I am trying to slowly de-Google-ify myself by moving to open source apps, I wanna ditch google notes and evernote. I tried obsidian, standard notes, and joplin, I liked using obsidian on PC and standard notes looks nice on android but obsidian you need to pay to have sync and standard notes doesn’t do markdown unless you pay (are plugins only on PC???). Joplin has most features I need but I don’t like how it looks/feels on android (haven’t tried in PC yet)
Basically what I want the most in a notes app is offline with sync capability for phone and PC, would be nice to make folders for notes like notepads on evernote, and md is a big plus but I can live without it. I would love if I could use something like proton drive for cloud sync and wouldn’t mind paying for obsidian if it was cheaper cuz $8 per month is too much for my minimum pay and I didnt see any cheaper plans.
EDIT: If no one has any better suggestions, I am thinking of trying to setup obsidian with syncthing.
I actually use Obsidian on my Linux desktop, synced with Syncthing to my Android phone, iPad, home server, etc (have version control also active to keep older copies of notes). Mainly because the volume of notes I do is on the desktop, and I need them for reference everywhere. But I’m not sure Obsidian is best as a phone app (bit busy), but you could test it with a simple UI.
Joplin with Syncthing works well for me.
You can also self-host a Joplin sync server, which works exceedingly well too.
Using Obsidian with mega on desktop and FolderSync covering syncing the android side of it. Works fine.
Obsidian-livesync works very well If you have some self hosting skill / hardware. The sync happens in realtime and is almost like Google docs. Allows excellent sync between all devices
O do this but with logseq
Logseq could be another option although I’m unsure about syncing, syncing might be possible via NextCloud/syncthing
I sync all my notes on Logseq using syncthing between 2 PCs and a phone. Working reliable for 7 months now
Because of a different Lemmy post, I’m just now trying out Orgzly. It looks terrific so far, and I think it meets all your needs. It stores everything in plain text, so you just have to sync the text files.
Interesting, I see Orgzly uses Org mode formatting in plain text - https://orgmode.org/features.html
If you enjoy Orgzly, the updated fork is likely what you want - https://f-droid.org/packages/com.orgzlyrevived/ It has bug fixes, additional features, and is under active development.
I was about to suggest obsidian+syncthing when I saw your edit. I’m using the same combo on multiple devices and it’s working flawlessly.
I’m late, but I have Obsidian set up with Syncthing and it works flawlessly. I adore Syncthing and would be lost without it!
Depending on your note taking needs, if Obsidian is too much, you could do the same with Notable/Noteless and Syncthing.
I’m syncing obsidian with Drive via my Synology NAS
Basically everything where you can sync files should work.
The only downside I saw was that I had to reconfigure all clients individually (plugins, themes, template settings etc)
Sync Obsidian with Syncthing.
I use TiddlyWiki via TiddlyPWA. It’s an offline-capable PWA with a very quick sync capability. It works beautifully on my phone and desktop. It doesn’t have folders, but it does have nestable tags, which works really well for me. I don’t think it supports markdown out of the box, but I’m positive you can find a plugin for it. Plugins are crazy simple to install; you just drag and drop a link into you wiki tab and confirm installation.
I like Notesnook, although it’s a bit expensive.
Sounds like crypt.ee would be a good fit.
I love how 90% of replies are recommending software that isn’t open-source.
At the very least most of the recommendations are not run my multi billion/million companies like Google keep, notion, and evernote who are always suspicious in what they do on the side.
I highly recommend:
- Web: Nextcloud + Nextcloud Notes App + Qownnotes Sync App
- Desktop: Qownnotes and/or vim (or any texteditor of choice)
- Mobile: Nextcloud Notes
Main advantage of this software stack over other solutions like joplin is the handling of the notes. Everthing is stored in a simple folder structure in plain markdown text files (*.md). This means if anything breaks, you are always able to read and edit with any text editor on any system! I switched away from joplin because it stores the notes in a database and notes file names are a cryptic string, so if you are not able to load joplin it’s very hard to find anything.
Quillpad on android + Qownnotes in linux + nextcloud sync
