Notion’s all-in-one workspace dazzles with databases and collab, but $10+/user/month fees, cloud lock-in, and privacy gaps drive seekers to Notion alternatives. Trilium Notes—a free, AGPL-licensed fork rebranded in 2025—excels as a self-hosted hierarchical note-taker for massive personal knowledge bases. With 32.6K GitHub stars and 2.1K forks as of November 2025, it’s a thriving open source note taking app for developers, researchers, and Zettelkasten users craving hierarchical note taking without bloat.
At a Glance
Built for cross-platform use (Windows, macOS, Linux, web, Android via TriliumDroid), Trilium’s tree-based structure nests notes with links, clones, and visuals—ideal for self-hosted knowledge base scaling. Latest v0.99.1 (Oct 5, 2025) includes CVE-2025-58754 fixes and server tweaks for smoother Docker deploys. Offline-first, it supports 8+ languages via Weblate translations.
Core Features
| Feature | Details | Notion Edge? |
|---|---|---|
| Hierarchy | Dynamic FancyTree nesting; note cloning; jsPlumb relation/link maps for visual graphs. | Outshines nested pages for 10K+ note wikis—30-50% faster navigation per benchmarks. |
| Editing | CKEditor 5 (premium WYSIWYG); Markdown; CodeMirror (100+ languages); Excalidraw infinite canvases; Tabulator interactive tables; Leaflet geo-maps; PDF/image embeds. | Equals multimedia but adds offline scripting for custom embeds. |
| Search/Scripting | Full-text across bases; JS automation (e.g., auto-reports, data syncs via backend scripts). | Tops databases with programmable workflows—no API limits. |
| Extensions | Mind Elixir mind maps; third-party plugins; web clipper (v0.99+ compatible); light sharing via links/exports. | Simpler collab than real-time multiplayer, minus overhead. |
Proven for Zettelkasten method with 844 open issues/PRs driving scalability.
Notion vs. Trilium: Quick Comparison
| Aspect | Notion | Trilium |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $10+/user/mo + tiers | Free; donations optional for dev hosting. |
| Hosting | Cloud-only | Self-hosted (Docker: triliumnext/trilium:stable); offline desktop. |
| Privacy | Vendor servers | Full data sovereignty; no telemetry. |
| Customization | Limited API | JS/UI mods; contrib via pnpm dev setup. |
| Performance | Lags on huge bases | Handles 100K+ notes; 844 PRs for optimizations. |
| Mobile | iOS/Android natives | Web-responsive + TriliumDroid (F-Droid sync). |
| Updates | Frequent but proprietary | v0.99.1 (Oct 2025); nightly builds; 25 recent commits. |
Elite free Notion alternatives for remote pros.
Setup in Minutes
- Desktop: Unzip v0.99.1 binaries—run executable (unsigned Windows; sign incoming).
- Server: Docker:
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -v ~/data:/home/node/trilium-data triliumnext/trilium—browser access on Chrome/Firefox. - Mobile: Mobile web or TriliumDroid (match sync versions; disable auto-updates).
Notion import: CSV/JSON—seamless, no downtime. Dev: pnpm run server:start for local tweaks.
Why Trilium Wins
- Ownership: Reclaimed original name from zadam; community-led by eliandoran + 20+ contribs (e.g., nriver for i18n).
- Future-Proof: 2025 roadmap eyes multi-user (issue #4962), AI scripting; 100s of commit hours yearly.
- Ecosystem: Docs in EN/ZH/RU/JA/IT/ES; F1 in-app help; Dosu bot for issues.
Get Started
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