cross-posted from: https://lemdro.id/post/17051418
I love the idea of having all my quick notes, to-do lists, knowledge base, journal, plans, etc., in one single, neatly organized place. Why wouldn’t I? But deciding on which Notion alternative to use is overwhelming.
There are so many options, and all claim to be the best. Online opinions are all over the place (as expected), and these apps aren’t exactly simple—they’re complex for good reasons, but that makes choosing one even harder. And don’t get me started on the endless YouTube videos on the topic—I could spend weeks or months researching this and testing every single one of them, but honestly, this is not how I wanna spend my time so I will ask you guys instead.
My Current Setup:
Markor: Used it for quick thoughts, journaling, and to-do lists but stopped using it because it’s not suited for everything, and there’s no sync between Android and Linux (becsuse it is android only).
Obsidian: Currently using it as my knowledge base and for long notes, simple to-do lists, and occasional journaling. Haven’t fully migrated to it or created an organized setup because I’m looking for a FOSS Notion alternative.
Standard Notes: Good for quick notes, but most features are paywalled, making it feel limited.
jtx Board: My go-to for journaling—it’s simple and quick to use.
What I need:
- FOSS, but only if it’s just as good as proprietary options in:
- Auto-sync between my Android phone and Linux desktop
- Journaling
- Quick notes
- To-do lists
- Planning
- Managing personal projects
- Writing down thoughts
- A really good Android app
- Easy to use
- Free for personal use
What I don’t care about:
Collaboration. This is for my personal use—no sharing, no team features.
Given my messy current setup and specific requirements, can anyone give me some recommendations?
I think for your use case, Anytype is good enough, but it's not FOSS. Obsidian is also not FOSS. I'm not a purist, quite the contrary (in fact I use Notion), but maybe you want to check what's behind.
Also, to help you make sense of your confusion and take a better decision, you're comparing a bit apples and oranges.
Some of the tools, like Obsidian, are purely knowledge-management software with some productivity features sticked on top (like kanban visualizations).
Coda, Appflowy and Notion are primarily tools to build software, which can be knowledge-management software, productivity software or other stuff. They operate on a higher level of abstraction and flexibility, but out-of-the-box, for a single user, they are also probably worse than stuff like Obsidian.
"Anytype is good enough, but its not FOSS"
how so?
You cannot fork or edit the code, it's just "source-available".