Yes, I know that the are dozens of notes apps. I’m looking for recommendations based on a few features that I like:
- nice design (including color coding)
- easy checklists
- sharing - this one is key. I use a shared shopping list and we both need to add and edit.
- pinning and archiving (hidden notes)
I don’t mind running it from my homelab server, but that is not a requirement. Does anyone use a notes app that you love? Let me know!
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For note apps I can recommend:
- sharing - this one is key. I use a shared shopping list and we both need to add and edit.
i use and love notally but you can’t share/sync (export/import wouldn’t satisfy the above requirement)
I was using Joplin for a while… Self hosted their server. On two occasions it screwed up on me and wouldn’t load my folders… Luckily I had backups but it was still frustrating. I don’t recommend them purely because the notes are stored in a custom format instead of just plain text files.
My favorite way of doing notes now is with git, currently using a free private repo on gitlab.
Just clone the repo on whatever PC I need them and it has backups and version control.
Then use GitJournal on my phone.
It’s perfect for me. I love it.
Nice, I’ve been doing something similar, using the obsidian-git plug-in for Obsidian and the Working Copy app on iOS.
Obsidian is my front-end, and it saves the notes in markdown files in a git-synced folder on my computer.
The plug-in pushes and pulls automatically, and Working Copy does the same thing on iOS, just before opening the Obsidian app on iOS.
I had similar experiences with Joplin. Would randomly lose quite a lot of data, and exporting to other formats was a hassle. I also cannot recommend.
Why does Notally not have an Issue tracker?
Seems pretty much exactly like Nextcloud Notes but without sync and with image/audio. Wish the images could be inline instead of headers.
I also found a fork called NotallyX, which includes import functions from Keep and Evernote. Pretty useful for someone migrating.
- amount of backups to keep
also is a nice addition but i like the fact that notally is just 1.9mb. So i keep using notally and delete a dozen backups from time to time :/
yeah, just looking through the notes, it looks like both devs care a lot about their project and just have different visions for what a “Complete” notes app should look like. It’s nice to see, because sometimes when you see a fork of a project it’s because someone abandoned it or there is some kind of community drama, but that doesn’t seem to be the case afaik.
if you’re comparing note apps and don’t want to try them all one by one like i did, somebody apparently tried them all and wrote reviews ☞https://www.noteapps.ca/
Upvotes because the devs are good. Sharing does not work well if at all though.
This is a very cool project! With a few minor developments this could meet my needs
I just use NextCloud Notes. Categories are just sub folders, so you can create a Shared category and just share it in Nextcloud.
I wish the web interface let you sort the sub categories both ways. I have a series of subcategories of Year/month that I’m using as a journal and the longer I keep writing, the further have to scroll down :/
Obsidian is amazing, though it isn’t FOSS but your notes are saved in Markdown, so even if something happens with the app, they will remain yours.
Another alternative may be Joplin and AnyType, but I think AnyType is also not 100% FOSS.
Logseq
https://github.com/usememos/memos
This has all of that.
Wow, this looks amazing. I’ll have to check it out to see how sharing/collaboration works though.
They make an account on your hosted service. Notes can be set private or public or workspace.
Log in with the default there.
Critically you can’t share to specific accounts, it’s private, completely public or all registered users. Also, sharing is read-only, no collaboration allowed. So sharing sort of yes, but no collaboration say on a shopping list.
Two users can collaborate on a workspace note.
Seems that in the latest prerelease builds that is indeed true, even checkboxes work now.
+1 for notesnook, self hosting coming soon
🤔
No sharing in Notesnook
Results from me asking this 1Y ago: https://lemm.ee/post/4593760
Went with Joplin and using it since.
Results from the same question 1 month ago: https://lemm.ee/post/45943693
Thank you! This is very helpful. I didn’t see these but Lemmy search is sort of broken for me right now.
Joplin is my pick.
Fossify Notes is quiet good for note taking and quick check-lists.
No sync or share though, right?
No, you can export/import the notes as files but you’ll need a cloud client to sync them
I’m using Quillpad
This is the best answer and should be much higher. It’s the closest thing to Google Keep with the features OP wants.
Does this reorganize the task list when checked or treat it as vanilla mark down?
It puts completed items at the bottom of the list, if I understand what you’re asking
That is thanks, have you tried the nexcloud support?
Yes, that’s how I’m using it. NextcloudPi on a Pi 4. It’s been working really well for me.
Thanks, I gave it a quick try, the only things missing from keep are a home screen widget and custom ordering of tiles, lots of promise
Yeah, it’s not perfect. I’ve noticed that when making a task list/checkbox note that you can’t delete the line. Sure you can go and edit the contents of that line, but even if you delete all text, the line with a checkbox remains. Kind of annoying, particularly when I accidentally create another checkbox and have nothing to put in it. it’s just an empty line and checkbox sitting there mocking me. You can still mark it complete of course, but it kinda makes my eye twitch. :)
On mine I can just swipe the entire line to the right or left to delete.
Joplin + Syncthing has been great for me. Sync across multiple devices with no third party in between. However the “sharing” in this context is limited to other installations of the entire db. To my knowledge, there’s no way to say “sync these notes with my wife, and these others with my phone only” etc.
Last i looked into it, joplin had a bug which ment syncthing didnt work . Can’t remember the details but the solution was pinning an old version.
I am much much happier with markor notes + syncthing.
Super sinple, 100 % foss, sync what you want .
I guess it’s been a while then. Syncthing works perfectly for me, with the official latest version in Arch, the older version in Debian, the flatpak on Ubuntu, and the forked version on Android, syncing all my Joplin data all over the place.
I don’t much care for the file format though. The appeal of Git Journal is strong.
Syncthing will be discontinued this month. https://forum.syncthing.net/t/discontinuing-syncthing-android/23002
Syncthing on Android will be discontinued, and there’s a fork already, which as I said above, I use.
Oh nice, thanks.
How about LogSeq ?
Nextcloud Notes?
I was skeptical at first but have found it the most useable of all the ones I tried out.
@gedaliyah i use the tasks.org one
Wait, you use Tasks as Notes? I use this app for tasks and the Nextcloud Notes app for notes. Do you just make a task with no due date?
@fmstrat i use tasks for the parts of keep that involve tasks/lists, i suppose. I do use Notes for actual notes though.
So yeah, not a direct replacement of course.
