Open Source Mac Note-Taking Apps
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Note-Taking Apps for Mac
View 82 business solutionsBrowse free open source Note-Taking apps and projects for Mac below. Use the toggles on the left to filter open source Note-Taking apps by OS, license, language, programming language, and project status.
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Obsidian
Community plugins list, theme list, and releases of Obsidian
The Obsidian Releases repository provides the official distribution builds and installers for Obsidian, the popular markdown-based knowledge management and personal wiki application. Obsidian itself is a powerful, offline-first note-taking tool that helps users build interconnected knowledge graphs using markdown files stored locally on their devices, with plugins and community themes for extensibility. This repository houses versioned compiled binaries and packages for multiple platforms such as Windows, macOS, and Linux, enabling users to download stable or nightly builds directly without needing to build the app from source. By maintaining clear version history and downloadable artifacts, it makes it easy for individuals and organizations to audit, rollback, or pin specific Obsidian releases for workflows that depend on stability or particular plugin compatibility. -
2
Skim
A PDF Reader and Note-taker for OS X
Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. It is designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF, but is also great for viewing any PDF file. Skim requires OS X 10.10 or higher. -
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Notepad Next
A cross-platform, reimplementation of Notepad++
A cross-platform, reimplementation of Notepad++. Though the application overall is stable and usable, it should not be considered safe for critically important work. There are numerous bugs and half-working implementations. Pull requests are greatly appreciated. Windows packages are available as an installer or a stand-alone zip file on the release page. The installer provides additional components such as an auto-updater and Windows context menu integration. -
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Joplin
Open source note taking and to-do app with synchronization
Joplin is a free and open source note-taking and to-do application that can handle a large number of notes in Markdown format, organize them into notebooks and synchronize them with various cloud services. All notes can also be copied, tagged, searched and modified directly from the app or through your own text editor. Notes that are exported from Evernote can be imported into Joplin, be it formatted content, resources, complete metadata or plain Markdown files. When notes are synchronized with cloud services, notebooks, tags and other metadata can easily be moved, inspected or backed up as plain text files. Supported cloud services include Nextcloud, OneDrive, Dropbox and WebDAV. Joplin is available for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS and Android, with three types: desktop, mobile and terminal. All of them have similar user interfaces and can be synchronized with each other. -
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Open Notebook
An Open Source implementation of Notebook LM with more flexibility
Open Notebook is an open-source, privacy-focused alternative to Google’s Notebook LM that gives users full control over their research and AI workflows. Designed to be self-hosted, it ensures complete data sovereignty by keeping your content local or within your own infrastructure. The platform supports 16+ AI providers—including OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, Google, and LM Studio—allowing flexible model choice and cost optimization. Open Notebook enables users to organize and analyze multi-modal content such as PDFs, videos, audio files, web pages, and Office documents. It combines full-text and vector search with context-aware AI chat to deliver insights grounded in your own research materials. With advanced features like multi-speaker podcast generation, customizable content transformations, and a comprehensive REST API, Open Notebook provides a powerful and extensible research environment. -
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Xournal++
A handwriting notetaking software with PDF annotation support
Xournal++ (/ˌzɚnl̟ˌplʌsˈplʌs/) is an open-source and cross-platform note-taking software that is fast, flexible, and functional. A modern rewrite and a more feature-rich version of the wonderful Xournal program. Support for pressure-sensitive stylus and drawing tablets (Wacom, Huion, XP-Pen, etc.) Robust and customizable pen, highlighter and eraser tools, allowing you to write how you want to write. Use layers to make complex notes that are still pleasant to work with. Keep track of the notes by using page previews. Add images and create various shapes, from circles to splines to axis. Snap objects to rectangular grid or degrees of rotation. Create anything from differential equations to electrical circuits or the structural formula of molecules using our built-in LaTeX editor. Customize your toolbar to create a new layout, tailor-made for you. -
