Zim icon
Zim icon

Zim

 493 likes

Zim brings the concept of a wiki to your desktop. Store information, link pages and edit with WYSISYG markup or directly typing some lightweight markup syntax and see it previewed as-you-type. Creating a new page is easy by either clicking on the "Create new note"...

Zim screenshot 1

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Platforms

  • Mac  Require Terminal-based, system-wide changes.
  • Windows  Spell check and UI have some issues still
  • Linux
  • BSD
  • Flathub
  • Flatpak
4 / 5 Avg rating (31)
493 likes
37comments
0 news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features

Properties

  1.  Lightweight
  2.  Distraction-free
  3.  Privacy focused
  4.  Educational

Features

  1.  Works Offline
  2.  Plain text file
  3.  Wiki-like interface
  4.  Hierarchical Structure
  5.  Cross-Platform
  6.  Note organization
  7.  WYSIWYG Support
  8.  Outliner
  9.  Text formatting
  10.  Portable
  11.  Ad-free
  12.  Notebook
  13.  Wiki
  14.  Export to HTML
  15.  Full-Text Search
  16.  LaTeX Equations
  17.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
  18.  LaTeX Editor
  19.  Nested Notes
  20.  Outline folding
  21.  Dark Mode
  22.  File Versioning
  23.  Spell Checking
  24.  Calendar Integration
  25.  No registration required
  26.  Save as txt
  27.  LaTeX Math
  28. Dropbox icon  Sync with Dropbox
  29.  Export to LaTeX
  30. Git icon  Git integration

Zim News & Activities

Highlights All activities

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Recent activities

  • rajarshikhatua100 liked Zim
    1 day ago
  • braky updated Zim
    2 days ago
  • App icon
    POX added Zim as alternative to Curiota
    14 days ago
  • App icon
    POX added Zim as alternative to Focal - Notes & Tasks
    24 days ago
  • Gabriel2938, thejfex and r3v0000 liked Zim
    about 1 month ago
  • App icon
    Maoholguin added Zim as alternative to Zotero Better Notes
    3 months ago
  • App icon
    xbais added Zim as alternative to MiniMark
    3 months ago
  • POX added Zim as alternative to Many Notes
    3 months ago
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Zim information

  • Developed by

    Jaap G Karssenberg
  • Licensing

    Open Source (GPL-2.0) and Free product.
  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4 (31 ratings)
  • Alternatives

    291 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

Office & ProductivityEducation & Reference

GitHub repository

  •  1,987 Stars
  •  372 Forks
  •  378 Open Issues
  •   Updated Jan 31, 2025 
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Our users have written 37 comments and reviews about Zim, and it has gotten 493 likes

Zim was added to AlternativeTo by Bharadhwaj on Apr 30, 2009 and this page was last updated Feb 8, 2025.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Comment summary: Zim is praised for its flexibility, plugins, and user-friendly note-taking and organizational features. It allows for wiki-style linking and managing notes, with several users appreciating its compatibility with Linux and cross-platform capabilities. However, some users express concerns regarding its lack of markdown support, high memory usage, and issues on Windows. There are positive mentions of using Zim with other software for synchronization and security. Overall, users find Zim useful but note room for development and improvements.
John Fastman
  
Top positive commentDec 17, 2016

If you would like to sync your Zim wiki database between computers, but don't want to have the plain text version synced (e.g. because of Dropbox/GoogleDrive/OneDrive/Box privacy concerns), you can always save your Zim database file in an encrypted Vault using the excellent open source and cross-platform app Cryptomator.

Otherwise, you can sync using Spideroak, Tresorit, or pCloud's encrypted folder. All of these are end-to-end encrypted.

An additional benefit of using Cryptomator is that you can close Zim, lock the vault in Cryptomator and other users on the same computer won't be able to open or access your Zim database contents.

This solution should be included on the Zim FAQ page, which says that you can't have encryption. This is an easy and convenient solution.

1 reply
lrq3000

Please send a mail to the devs, this is indeed a very good idea! Thank you for the report!

Reply written Jan 14, 2017

If this reply contains spam or other abuse, notify admins about it.
20
Sushruta
  
Top negative commentApr 10, 2023

The best note-taking app for Linux in terms of features... but it doesn't use markdown. Seriously, I am so used to markdown that I even use it on paper, so any software that does not offer such a basic feature is totally unusable for me. :(

2
condor
  
Positive commentJun 12, 2024

I like Zim because of its small size window for note-taking while reading

0
maxmomot
  
Positive commentNov 1, 2023

Zim is a really good app to store notes, data, to do, knowledge and more. It is open-source and there are a lot of plugins to extend Zim, there are options for customizing it's look and it is really comfortable to use.

0
TBayAreaPat
  
ReviewAug 20, 2023

Doesn't bring in webpage hyperlinks like CherryTree and Obsidian does. No text colors.

1
Joseph Peni
  
Positive commentJun 28, 2023

Zim is a good way of organizing and accessing the piles of useful and often referenced information in my life.

1
Marco Bartoli
  
Positive commentDec 9, 2022

A trustworthy companion for your notes and to-do lists. Can even serve as your personal knowledge base (read: wiki). Sadly lacking in modern features (like native use of markdown files). Development has slowed down a lot.

2
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7 of 37 comments

What is Zim?

Zim brings the concept of a wiki to your desktop. Store information, link pages and edit with WYSISYG markup or directly typing some lightweight markup syntax and see it previewed as-you-type. Creating a new page is easy by either clicking on the "Create new note" button, by linking to a non-existing page or by writing a CamelCase name in any note. Pages are stored in a folder structure, like in an outliner, in plain text format with lightweight markup, and can have attachments (stored along the notes).

This tool can be used to keep track of TODO lists or ideas, to take notes during a meeting, to draft any other kind of text (blog entries, important mails, etc.) or to write long texts like lab research notebooks thank's to the headers structure and the table of content navigation.

Zim handles several types of formatting markup, like headings, bullet lists, checkbox, tables and of course bold, italic and highlighted. This markup is saved as a hybrid wiki/markdown text so you can easily edit it with other editors. Because of the autosave feature you can switch between pages and follow links or even close the software anytime while editing without worries. The interface also provides multi-document tabs, and it remembers the cursor position in all notes for quick resuming in your note taking endeavors.

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