Self-hosted notes in 2026: revisit Joplin, Trilium Notes and Memos before you paste another runbook into a hosted notes app

Notes are where engineers keep the small things that matter: the command that fixed last month’s outage, the half-written design idea, the client’s odd network rule. Many teams keep these in a hosted notes app without thinking about where the data lives or how to get it out. This post revisits three self-hosted options, Joplin, Trilium Notes and Memos, and asks a simple question: which one fits the way you actually take notes, and what does it cost you to run it?

This is not a ranking. Each tool takes a different shape, and the right choice depends more on your habits and your licence needs than on a feature list. No hands-on drill was run for this post; the notes below come from the projects’ own documentation and licence files.

Why revisit your notes tool now

• Notes slowly become a knowledge base. After two or three years, moving them is painful, so the first choice matters more than it looks.
• Hosted apps change plans, limits and export formats. A self-hosted tool with plain files or a documented database gives you an exit.
• Personal notes often contain secrets, internal hostnames and customer details. Knowing where they are stored and whether they are encrypted is basic hygiene.

Joplin: offline-first notebooks with flexible sync

Joplin is a Markdown notes app with desktop, mobile and terminal clients and a web clipper. Notes live locally on each device and sync through a target you choose.

What it does well:

• Sync targets are flexible. You can sync through Joplin Server, Joplin Cloud, WebDAV, Nextcloud, S3 compatible storage, Dropbox, OneDrive or a plain folder. Many teams start with a WebDAV or Nextcloud share they already run.
• End-to-end encryption is available, so the sync target only sees encrypted blobs.
• Notes are Markdown, and export to Markdown and JEX archives is built in, which keeps the exit door open.
• The mobile apps work well offline, which matters for engineers who travel or work from sites with poor connectivity.

What to check before you commit:

• Licence split. Since the change announced in December 2022, the desktop, mobile and CLI apps and the web clipper are AGPL-3.0. Joplin Server is under a separate Joplin Server Personal Use Licence, which allows personal non-commercial use only. A company that wants to self-host Joplin Server for staff needs written authorisation or the paid Joplin Server Business licence. If you cannot buy it, sync through WebDAV or S3 instead.
• Joplin is built around one person’s notebooks. Sharing exists through Joplin Server, but it is not a team wiki. For shared runbooks, a wiki tool is a better fit.

Trilium Notes: a hierarchical knowledge base for heavy note takers

Trilium Notes is a hierarchical notes application aimed at building large personal knowledge bases. It runs as a desktop app or as a self-hosted server accessed through the browser, and the server also acts as the sync point between desktop clients.

What it does well:

• Deep tree structure, and one note can be cloned into several places in the tree without copying it. This suits people who think in topics and subtopics.
• Rich note types beyond text, such as code notes, canvas and relation maps, and attributes that let you build small structured collections.
• Scripting. Trilium can run JavaScript inside the app, so power users build their own dashboards and automations.
• Per-note protection, where selected notes are encrypted and need a password in the session.

What to check before you commit:

• Project history. Trilium was started by its original author, went into maintenance mode, and continued as the TriliumNext community project. The main repository now lives under the TriliumNext organisation. Check the release pace and the open issue count yourself before you put years of notes into it.
• Licence. Trilium is AGPL-3.0, including the server. That is fine for internal use; it matters only if you modify it and offer it to others over a network.
• Data sits in a SQLite database, not plain files. Export exists, but your backup plan should copy the database file safely, ideally from the app’s own backup feature or after stopping the server.
• Scripting is powerful, and scripts run with access to your notes. Treat imported scripts like any other code you did not write.

Memos: quick capture in a timeline

Memos is a lightweight, self-hosted note service written in Go. It feels closer to a private microblog than a notebook: you write short Markdown memos and they appear in a timeline, organised by tags.

What it does well:

• Very low friction. Open the page, type a thought, press save. For daily logs, standup notes and quick links, this is often all you need.
• Small footprint. A single container with SQLite is enough for one person or a small team, and MySQL or PostgreSQL are supported when you want a proper database.
• MIT licence, which keeps commercial and internal use simple.
• An API that makes it easy to post memos from scripts or chat bots.

What to check before you commit:

• It is not built for long structured documents or deep hierarchies. If your notes grow into design documents, you will want Joplin, Trilium or a wiki alongside it.
• No end-to-end encryption. The server sees your notes, so host it on infrastructure you control and put it behind TLS and proper login.
• The project moves quickly. Read the release notes before upgrading, and take a database backup before every upgrade.

How to choose

• You want personal notebooks on every device, working offline, with encryption: Joplin. If you are a business, sync through WebDAV or S3, or buy the Joplin Server Business licence.
• You want one large, linked knowledge base and you like structure and scripting: Trilium Notes.
• You want fast capture of short thoughts, logs and links, with very little to run: Memos.
• You want shared team documentation with permissions and review: none of these. Look at a wiki, which we covered in an earlier post on BookStack, Wiki.js and Outline.

Some engineers use two: Memos for quick capture during the day, and Joplin or Trilium for the notes worth keeping.

Operations checklist for any self-hosted notes tool

• Backups first. Copy the database or sync target daily, keep copies off the server, and do a real restore test once a quarter.
• Put the web interface behind TLS and, where possible, behind your VPN or SSO proxy. Notes are a quiet target for attackers because they often hold credentials.
• Do not store passwords and API keys in notes. Use a password manager or secrets manager and link to it.
• Pin versions in your container setup and upgrade on purpose, after reading release notes.
• Test the exit. Export a sample of notes to Markdown or HTML and confirm you can read them without the app.
• For Indian teams handling client or employee data, remember that personal data in notes is still personal data under the DPDP Act. Keep such notes minimal and know who can access the server.

A small way to practise

Pick one week of your own notes. Put them into the tool you are leaning towards, use it daily, then export everything and open the export in a plain text editor. If the export is readable and the week felt natural, you have your answer. If not, try the next one. Revisiting a tool this way costs a week and saves years of friction.