Beaver Notes

Last reviewed Sep 13, 2026 · 797 words

Beaver Notes (the catalogue lists it as "Beavers Notes"; the project name has no second s) is a desktop application, not a server. Nothing to deploy, no port to open, no container. It stores notes in a folder on your disk, and the self-hosting question is simply which sync tool you point at that folder. That makes it one of the cheapest ways to own your notes: the app is free and MIT-licensed, the data is plain files, and the infrastructure is whatever you already run for file sync.

File over app, in practice

The pitch is that the notes outlive the application. Beaver Notes keeps its data in a directory you choose, with notes stored as JSON documents alongside an assets folder for embedded images and attachments, and a one-click export that produces a portable bundle you can import into a fresh install. Markdown is the editing model: headings, lists, code blocks, tables, checkboxes, and a block-style editor that renders as you type. Notes get tags and folders, and there is a bookmark list and a graph-free, search-first way of finding things.

Individual notes can be locked with a password, which encrypts their content on disk. That is useful for the two or three notes that hold recovery codes; it is not a substitute for full-disk encryption, and the rest of the notes are readable by anything that can read the folder.

Sync is your job, and Syncthing does it well

The catalogue's "sync requires external tools" is accurate and, for a self-hoster, welcome. Beaver Notes has a sync setting that points at a directory; the app writes its data there and reads changes back. Point that directory at a Syncthing folder shared between your laptop and desktop, and both machines see the same notes within seconds of a save. A Nextcloud or WebDAV mount works the same way, slightly slower. Cloud-drive folders work too if you accept the vendor.

The rule that keeps this safe: do not have two machines editing the same note at the same moment. Syncthing resolves conflicts by keeping both versions as separate files, and Beaver Notes will happily show you only one of them. For one person moving between two or three devices this never bites; for a shared team notebook it is the wrong architecture, and a server product with a real merge story is required.

There is a companion mobile app, Beaver Pocket, that reads the same synced folder, so the phone is covered without a server.

Where it sits against the notes apps that do have servers

Joplin is the closest comparison: also local-first, also Markdown, also MIT, with a decade of history, first-party mobile apps, and an optional sync server you can self-host. Joplin's notes live in a SQLite database with export to Markdown rather than as files you browse directly, and its interface shows its age. Beaver Notes is the newer (2023), prettier, more file-centric option with a smaller feature list and a smaller community, around 1,350 stars. Trilium is the choice if you want a hierarchy of thousands of notes and a server-side web UI. Obsidian is the proprietary heavyweight the whole file-over-app idea comes from; Beaver Notes is the open-source app that took the idea most literally.

The notes category has plenty of server-side wikis; this app is for someone who does not want to run one. The notes apps you own piece lays out the whole field.

Young project, honest caveats

The first release was in 2023 and one developer carries most of the work. Releases have been steady, the Electron build is around 250 MB of memory at idle, and the format has changed between versions with migrations handled by the app. The risk is not data loss, since the files are yours, but that the project stalls and you end up with JSON you must convert. Keep the export feature in mind and run it monthly into a git repository; that turns the risk into a mild inconvenience.

What I'd do

One person, two or three devices, leaving Evernote or OneNote and not wanting to run a server: Beaver Notes with its sync folder inside Syncthing, notes with secrets locked, a monthly export committed to git. It is a fair Evernote replacement at zero infrastructure cost. If you need a web interface, shared notebooks, or a sync server you administer, use Joplin with Joplin Server instead and accept the plainer interface; Beaver Notes is not trying to be that, and the honest way to use it is to lean on the file-sync tools you already have.