Documents and notes
Heptabase alternatives
2 open-source projects that already do this job. Free to use - not free to run, which is what the numbers on the right are for.
The projects
siyuan-note/siyuan★45,658 GitHub starsAGPL-3.0 licenceA privacy-first, self-hosted personal knowledge management app with note linking, rich editor, and plugin ecosystem.Open on GitHub ↗codexu/note-gen★12,570 GitHub starsGPL-3.0 licenceA local-first Markdown note app that captures records and uses AI to turn them into organized notes.Open on GitHub ↗
What you give up either way
- Polished cross-platform native apps and installers (Mac/Windows/Linux/iOS/Android)
- Heptabase-hosted AI Tutor workflows and curated learning sessions
- Built-in premium model access/credit system and vendor-managed scaling
- Integrations advertised (Readwise, Zotero, YouTube transcripts) and their convenience
An open-source project doing the core job proves a replacement is possible. It does not prove it matches Heptabase, and it does not prove anyone has run it for a month. How we decide.