Instead of Microsoft OneNote, try one of these 6.
Every alternative is lined up against Microsoft OneNote on what people actually switch for: price, open source, self-hosting, offline use and platforms. Microsoft OneNote sits in the first row, so you can see what you give up.
How to read this. “Yes” means fully supported by the maker. “Partial” means it works with caveats. Likes reflect community popularity; vendors can’t pay for them or for placement. Our pick, marked in lime, is the option we would point most people leaving Microsoft OneNote to first. How we compare.
Microsoft OneNote alternatives at a glance
Microsoft OneNote is a free productivity app. We compared 6 alternatives: 3 are open source, 2 are completely free, 1 can be self-hosted and 3 work fully offline. The most popular is Notion, with 4.9k likes, while our pick is Obsidian.
Open-source note taking with end-to-end encrypted sync.
Free · Open source · Self‑hostable · Works offlineBare-bones, fast notes that sync everywhere for free.
Free · Open source · Works offlinePrivate, local-first knowledge base built on plain Markdown files.
Freemium · Works offline