Open Source Desk AlternativesNote-taking Tools and other similar apps like Desk

The best open source alternative to Desk is ghostwriter. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Desk and 17 is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to Desk are FocusWriter, Dendron, Foam and Notepack.

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Desk alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. ghostwriter icon
     110 likes

    ghostwriter is a feature-rich text editor using Markdown syntax which makes it suitable for note-taking, document redaction, simple HTML website creation and much more.

    138 ghostwriter alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • Haiku
     
  2. FocusWriter icon
     208 likes

    Simple but configurable and themeable, distraction-free text editor for writers. Open-source and available across desktop platforms.

    103 FocusWriter alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • PortableApps.com
     
  3. Dendron icon
     71 likes

    Dendron is an open-source, local-first, markdown-based, note-taking tool built on top of VSCode. It supports all the usual features you would expect like tagging, backlinks, a graph view, split panes, and so forth.

    207 Dendron alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Visual Studio Code
     
  4. Foam icon
     52 likes

    Foam is a personal knowledge management and sharing system inspired by Roam Research, built on Visual Studio Code and GitHub.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • Visual Studio Code
     
  5. Notepack icon
     16 likes

    Privacy oriented, without vendor lock in note organizer, todo list desktop application. Work offline with text, markdown and pdf files.

    Cost / License

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  6. Dillinger icon
     10 likes

    Dillinger is a cloud-enabled, mobile-ready, offline-storage, AngularJS powered HTML5 Markdown editor.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Online
     
  7. Open Live Writer is an open source application enabling users to author, edit, and publish blog posts. It is based on a fork of the well-loved but not actively developed Windows Live Writer code.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  8. A modern macOS markdown editor - themeable, tabs, sidebar, GitHub flavored markdown, exporting, latex and more.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  9. PyRoom icon
     27 likes

    PyRoom is a free editor that stays out your way - and keeps other things out of your way, too. As a fullscreen editor without buttons, widgets, formatting options, menus and with only the minimum of required dialog windows, it doesn't have any distractions and lets you focus...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  10. Blogly icon
     3 likes

    Blogly is an open-source desktop application for bloggers and content writers. It is a cross-platform application and could be compiled on any platform that supports Electron desktop application framework.

    Cost / License

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  11. Quilter icon
     1 like

    Quilter is a minimalist, focused writing app for elementary OS .

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • elementary OS
     
  12.  5 likes

    A minimalist writing zone, where you can block out all distractions and get to what's important.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
     
12 of 17 Desk alternatives