Im28xwaJan 11, 2025

Struggling to pick the right Notion alternative—need help

https://lemdro.id/post/17051418

Struggling to pick the right Notion alternative—need help

* [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md) * [AppFlowy](http://appflowy.io/) * [Coda](https://coda.io/) * [Anytype](https://anytype.io/) * [Logseq](https://logseq.com/) * (Probably more I haven’t come across yet) I love the idea of having all my quick notes, to-do lists, knowledge base, journal, plans, etc., in one single, neatly organized place. Why wouldn’t I? But deciding on which Notion alternative to use is overwhelming. There are so many options, and all claim to be the best. Online opinions are all over the place (as expected), and these apps aren’t exactly simple—they’re complex for good reasons, but that makes choosing one even harder. And don’t get me started on the endless YouTube videos on the topic—I could spend weeks or months researching this and testing every single one of them, but honestly, this is not how I wanna spend my time so I will ask you guys instead. ------ **My Current Setup**: * [Markor](https://github.com/gsantner/markor): Used it for quick thoughts, journaling, and to-do lists but stopped using it because it’s not suited for everything, and there’s no sync between Android and Linux (becsuse it is android only). * [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md): Currently using it as my knowledge base and for long notes, simple to-do lists, and occasional journaling. Haven’t fully migrated to it or created an organized setup because I’m looking for a FOSS Notion alternative. * [Standard Notes](https://standardnotes.com/): Good for quick notes, but most features are paywalled, making it feel limited. * [jtx Board](https://github.com/TechbeeAT/jtxBoard): My go-to for journaling—it’s simple and quick to use. ------ **What I need**: * FOSS, but only if it’s just **as good as proprietary options** in: * Auto-sync between my Android phone and Linux desktop * Journaling * Quick notes * To-do lists * Planning * Managing personal projects * Writing down thoughts * A really good Android app * Easy to use * Free for personal use **What I don’t care about:** Collaboration. This is for my personal use—no sharing, no team features. ------ Given my messy current setup and specific requirements, can anyone give me some recommendations?

Show threadkata1yst

I use obsidian + self hosted Live Sync https://github.com/vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync. My data is fully encrypted and stays with me and my devices. The apps themselves are incredible, absolutely packed with features and the community is extremely engaged and actively developing awesome plugins to further extend the capabilities.

The only downside is that it’s closed source, but the data format is widely understood, so if obsidian went belly up for some crazy reason there are import tools for basically every open source platform.

GitHub - vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync

Contribute to vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Jan 11, 2025 at 1:12pmWeb
Show threadjimi_henrikJan 11, 2025

I’d love to use this setup, however, the Obsidian Android app requires a kind of file access that is concerning:

Obsdian uses a shared location “/Documents” so that other apps can access the files (e.g. third party sync services) or add stuff.

forum.obsidian.md/t/…/19360

It’s a no-go for me. :/

[FR] Make Obsidian work on Android without asking for storage permissions

Platform [ ] iOS [X] Android Obsidian Mobile version: v0.1.1 When I run Obsidian for the first time, it requests the storage permission which allows it to access everything saved on my phone. I don’t trust Obsidian and thus I don’t want it to be able to do that. But if I don’t give Obsidian this permission, it doesn’t work. Instead of requesting the storage permission, Obsidian should either Save the vault in either Android/data/md.obsidian or Android/media/md.obsidian. AFAIK, it can acc...

Obsidian Forum
Show threadkata1ystJan 11, 2025
If you’re concerned, you can use an android firewall to block Internet access from the app aside from your sync server.
Show threadjimi_henrikJan 11, 2025

you can use an android firewall to block Internet access from the app

True, however, AFAIK if your phone is not rooted, you can’t have a firewall and VPN running at the same time (the firewalls I’ve seen must be configured as VPN).

not the privileges that obsidian has

Also true, although Obsidian has access to that shared storage, and therefore, Obsidian being closed source, you have no way of knowing what they do with the files other apps create in that storage directory. I’m not saying they are acting maliciously, but I don’t like this approach (software vulnerabilities, supply chain attacks, etc.). The devs recognized the issue in another thread, but there’s no solution to the problem as of yet.

Show threadtrololololJan 12, 2025
If I got it right, file access in latest Android versions must ask permissions to the user, so it should be not an issue for you
Show threadjimi_henrikJan 13, 2025
Obsidian asks for the permission upon first launch, but if you don’t give it access it won’t work at all (it’s a required permission for the app).
Show threadtrololololJan 24, 2025

Oh I see what you mean now, I installed obsidian on Android. I’m really liking the Linux client.

This way of granting access to Android folders is quite old and deprecated for a while. Give it a year or 2 and the following update will have to conform to new methods such as choosing specific folder, or Google should deny the update.

Source: I do Android dev and looked into this stuff a while back, can’t remember all the details anymore.