note‑taking application with over 12k stars, designed for building large personal knowledge bases. Developed in JavaScript, it runs on both desktop and web, offering excellent compatibility.

Its feature‑rich interface includes a sidebar with many buttons, and the writing experience resembles Typora, automatically converting Markdown syntax to formatted text.

4. Leanote

URL: https://github.com/leanote/leanote

Leanote is a Chinese‑developed online cloud note app built with JavaScript and Go, boasting over 10k stars. It shines with multi‑device compatibility and synchronization, allowing users to capture notes via WeChat.

The editor supports code highlighting, making it friendly for developers, though it only offers a dual‑column Markdown mode.

5. Focalboard

URL: https://github.com/mattermost/focalboard

Focalboard, similar to Notion, is implemented with TypeScript and Go, accumulating nearly 7k stars in just over a year. It offers rich functionality not only for note‑taking but also for project management, making it a solid learning project.

6. Etherpad‑Lite

URL: https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite

Etherpad‑Lite is geared toward team collaboration. It enables real‑time co‑editing, commenting, and chat within documents, resembling popular office suites but with richer extensibility.

Users can enhance functionality with nearly 300 plugins, adding features such as voice and video chat.