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QOwnNotes
QOwnNotes is a plain-text file notepad and todo-list manager
QOwnNotes is a fully open-source markdown-focused note-taking and personal information manager that runs natively on Linux, macOS, and Windows, with a strong emphasis on plain-text storage and cross-device synchronization. Because all notes are stored as markdown files in user-controlled directories, you avoid vendor lock-in and can sync through services like Nextcloud, ownCloud, Dropbox, or Git without proprietary cloud dependency. The application is optimized for performance and minimal footprint, so it runs smoothly even with large note libraries, and it includes features like a live markdown preview panel that lets you see rendered text alongside raw markdown as you type. QOwnNotes supports hierarchical folders and tagging, making it easy to organize, filter, and retrieve information quickly, and it also integrates to-do lists and task markers directly in your notes. -
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TagSpaces
TagSpaces is an offline, open source, document manager with tagging
TagSpaces is a free, no vendor lock-in, open source application for organizing, annotating and managing local files with the help of tags. It features advanced note taking functionalities and some capabilities of to-do apps. The application is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS and Android. We provide a web clipper extension for Firefox, Edge and Chrome for easy collecting of online content in the form of local files. File and folder management - TagSpaces provides a convenient user interface for browsing, viewing and man files and folders. The application supports two ways for tagging files. The default one embeds the tags directly in the name of the file, the other one uses a so called sidecar files for persisting the tags. The search functionality supports fuzzy functionality and can filter your locations for files and folders containing one or more tags. -
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Lorien
Infinite canvas drawing/whiteboarding app
Lorien is a fast, lightweight infinite-canvas drawing and note-taking application designed for brainstorming, sketching, and freeform diagramming without the bloat of traditional bitmap editors. Instead of storing raster image data, Lorien saves each brush stroke as vector-like points and reconstructs drawings at runtime, resulting in extremely small save files and smooth performance even on large canvases. The app runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and it’s built using the Godot game engine, which gives it a responsive and modern user interface across platforms. Users get features like infinite zoom, undo/redo, and a grid that stretches endlessly, making it well suited to both quick scribbles and detailed conceptual layouts. Lorien supports pressure-sensitive tablets for natural drawing, and it includes a range of basic tools — from freehand brush and eraser to shapes and selection tools — so you can mix freeform sketches with structured diagrams. -
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Trilium Notes
Build your personal knowledge base
Trilium is provided as either desktop application (Linux and Windows) or web application hosted on your server (Linux). Mac OS desktop build is available, but it is unsupported. Synchronization with self-hosted sync server, strong note encryption with per-note granularity, relation maps and link maps for visualizing notes and their relations, and scripting, see Advanced showcases. Scales well in both usability and performance upwards of 100 000 notes, touch optimized mobile frontend for smartphones and tablets, night theme, evernote and Markdown import & export, as well as web clipper for easy saving of web content. If you want to use Trilium on the desktop, download binary release for your platform from latest release, unzip the package and run trilium executable. Install the application on both a server, for web access and data synchronization, and desktop instance(s). This allows all the data to be stored on the server. -
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Notes
Note taking application, write down your thoughts.
Notes is an open source, cross-platform note-taking application. Write down your thoughts with ease, and always have them with you with this simple, streamlined app. -
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Makagiga
To-do manager, notepad, RSS reader...
