7 Open Source Obsidian Alternatives Tested

Hey there,

Looking for something better than Obsidian?

Not because Obsidian is bad. It's actually great. But sometimes you want something different. Something free. Something open source.

So here's what happened after spending two weeks testing 7 alternatives. Taking notes in each one. Organizing daily tasks. Some were amazing. Some didn't turn out so great.

Here's the full breakdown.

First up was Standard Notes. Clean. Simple. Almost too simple.

Open it and see a list of notes on the left. A markdown editor on the right. That's it.

No fancy features. No complicated setup. Just write.

It felt good for the first day. Like digital zen. Standard Notes has end-to-end encryption. Feels secure.

But by day three, boredom set in. Need more than just a place to write. Need to link notes. Need to build connections between ideas.

Standard Notes is perfect for an encrypted, private diary. Not ideal for building a knowledge system.

Joplin felt like home immediately. Looks like a traditional note app. Notebooks on the left. Notes in the middle. Preview on the right.

Importing markdown files was easy. Everything just worked. The markdown support is solid. The mobile app syncs perfectly. Can even add to-do lists and checkboxes.

But here's the thing. It just felt normal. Like using Evernote again. Where was the excitement?

Need something that makes connections between thoughts. Joplin just stores them in folders.

Tangent Notes takes a different approach. Notes flow in threads. One note branches into another. Then another. Sliding panels show the path between ideas.

A note about blogging branches into topic ideas. Those topics branch into full outlines. The visual map looks stunning.

The problem appears during daily use. Too many branches everywhere. Too much clicking around. More time spent navigating than actually writing. Getting lost in your own notes becomes frustrating.

Works well for creative brainstorming sessions. Too messy for everyday note-taking.

DeepNotes took the visual idea even further.

Imagine notes as cards floating on an infinite canvas. Zoom in and out. Move them around. Create nested pages inside pages.

Feels like a detective making connections on a crime board.

The problem is too much work. Every note needs positioning. Every idea needs arranging. What should take 10 seconds takes 2 minutes.

Great for planning a novel or mapping a project. Too slow for daily notes.

Reor is the new kid on the block.

It promises AI-powered note-taking. Local AI that understands notes and helps search them.

Sounds amazing, right?

The AI search was impressive. Ask for "that note about the book read last month" and it finds it. The semantic search actually understands meaning, not just keywords.

But the app itself is still young. Some bugs here and there. Features still being polished. The AI is smart but the app needs more development time.

Maybe in a year it could be amazing. Right now, promising but still a bit rough.

AFFiNE wants to be Notion, but open source. And honestly, it's pretty close.

You get blocks. Databases and kanban boards. Build wikis, trackers, project boards. There's even a whiteboard mode.

Three days went into building the perfect system. Databases for books. Kanban for projects. Notes for thoughts.

Then the realization hit.

More time spent organizing than thinking. Building systems more than writing. Fell into the productivity trap again.

AFFiNE is powerful. Maybe too powerful. Don't need a rocket ship. Need a bicycle.

Then came Logseq.

Something felt different immediately.

Instead of pages, you get daily journals. Every day starts with a fresh page. Just write. No pressure to organize. No perfect structure needed.

But here's where it gets good.

Link notes using double brackets. Just like Obsidian. But Logseq does something smarter.

Every bullet point is a block. And every block can be referenced anywhere. Building connections without even trying.

Write about blogging tips on Monday. Reference it in content planning notes on Wednesday. Those two ideas are now connected.

Knowledge grows like a web, naturally and connected.

After two weeks, kept coming back to Logseq.

Here's why.

It doesn't fight how people think. Don't think in perfect outlines. Don't organize thoughts in folders. Just write and make connections later. Logseq lets you do exactly that.

Daily journals are magic. Every morning, open one page and start writing. No decisions about where things go. Just write. The organization happens naturally through links and tags.

The outliner format is brilliant. Everything is a bullet point. Every bullet can become its own page. Notes can expand infinitely without becoming messy.

It's actually open source. Like, really open source. The community is active. Development is transparent. Not locked into someone's business model.

It works offline first. Notes live on the computer. Not someone's cloud. Sync them however you want. Or not sync them at all.

It's simple enough to use every day, powerful enough to build a real knowledge system, and free enough to never worry about subscriptions or data hostages.

Looking for an Obsidian alternative? Start with Logseq.

Open one up. Jot down today's thoughts. Link a few ideas. Come back tomorrow. Give it a week.

Might find yourself sticking around.