Self-Hosted Microsoft OneNote Alternatives

    Microsoft OneNote is not available as a self-hosted solution but there are plenty of alternatives for power users and business that want to host a solution on-premise. The best Self-Hosted alternative is Standard Notes, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Microsoft OneNote and many of them are available as a self-hosted solution so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Self-Hosted alternatives to Microsoft OneNote are Xournal++ (Free, Open Source), Turtl (Freemium, Open Source), Trilium Notes (Free, Open Source) and Dendron (Free, Open Source).

    This page was last updated Oct 11, 2021
    1. Standard Notes is a simple and private notes app. It allows you to write and sync your notes across all your devices, including your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and web browser.
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      Standard Notes vs Microsoft OneNote opinions
      Most users think Standard Notes is a great alternative to Microsoft OneNote.
      Encrypted, very lightweight and not owned by Microsoft.
      Top positive comment  about 4 years ago

      0
      Extremely feature-light. Does only the bare minimum to be considered a notes app, whereas OneNote does much more.
      Top negative comment  over 2 years ago

      4
      Don't have sections or pages, just notes.
      Negative comment • 2 months ago

      0
      The free version is only plain text editing - can't even paste images or use bold and italics. There simply aren't enough features in the free one to determine whether I like it enough to pay for premium.
      Negative comment • about 1 year ago

      2
      OneNote is way more powerful
      Negative comment • over 3 years ago

      0
    2. Xournal++ (a fork of Xournal) is a handwriting Notetaking software with PDF annotation support. Written in C++ with plattform independent GTK, supporting Linux, e.g. Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Suse, macOS and Windows 10. Supports Pen input like Wacom Tablets.
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      Xournal++ vs Microsoft OneNote opinions
      Almost everyone thinks Xournal++ is a great alternative to Microsoft OneNote.
      works great on linux, and has stylus support
      Top positive comment  almost 2 years ago

      2
      Very similar to OneNote, has pretty much all the same features. Plus Cross-Platform and has LaTeX support.
      Top positive comment  almost 2 years ago

      0
      Nearly similar interface. Lightweight, open source with latex support and voice notes. Flexible layout which was missing in xournal.
      Positive comment • about 2 months ago

      0
      violoncello With Xournal++ you own your notes and can save them wherever you want - you are not forced to store them somewhere in the cloud as it's the case with OneNote
      Positive comment • 10 months ago

      0
      BachoSeven Cross-platform and well supporting stylus pens, Xournalpp implements most if not all funcionalities of OneNote, including recording audio alongside pen strokes. Plus, it's free and open source!
      Positive comment • 12 months ago

      0
      komp12321 It is full open source, Supports handwriting (stylus) Allows to create annotations on PDF-s (OneNote doesn't)
      Positive comment • over 1 year ago

      0
    4. Whether it's bookmarks or passwords, files or shopping lists...Turtl organizes it all and makes it easy to find later. Sync across your devices. Leave nothing behind.

      Discontinued

      The project doesn't seem to be actively developed anymore. Last updates was in 2019.

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      Turtl vs Microsoft OneNote opinions
      Most users think Turtl is a great alternative to Microsoft OneNote.
      Encryption, zero-knowledge encryption.
      Positive comment • over 4 years ago

      2
    5. Original Feature List (with personal marked Highlights) >> Notes can be arranged into arbitrarily deep tree. Single note can be placed into multiple places in the tree (see cloning)
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    6. 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.
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    8. OpenNote was built to be an open web based alternative to Microsoft OneNote and Evernote .
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      OpenNote vs Microsoft OneNote opinions
      Some users think OpenNote is a great alternative to Microsoft OneNote, some don't.
      No ability to paste in images. But it's a good start.
      Negative comment • about 3 years ago

      -1
    9. Carnet is a complete and rich note taking app for Android and Linux that can be synced with NextCloud (selfhosted) or the official Carnet server.
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      Carnet vs Microsoft OneNote opinions
      pros, cons and recent comments
      Crystale It has a great UI and it is Open Source.
      Positive comment • over 2 years ago

      0
    10. Leanote provides services for note and blog. You can use "note" as your personal notebook, if you want to share with friends, just publish note or notebook to the blog.
      Leanote vs Microsoft OneNote opinions
      Some users think Leanote is a great alternative to Microsoft OneNote, some don't.
      This has all the basic features I use in OneNote except checkboxes for todo lists.
      Positive comment • over 4 years ago

      -1

    11. Foam

      • Free • Open Source
      • Self-Hosted
      • Visual Studio Code
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      Foam is a personal knowledge management and sharing system inspired by Roam Research, built on Visual Studio Code and GitHub. You can use Foam for organising your research, keeping re-discoverable notes, writing long-form content and, optionally, publishing it to the web.

    12. Nextcloud Notes

      • Free • Open Source
      • Online
      • Android
      • Android Tablet
      • Self-Hosted
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      The Notes app is a distraction free notes taking app. It provides categories for better organization and supports formatting using Markdown syntax. Notes are saved as files in your Nextcloud, so you can view and edit them with every...
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    Showing 10 of 28 alternatives