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
I write nearly everything in markdown. Like you, I don’t want databases, or other barriers that will complicate portability.
I just use my text editor of choice, usually VSCodium or vim on the desktop, and Syncthing to keep the notes synced across all of our devices.
On Android, I’ve been happily using the Markor markdown editor for years. I’ve tried several others but always return to its simplicity.
All of the above editors support opening folders in a tree view, so you can easily keep your notes sorted under a traditional folder structure and find what you when you need it.
Edit: Forgot to mention that Markor does have a dedicated to-do feature too, which also uses markdown.
Thank you for your reply, I do host a vscode instance to keep for my python learning. I will fall to that (with markor) if nothing else works.