Hello everyone, I’d like your recommendations for a note taking app that:
- Can be selfhosted
- Stores the notes as plain text or *.md files, not some SQL database.
- Can use Marddown format.
- Have an android client or at least a mobile optimized web-interface.
- Not a must but it would be nice to have a to-do list option.
I tried:
- Trilium: use an encrypted litesql to store the notes.
- Joplin: does not encrypt the notes, but store them in random named directories, making ot harder finding the notes.
- Logseq: No firefox support, I did not check how it stores itsdatabase.
- Standard note: Need subscriptions to selfhost or to use markdown format.
- Memos: does not store plain files, instead uses a (sqlite probably) database even when setting local filesystem as current object storage.
- CodiMD: use database to store its notes
- Hedgedoc: the same as above
The closest I found so far is Obsidian, which:
- Unfortunately, does not have any selfhosting option.
- Have a client app on every platform and store.
- Can use a custom directory to store it database as plain text files, whuch can be a network mounted directory (on my laptop/desktop) or a directory on my android phone that i will have to keep synchronized using a third party app.
Edit: March-2nd: added memos, codimd, hedgedoc
The closest one I’ve found to what I’m looking for in a note taking app is Obsidian. Really it kind of set the standard of what I need with how efficient it is to use. The only issue is syncing to my phone and tablet. I’m using Nextcloud and so far have only been able to get “read” access on my mobile devices. If I try to create/edit a note it gives me access errors that I haven’t found a way around. This isn’t a huge problem because I mostly reference notes on the devices anyway and am not making changes to them. Mobile note taking is typically done in my physical pocket notebook anyway.
For syncing to multiple devices, I would recommend syncthing. Was pretty easy to set up and haven’t had any issues.
I second this, my dumb-as-bricks setup for syncing obsidian notes is just running a Syncthing instance on a little Raspberry Pi I keep on all the time, and it works like a charm.