this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
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70
Struggling to pick the right Notion alternative—need help (lemdro.id)
submitted 3 weeks ago by Im28xwa@lemdro.id to c/technology@lemmy.world
20 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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?

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[–] victor9@lemmy.ml 22 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Joplin is missing from your list. Does not fill all of your requirements, but I use that and logseq

[–] joeldebruijn@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago

I use Joplin also, two years now. But fwiw its a database with markdown writed notes. Its not a management solution for a repository with seperate markdown files per note.

[–] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

+1 for Joplin.

Been using it for two weeks and already, I'm loving its light weight feel.

Everything is markdown. Easy to upload images. AWS backups.

[–] BlueBeard@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

+1 for Joplin. You can self-host it. If you do, you can share notes between the users of the server. I wrote a tutorial on how to install it with docker. Should you need it, pm me.

[–] kambusha@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

+1 for Logseq

Daily journaling by default. Then you can create pages for other info. You write info in blocks, similar to notion, which also allows to link at a block level. There's some plugins out there for todo lists. I basically add a todo in my daily journal, and then I can access a list of all open todo items.

For sync, I use syncthing to copy the markdown files between devices.

[–] laserkaspar@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I am currently use Outline. Pretty nice and stable. First setup isn't that easy sadly.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Outline is great. We use it combined with Plane as an alternative to Atlassian (JIRA), too. It's basically a Linear clone. All self-hosted.

@Im28xwa@lemdro.id I highly recommend checking out this combo. We went through a pretty extensive search to end here before cutting out Notion and other platforms.

The one catch I found is while Outline supports OIDC for central login, Plane does not (or didn't when I set it up).

[–] ownsauce@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Thank you, I just created an account with Plane, looks great!

[–] kata1yst@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I use obsidian + self hosted Live Sync https://github.com/vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync. My data is fully encrypted and stays with me and my devices. The apps themselves are incredible, absolutely packed with features and the community is extremely engaged and actively developing awesome plugins to further extend the capabilities.

The only downside is that it's closed source, but the data format is widely understood, so if obsidian went belly up for some crazy reason there are import tools for basically every open source platform.

[–] jimi_henrik@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd love to use this setup, however, the Obsidian Android app requires a kind of file access that is concerning:

Obsdian uses a shared location “/Documents” so that other apps can access the files (e.g. third party sync services) or add stuff.

https://forum.obsidian.md/t/fr-make-obsidian-work-on-android-without-asking-for-storage-permissions/19360

It's a no-go for me. :/

[–] kata1yst@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

If you're concerned, you can use an android firewall to block Internet access from the app aside from your sync server.

But to be clear, the concern voiced in that thread is not the privileges that obsidian has, it's that other apps can read the obsidian notes. So your risk profile will vary with what notes you take.

[–] jimi_henrik@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

you can use an android firewall to block Internet access from the app

True, however, AFAIK if your phone is not rooted, you can't have a firewall and VPN running at the same time (the firewalls I've seen must be configured as VPN).

not the privileges that obsidian has

Also true, although Obsidian has access to that shared storage, and therefore, Obsidian being closed source, you have no way of knowing what they do with the files other apps create in that storage directory. I'm not saying they are acting maliciously, but I don't like this approach (software vulnerabilities, supply chain attacks, etc.). The devs recognized the issue in another thread, but there's no solution to the problem as of yet.

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If I got it right, file access in latest Android versions must ask permissions to the user, so it should be not an issue for you

[–] jimi_henrik@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Obsidian asks for the permission upon first launch, but if you don't give it access it won't work at all (it's a required permission for the app).

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

I love the interface behind anytype but it's not foss.

I've mostly moved into obsidian with a bunch of plugins. One of the plugins in obsidian interfaces with my self-hosted llama instance, so right inside my docs I can have it generate AI content without reaching off my network.

[–] land@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago

I went through that process and chose Craft in the end.

[–] just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 weeks ago

There is also cryptpad i think. Might be what you are looking for

[–] ownsauce@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Filen checks off most of your requirements https://filen.io/

  • Auto-sync between my Android phone and Linux desktop
  • Journaling
  • Quick notes
  • To-do lists
  • Planning
  • Writing down thoughts
  • A really good Andoid app
  • Easy to use
  • Free for personal use

Filen is missing project management stuff like Kanban etc, just use cryptpad for that. Cryptpad https://cryptpad.fr/

Edit: Another comment mentioned Plane, I'd recommend it over Cryptpad. Cryptpad is really barebones in comparison even though they're growing and adding features and integrations.

My recommendation is now Filen + Plane https://plane.so/

[–] nrbray@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

use syncthing with markor, nothing simpler imho

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 weeks ago

I would like a second for my brain