Joplin
Notes & Knowledge BaseOpen-source note-taking and to-do app with sync
Replaces Evernote, OneNote
Best Encrypted Notes & Knowledge Base for self-hosting
The 12 best Encrypted notes & knowledge base you can self-host, ranked by community traction.
SiYuan
Notes & Knowledge BasePrivacy-first personal knowledge management system
Replaces Notion, Evernote
Trilium Notes
Notes & Knowledge BaseHierarchical note-taking for building knowledge bases
Replaces Evernote, Notion
Notesnook
Notes & Knowledge BasePrivate, end-to-end encrypted note-taking app
Replaces Evernote, OneNote
Self-hosted LiveSync
Notes & Knowledge BaseSelf-hosted real-time sync backend for Obsidian vaults
Replaces Obsidian Sync
Laverna
Notes & Knowledge BaseMarkdown note-taking app with client-side encryption
Replaces Evernote, Simplenote
Anytype
Notes & Knowledge BaseLocal-first encrypted knowledge workspace
Replaces Notion
nb Notes
Notes & Knowledge BaseCommand-line note-taking, bookmarking, and archiving tool
Replaces Evernote, Notion
Beaver Notes
Notes & Knowledge BaseLocal-first note-taking with file-over-app philosophy
Replaces Evernote, OneNote
Notesnook Sync Server
Notes & Knowledge BaseSelf-hosted backend for the Notesnook encrypted notes app
Replaces Evernote, OneNote
Turtl
Notes & Knowledge BaseEncrypted note-taking and bookmarking for privacy
Replaces Evernote, Google Keep
Standard Notes
Notes & Knowledge BaseEncrypted notes app focused on longevity
Replaces Evernote
No apps match these filters.
At a glance
| App | Deploy effort | Difficulty | Min. RAM | License | ★ Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joplin | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 256 MB | AGPL-3.0 | 56,721 |
| SiYuan | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | AGPL-3.0 | 46,749 |
| Trilium Notes | ≈5-minute setup | Easy | 256 MB | AGPL-3.0 | 38,313 |
| Notesnook | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | GPL-3.0 | 14,753 |
| Self-hosted LiveSync | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | MIT | 12,716 |
| Laverna | Read-the-docs project | Easy | 128 MB | MPL-2.0 | 9,166 |
| Anytype | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | MIT | 8,914 |
| nb Notes | Read-the-docs project | Easy | 32 MB | AGPL-3.0 | 8,428 |
| Beaver Notes | Read-the-docs project | Easy | 256 MB | MIT | 1,347 |
| Notesnook Sync Server | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | AGPL-3.0 | 937 |
Quick picks
- Most adopted: Joplin (56,721 GitHub stars).
- Lightest footprint: nb Notes (from 32 MB RAM, against 512 MB for the heaviest here).
- Fastest to deploy: Trilium Notes (verified single-container compose).
- Licensing: 6 of 12 use AGPL-3.0; check the rest individually if you plan to modify and redistribute.
Every option here is open-source and self-hostable, tagged Encrypted within the notes & knowledge base category. Deploy effort is graded from published container recipes, not vendor claims — see the methodology.