Makagiga is an open-source, easy-to-use, portable application for doing a variety of tasks, such as todo listing, text editing, or RSS reading. Plugins are used to implement its various capabilities. -
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Notable
The Markdown-based note-taking app that doesn't suck
Notes are written in Markdown, plus you can write KaTeX expressions, Mermaid diagrams and more, check out our Markdown cheatsheet. Notable provides a very powerful Markdown editor, it's the same one VS Code uses in fact, so features like multi-cursors, a minimap and best-in-class syntax highlighting are built-in. Notes and attachments are simply stored on your disk, this is extremely portable and powerful: you could edit your notes via a third-party editor on mobile, have them synchronized via Dropbox, use Git, run a regex-based search and replace etc. A dark theme is also available. In the future support for custom themes will be added as well. Zen mode provides a minimalistic editing and reading experience, hiding everything that's not necessary. Notable is also keyboard friendly, has a quick open window, and we'll soon add a command palette too, so you won't have to click any buttons if you don't want to. -
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Notesnook
A fully open source & end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative
Notesnook makes it impossible for anyone to spy on your notes. Unlike Evernote and other note taking apps, your data is private, not open for everyone to see. Ditch other note taking apps that don't care about your data privacy. With app lock and private notes vault, your personal diary & journal are always safe. Worried that your friend will read your private notes? Notesnook fixes that by having an app lock built-in. Use a pin or biometrics to protect your notes. Protect your online journal or personal diary with an extra layer of security. Your notes vault is a super secure way to store your passwords, credentials & other secrets. Free or Pro, you get the same level of privacy. Making privacy a paid feature means only the privileged few deserve it but privacy is your right. And rights don't have a price tag, or do they? To verify that your notes are actually encrypted (and we aren't just lying), you can use our open source tool, Vericrypt. -
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memos
An open-source, self-hosted memo hub with knowledge management
A lightweight, self-hosted memo hub. Open Source and Free forever. memos provides the privacy security and reliability that innovators need in their moments of inspiration. Keep your own data by yourself. All data generated at runtime is saved in the SQLite database file. All content will be saved as plain text, not HTML. And lots of useful markdown syntaxes are supported. Using Go + React.js + SQLite architecture, the overall package is very lightweight. You can customize the server name, icon, description, custom system style and execution script, etc. memos believes that open source is the future, and all code is already open source in GitHub. All features are free forever and will never be charged in any form or content. -
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Laverna
JavaScript note taking application with Markdown editor
Laverna has a simple and robust markdown editor, which can help you write faster than ever before with our live markdown preview. The editor can be switched to distraction free mode where you can focus solely on writing notes. Make your notes available on any device with your Dropbox & RemoteStorage account. You can make your notes available only to you by enabling encryption. Keep simple to do lists organized in notes and notebooks. You can manage your notes without ever lifting your hands from your keyboard. Keep snippets of code to have access to them anytime and anywhere. Do you prefer to stay anonymous? You do not need to go through registration process to start using Laverna. You can export your notes from Laverna and import them back anytime. You are not tied to using it forever. Every line of code can be reviewed on GitHub and is available under MPL-2.0 license. -
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Hypernomicon
Hypertext-infused philosophy personal database software
Hypernomicon is a personal productivity/database application for researchers that combines structured note-taking, mind-mapping, management of files (e.g., PDFs) and folders, and reference management into an integrated environment that organizes all of the above into semantic networks or hierarchies in terms of debates, positions, arguments, labels, terminology/concepts, and user-defined keywords by means of database relations and automatically generated hyperlinks (hence ‘Hyper’ in the name). Hypernomicon keeps track of all these things in a highly structured, thoroughly indexed and user friendly relational database, automatically generates semantic hyperlinks between all of them, and presents this information in many different forms so that you are constantly informed of ways all of your information is related that you had not realized. -
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Better Notes for Zotero
Everything about note management
Better Notes is a Zotero plugin that expands the application into a connected note-taking and knowledge management workspace. It supports linked notes so researchers can connect ideas, sources, and annotations across their libraries. A template system can automate literature notes, metadata analysis, summaries, and repeatable research workflows. Notes can synchronize bidirectionally with Markdown files and export to Markdown, DOCX, PDF, or mind map formats. Editor enhancements add outlines, relationship views, image tools, and multiple note tabs or windows. Optional AI integrations can assist with writing while keeping the surrounding workflow inside Zotero. The plugin is designed to work immediately while remaining highly customizable through templates and APIs. -
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Dnote
