Self-hosted alternatives to Notion
Pricing per seat climbs fast for teams, and your entire company knowledge lives on someone else's server.
Below are 10 open-source projects that cover the same ground, each scored 0–100 on how actively it is actually maintained — commit volume, release cadence and recent trend. 8 of the 10 are currently rated healthy or better. Ordering reflects that score, not sponsorship.
| Project | Health | Activity (11 mo) | Stars | Licence | Last release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SiYuan A privacy-first personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang. | Thriving · 99 | 47k | AGPL-3.0 | 27 Sept 2026 | |
| TriliumNext Notes Cross-platform hierarchical note taking application with focus on building large personal knowledge bases (for | Thriving · 99 | 38k | AGPL-3.0 | 25 Sept 2026 | |
| Joplin Note taking application with markdown editor and encryption support for mobile and desktop platforms. Runs cli | Thriving · 92 | 57k | MIT | 25 Sept 2026 | |
| Outline Extensible wiki for your team. | Thriving · 92 | 41k | BUSL-1.1 | 9 Sept 2026 | |
| Memos Knowledge base that works with a SQLite db file. | Thriving · 88 | 63k | MIT | 19 Sept 2026 | |
| Docs Collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. | Healthy · 81 | 17k | MIT | 16 Sept 2026 | |
| HedgeDoc Realtime collaborative markdown notes on all platforms, formerly known as CodiMD and HackMD CE. | Healthy · 81 | 7.4k | AGPL-3.0 | 21 Aug 2026 | |
| SilverBullet Note-taking application optimized for people with a hacker mindset. | Healthy · 80 | 6.2k | MIT | 22 Sept 2026 | |
| AppFlowy Build detailed lists of to-do’s for different projects while tracking the status of each one. Open Source Noti | Steady · 59 | 77k | AGPL-3.0 | 22 Sept 2026 | |
| BookStack Organize and store information. Stores documentation in a book like fashion. | Unrated | — | MIT | — |
How these were picked
Every project listed here is open source and can run entirely on hardware you control. We start from the categories that match Notion's job — Note-taking & Editors, Knowledge Management Tools, Wikis — then rank by health score so that a popular-but-abandoned project never appears above a smaller one that is actively shipping. The scoring method is documented in full.
The scores are recomputed from repository data on every rebuild, so this page reflects the state of these projects as of 1 Oct 2026 — not the day it was written.
SiYuan
A privacy-first personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang.
Best fit: It suits individuals who want absolute control over their personal notes without relying on third-party cloud services.
Worth knowing: The AGPL-3.0 licence may impose copyleft constraints if you plan to modify and distribute the code, and the tool competes in a crowded market of established note-taking applications.
TriliumNext Notes
Cross-platform hierarchical note taking application with focus on building large personal knowledge bases (fork of Trilium Notes).
Best fit: Users who need to manage extensive, deeply nested personal documentation and want a dedicated self-hosted repository for their notes.
Worth knowing: The AGPL-3.0 licence may have implications if you plan to modify and distribute the code within a networked environment.
Joplin
Note taking application with markdown editor and encryption support for mobile and desktop platforms. Runs client-side and syncs through a self hosted Nextcloud instance or similar (alternative to Evernote).
Best fit: It is well-suited for users who want to maintain ownership of their notes using markdown while keeping compatibility with mobile and desktop devices.
Worth knowing: You will need to manage your own synchronisation backend and handle client-side configuration across all your devices, which introduces operational overhead compared to managed cloud services.
Outline
Extensible wiki for your team.
Best fit: Teams looking for an extensible, self-hosted documentation hub to centralise their internal knowledge bases.
Worth knowing: It uses the Business Source License, which places specific restrictions on commercial use and competitive hosting until the code converts to an open source licence.
Memos
Knowledge base that works with a SQLite db file.
Best fit: It suits individuals looking for a lightweight, single-tenant personal wiki or scratchpad that runs without a complex external database dependency.
Worth knowing: SQLite may become a bottleneck or present backup challenges if you scale to heavy concurrent usage or very large volumes of data. It also overlaps with numerous established note-taking tools, so check if specific features you need are present.