Notesnook is down - potential FOSS alternatives? (midwest.social)

submitted 2 months ago by clark@midwest.social to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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Notesnook has been down for about a day, consistent crashes despite deleting it and reinstalling. I don't seem to be the only one as evidenced by the users voicing this concern on their Github page.

So, while imagining Notesnook will never get back up, what would be some alternatives to it? I've tried out Joplin, Quillpad, and Notally in the past, but none really stuck with me. I don't use Nextcloud either. From what I've heard, many seem happy with Standard Notes and Markor. Anything y'all can vouch for?

Looking for an alternative that gets as close to Notesnook as possible, without a subscription model.

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[-] communism@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago

Notesnook is working on making their sync server self-hostable so you might just want to self-host once that's available. Otherwise if it's just down short-term just a text editor and markdown? You can import markdown files to Notesnook once it's back up for you.

Notesnook has been working fine for me, not sure why some users are having issues and some not.

[-] paradox2011@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

If it's only been a day, I might wait a bit longer before writing it off. The issue could very well be resolved soon. Even the big tech companies have a service go through problems for a day or two.

I only tested Notesnook for a few days, so I may not remember it's key elements well, but Standard Notes seemed like a very similar product (the downside is the subscription, it was basically unusable to me without paying).

The NotesNook UI is the best I've seen, it's hard to find that level of polish in a FOSS android app.

I think you'll struggle to find what you're looking for without a subscription model unfortunately. If you do want to retry Joplin that is my recommendation, I run it with a locally hosted Joplin sync server, it's fantastic for my use case. It's been recieving a lot of solid updates lately too.

[-] Sunny@slrpnk.net 7 points 2 months ago

Just found this the other day; not sure it suits your needs but its really neat! https://github.com/charmbracelet/glow

[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 2 points 2 months ago

That looks super cool! What a neat find.

[-] shiftymccool@programming.dev 5 points 2 months ago

You mention Quillpad, so I assume this is for Android. If so, I went through a similar search after dropping NextCloud. I ended up with GitJournal. The app is nice and has all the features I need. I have it backed with self-hosted Forgejo. If I need to make a note on a desk/laptop, I can clone the repo and use whatever text editor I like since it's all just markdown. I even have vs code server set up for quick notes on the web

[-] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Sweet I've been looking for a notes app with git integration!

Couldn't find it on fdroid unfortunately, so I have some digging to do I think.

[-] shiftymccool@programming.dev 3 points 2 months ago

I found it using the search in Neo Store, but you should be able to add this repo to F-Droid: https://gitjournal.io/fdroid/repo

[-] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Thanks!

[-] Petter1@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

😮4$ on iPhone VS free on Android +35$ to unlock tags and backlink

Would have loved testing it, if there was a way for free trial 🤷🏻‍♀️ but I will not buy the cat in the bag…

[-] shiftymccool@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago

You only need to pay for pro features, which I haven't had the need for

[-] Petter1@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

You are on android, I guess

[-] shiftymccool@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago

Yep

[-] Petter1@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

☝🏻 🤓 I was talking about the iOS version

[-] tengkuizdihar@programming.dev 4 points 2 months ago

as if on queue, I just released a new version of my own note taking app https://p.programming.dev/post/programming.dev/18265389

Its local so it's as good as your HDD/SDD, its encrypted so no one can know the content beside yourself, and you can sync it however you want (its 1 file only).

[-] clark@midwest.social 2 points 2 months ago

That looks really good! Can you specify what you mean by 1 file only? And do you think this will be available on Android? Great job on the project, would love to support it!

[-] tengkuizdihar@programming.dev 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Thank you! By 1 file means the entire document (filled with your notes) is contained within 1 file. It's a .note file, custom-made, but based on sqlite file format. Currently I have no need to monetize the app (I want to keep it libre and free for this one), but you can contribute by filing bugs and fixing issues on the page https://codeberg.org/solver-orgz/treedome/issues

[-] tengkuizdihar@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago

also there's no plan to put this in android, yet. I still can't imagine how it would end up.

[-] acid_falcon@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Maybe you could sync the file with Syncthing or Nextcloud. And sqlite is the default android db type... I'm tempted to give it a shot, I just started looking for a solid self hosted note taking thing

[-] tengkuizdihar@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago

Currently, using syncthing and occasionally pushing it to something like gdrive/mega/Dropbox is what I do

[-] hasecilu@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago

You may want to test Trilium Next, you can self host it and it has a lot of features. Used Logseq before but got tired of syncing on all devices.

[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

Closest I could find without a subscription with E2EE is Joplin, which you tried..

[-] jjlinux@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

I self host Joplin, and have yet to find anything that comes even close for the cost and how easy it is to deploy and use.

[-] readbeanicecream@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

Standard Notes is okay. Just know if you want anything besides plain text (markdown/image support) you have to upgrade to a paid plan.

[-] ace_garp@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I moved from Standard Notes to neutriNote, 6 months ago.

Recommend to give both a look.

[-] moreeni@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

What doesn't suit you in Joplin?

[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago

Personally I like Joplin (I even sponsor it on GitHub) but I'm left feeling as if the UI is unpolished and the navigation on the mobile app (Android) feels janky (ie: sliding from left to right doesn't always show the sidebar when I want it, etc.)

It is very close to what I exactly want in a note-taking app though.

[-] Father_Redbeard@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

Have to agree with this. I'd love to use it and support what they're doing. But the mobile client is bad. I also hate that the note files, stored in markdown format, are modified. The file names are not human readable and the contents are appended with metadata.

[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

One of my gripe as well, I wish the filenames were human-readable too on the local device, and of course with the filename encrypted along with the content on the sync target.

[-] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

Easy Notes on F-Droid looks very nice, from a cursory look

[-] 31337@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

I've been trying out Logseq the past couple days, which I guess is an alternative to Obsidian (never tried that). Can't say I really understand the point or appropriate workflow of notes in a "graph" structure rather than a tree structure though (or the purpose of a journal). I like Joplin, but I've been having trouble with syncing on Android.

[-] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

I tried LogSeq but found it clumsy to navigate. I am going to take a look at TriliumNext. Right now am using QOwnNotes which is simpler but I'm all for that. The issue to me is, it isn't wysiwyg. There's an editor panel AND a vizualisation panel, and that seems a bit redundant to me. Otherwise it's fantastic