A cloud workspace for notes, docs, and databases where your content lives on Notion's servers in a proprietary format.
Free tier; paid plans from about $10/user/month, with AI features billed on top
Per-seat pricing adds up, your knowledge base is locked in a proprietary cloud, offline access is limited, and export fidelity is imperfect. Local-first tools keep your notes as files you own forever.
A local-first, open-source outliner over plain Markdown.
A local-first, open-source outliner over plain Markdown.
Logseq stores your notes as local Markdown/Org files and builds a networked, block-based knowledge graph on top. It is open-source, privacy-friendly, and yours to back up however you like.
The open-source Notion alternative, self-hostable.
AppFlowy mirrors Notion's docs-plus-databases model as an open-source app you can run locally or self-host, keeping your data on infrastructure you control.
Local Markdown notes with a huge plugin ecosystem.
Obsidian keeps every note as a local Markdown file and layers a powerful linked-notes and plugin ecosystem on top. It is free to use and local-first, though the app itself is closed-source.
Local-first, end-to-end encrypted knowledge base.
Anytype is a local-first, end-to-end encrypted workspace for notes and objects, syncing peer-to-peer. It is source-available rather than fully OSI open-source, but your data stays encrypted and under your control.
Export your Notion workspace to Markdown/CSV first. Logseq and Obsidian read Markdown directly; AppFlowy and Anytype offer importers. Expect to tidy some formatting — the upside is files you own permanently.
Entry last verified 2026-07-04. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.