What it is
Selfhosted notes app. Single golang binary, notes stored as markdown within SQLite, full-text search, very low resource usage Review the official repository, license, release activ GitHub popularity snapshot captured on 2026-07-16: 1,122 stars and 63 forks.
Teams can evaluate Zen as an open alternative to OneNote while keeping the implementation, license, and repository signals visible. Confirm the official documentation against your exact workflow before treating it as a production dependency.
- Categories
Productivity
Self-hosted- Alternatives to
OneNoteApple Notes
Evernote
Google Keep
Who it’s for — and when to skip it
Individuals and small teams
Use it when data ownership and workflow flexibility matter more than a proprietary ecosystem.
Skip if native integrations with your current suite are essential.
Operations teams
Consider it when repeatable workflows can be configured without surrendering data control.
Skip if administration would outweigh the time saved.
Privacy-conscious users
Evaluate it when an inspectable codebase and portable data model are important.
Skip if mobile, offline, or sync behavior is not documented for your devices.
Strengths and trade-offs
Why teams consider it
sqlite
mcp-server
markdown
Source code and AGPL-3.0 license are visible before adoption
Repository activity is available as a current maintenance signal
What to validate
Self-hosting transfers upgrades, backups, monitoring, and incident response to your team
GitHub popularity is not a security, quality, or product-fit guarantee
The AGPL-3.0 license still needs review against your distribution and commercial model
Support quality, migration effort, and production hardening vary by project
Pricing
Free and open source
No commercial plan is documented in this catalog entry. Self-hosting or third-party infrastructure may still incur operating costs.
Open source
$0Project license- Source available under the listed license
- No catalog-documented paid edition
- Infrastructure costs depend on how you run it
Capabilities and stack fit
Catalog metadata supports discovery, not installation. Verify supported versions, dependencies, deployment topology, and production requirements in the official repository.
Guides for Zen
Use the learning library to find a guide by technology, category, or difficulty.
Browse guidesRelated articles
Approved community reviews
We do not display synthetic testimonials or ratings without sufficient moderated data.
Before you adopt it
- 01
Read the license and confirm it fits your intended use and distribution model.
- 02
Review recent commits, open issues, releases, and the maintainer response pattern.
- 03
Run a small proof of concept with representative data, users, and integrations.
- 04
Plan backups, upgrades, secrets, monitoring, and rollback before self-hosting.
- 05
Document an export or migration path before storing critical data.
