Documents and notes
Roam Research 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
readrule/iamtirediamtired Canvas is a local-first note-taking app built on a spatial workspace that combines an infinite canvas with real Markdown documents, supporting networked thinking through free linking, grouping, and optional AI-assisted writing.Open on GitHub ↗hafid-firman-febrian/mesh-draftMeshDraft is a local-first mobile note-taking app for knowledge workers, built with Flutter and backed entirely by an on-device SQLite database. Notes are linked by hand, and the whole note base renders as a living, physics-driven graph you can pan, zoom, and drag.Open on GitHub ↗
What you give up either way
- Hosted sync network and multi-device managed backup
- Polished UX and performance tuning at scale
- Mobile-first native apps and app-store distribution
- Proprietary collaboration features and hosted integrations
- Commercial support and official templates/plugins
An open-source project doing the core job proves a replacement is possible. It does not prove it matches Roam Research, and it does not prove anyone has run it for a month. How we decide.