A simple command line notebook
Dnote is a personal knowledge management tool focused on easily capturing, organizing, and retrieving technical notes such as code snippets, terminal commands, and short documentation, all while keeping content accessible and searchable. It is designed around fast, distraction-free workflows that let users jot down notes quickly from the terminal or a web interface, ensuring that insights and solutions are captured at the moment they occur. With structured tagging and hierarchical organization, Dnote encourages users to categorize entries in ways that align with their own thinking rather than forcing a rigid notebook structure. Its search is optimized to handle large collections of notes, allowing users to find relevant information instantly, which makes it especially helpful for developers, engineers, and power users who accumulate practical knowledge over time. -
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gitnote
A modern note taking app based on GIT
A modern note-taking app based on GIT that does not require a local GIT environment. Supports thinking brain maps, helping us to visualize things in a visual way, such as recording and inspiring ideas. It supports multiple export methods. Grapheditor is diagram software for making flowcharts, process diagrams, org charts, UML, ER, and network diagrams. Using markdown, you can easily create a web version of the presentation and support export. Supports multiple images hosting uploads, automatically inserts into the notes, and provides API to freely customize your own image hosting. Supports multiple images hosting uploads. Supports markdown writing app for presentations. Supports diagram editor. Supports thinking brain map. Git is the world's most advanced distributed version control system. GitNote has all the features of Git and does not need to rely on the local GIT environment. -
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GloboNote
Create sticky notes, to-do list, journals & reminders all in one app
GloboNote is a free and easy to use desktop note taking application. It lets you create sticky notes, to-do lists, journals, reminders and other notes in one place. There are no limits to the number of sticky notes you can create. Notes can be organize by groups and search using the search tool. GloboNote can be run in any OS that has Java 8 installed. -
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BoostNote Legacy
Real-time collaborative writing
Note-taking app for programmers. App is available for Mac, Windows and Linux. Built with Electron, React + Redux, Webpack, and CSS modules. Write overviews of systems including concepts, terminology definitions and descriptions of how these concepts work together. Having a 'living document' to help drive dialogue and exchange of ideas through collaboration helps this process significantly. It’s time to aggregate your knowledge in a single place. Build a team-wide knowledge management system to solve the information silos. Organize your dev team's sprint backlog and visualize them with status, assignees, reviewers, due date and everything you need. Reduce repeated progress updates in the company chat and standup meetings. Collaborate with your teammates in a doc with Boost Note's real-time editing. Boost Note's editor makes it easy to write a tech spec with Charts.js, Mermaid, Latex, PlantUML and so on. -
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FSNotes
Notes manager for macOS/iOS
FSNotes is a modern notes manager for macOS and iOS. App respects open formats like GitHub Flavored Markdown, so you can easily write documents on iPhone and MacBook. It's simple and blazing fast! Sync via iCloud Drive. 3D Touch and configurable keyboard. TextBundle and EncryptedTextBundle containers. Pinned notes are kept in sync with the desktop app. Dynamic fonts (iOS 11+). Night mode by location or screen brightness. Sharing extension. Encrypted note support. -
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Poznote
Poznote is a personal note-taking and documentation platform
Poznote is an open-source, self-hosted note-taking and personal knowledge management platform that combines modern editing features with robust organizational tools to help users capture, structure, and retrieve information efficiently. It supports rich text and Markdown editing alongside outline-style notes, attachments, workspaces, folders, and tags, making it suitable for everything from quick daily journaling to long-term documentation projects. Poznote includes a RESTful API that enables programmatic access and integration with other tools, and it even offers an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server to let AI assistants interact with your notes via natural language commands. In addition to basic note creation and editing, the platform features powerful full-text search, public sharing links, backups and exports, trash management, and multi-user support with profiles isolated per user, giving individuals and teams control over their content. -
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Simplenote for macOS
Simplenote for Mac
Simplenote for macOS is the official native macOS application for the Simplenote service, giving Apple computer users a dedicated environment to write, organize, and sync notes with the same simplicity found on other platforms. Built using macOS frameworks and powered by the Simperium synchronization protocol, it ensures that any text or Markdown notes you create are automatically backed up and kept in sync with Android, iOS, web, and other clients. The app supports fast searching and tagging so users can keep large collections of notes orderly, and has features like history or revision views to recover previous edits. macOS integration means users benefit from keyboard shortcuts, native window management, and system services like Spotlight search to find notes instantly. As a GPL-licensed open-source project, it invites contributions and learning, letting developers tweak UI or add platform-specific enhancements without being locked into a proprietary ecosystem.