TriliumNext is the community-driven continuation of Trilium Notes, an abandoned open-source personal knowledge base that a group of contributors revived and have kept actively developed. It builds a hierarchical, tree-structured notebook that can hold rich text, code, spreadsheets, and scripted automations and you can run it as a local desktop app or self-host the server and reach it from any browser. Because it is fully open source and self-hostable, your data stays on hardware you control rather than a vendor’s cloud. It offers opt-in per-note encryption through its “protected notes” feature, which locks selected notes behind a separate password so they stay encrypted even when synced. Encryption is not the default and there are no native mobile apps but for a self-hosted, auditable notes system it is a strong and genuinely maintained option.
TriliumNext (Trilium Notes)
Self-hostable hierarchical knowledge base
github.com
FreeOpen SourceE2E EncryptedWindowsmacOSLinuxWebOpen-source project
Pricing Completely free and open source; you can run the desktop app or self-host the server yourself at no cost.
Strengths
- Fully open source and actively maintained by the community that revived Trilium
- Self-hostable so your notes stay on infrastructure you control
- Opt-in "protected notes" provide per-note password encryption
- Powerful hierarchical structure with rich text, code, and scripting support
Considerations
- Encryption is opt-in per note rather than on by default
- No native mobile apps; phone access relies on the web interface
- Self-hosting and its feature depth carry a steeper learning curve than simpler note apps
Listed in Notes
