SHSelfHostIndex

QOwnNotes vs QuillPad

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
QO QOwnNotes Plain-text note taking with Markdown and Nextcloud sync VS QU QuillPad Minimal note-taking app with notebooks and tags
FeatureQOwnNotesQuillPad
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseGPL-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguageC++Kotlin
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB128 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcesource
GitHub stars★ 5,836★ 1,354
First released20142022
ReplacesEvernote, OneNoteGoogle Keep, OneNote

Why pick each one

Choose QOwnNotes if…

  • Pairs well with Nextcloud
  • Notes remain plain files
QOwnNotes details

Choose QuillPad if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Kotlin
QuillPad details

Frequently asked questions

Is QOwnNotes or QuillPad better?

Neither is universally better. QOwnNotes has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are QOwnNotes and QuillPad free and open-source?

Yes. QOwnNotes is licensed under GPL-2.0 and QuillPad under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run QOwnNotes and QuillPad with Docker?

QOwnNotes: check the project docs for container support. QuillPad: check the project docs for container support.

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