Self-hosted alternatives to Obsidian Publish

Publish your notes and knowledge garden, self-hosted. Below are 12 open source options you host on your own server — with no monthly per-user fee and full control of your data.

AFFiNE Community Edition

★ 69,679

AFFiNE combines documents, whiteboards and databases in a single workspace, like a mix of Notion and Miro. Hosted by you, it's a knowledge workspace entirely under your domain.

Knowledge Management Tools MIT

Memos

★ 60,987

Memos is a lightweight app for quick notes and journaling, like a private Twitter for your ideas. Hosted by you, it's a minimalist alternative to Google Keep with markdown and full privacy.

Note-taking & Editors MIT

Joplin

★ 55,314

Joplin is an open source notes and to-do app with markdown, end-to-end encryption and the sync target of your choice. It's the alternative to Evernote for those who want to keep control of their own notebooks.

Note-taking & Editors MIT

SiYuan

★ 44,561

SiYuan is a privacy-first personal knowledge manager, with blocks, markdown and a note graph. Self-hosted, it's an alternative to Notion/Obsidian with your data on your own server.

Knowledge Management Tools AGPL-3.0

TriliumNext Notes

★ 36,543

TriliumNext Notes is a hierarchical note-taking app built for large personal knowledge bases. Self-hosted, it organizes ideas in a tree with advanced features and full privacy.

Note-taking & Editors AGPL-3.0

Overleaf

★ 17,852

Web-based collaborative LaTeX editor.

Note-taking & Editors AGPL-3.0

Docs

★ 16,603

Collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales.

Note-taking & EditorsKnowledge Management Tools MIT

Blinko

★ 10,599

A personal note tool with AI features.

Note-taking & Editors AGPL-3.0

HedgeDoc

★ 7,265

Realtime collaborative markdown notes on all platforms, formerly known as CodiMD and HackMD CE.

Note-taking & Editors AGPL-3.0

Standard Notes

★ 6,518

Simple and private notes app. Protect your privacy while getting more done. That's Standard Notes.

Note-taking & Editors GPL-3.0

draw.io

★ 6,278

Diagram software for making flowcharts, process diagrams, org charts, UML, ER and network diagrams.

Note-taking & Editors Apache-2.0

Livebook

★ 5,805

Realtime collaborative notebook app based on Markdown that supports running Elixir code snippets, TeX and Mermaid Diagrams. Easily deployed using Docker or Elixir.

Note-taking & Editors Apache-2.0

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free self-hosted alternative to Obsidian Publish?

Yes. We've gathered 12 self-hosted, open source alternatives to Obsidian Publish — including AFFiNE Community Edition, Memos, Joplin. You run all of them on your own server.

What is the best open source alternative to Obsidian Publish?

AFFiNE Community Edition is one of the most popular (69,679 GitHub stars). The "best" depends on your case — compare the options below.

Do I need a server to replace Obsidian Publish?

Yes. You can use a home server (homelab) or a cheap VPS (from ~€4/mo). See the hosting suggestions on this page.