Zennotes
Zennotes is a free, open-source notes and writing app for Windows, macOS and Linux. Keyboard-first local Markdown notes with Vim motions, diagrams, and MCP integration. It has 2,518 GitHub stars and is released under the MIT license. Its source code is on GitHub at ZenNotes/zennotes.
- Linux
- macOS
- Windows
- Notes & writing
- Actively maintained
About Zennotes
ZenNotes is a keyboard-first Markdown notes app with a shared product core and multiple runtimes: ZenNotes keeps your notes as ordinary Markdown files on disk. It adds Vim-friendly editing, split and preview workflows, tasks, tags, archive/trash, diagrams, search, daily notes, CSV databases (Notion-style Table + Board views over plain.csv files), and MCP integration on top of the files you already own. On macOS, the first-party zen CLI also powers launcher workflows such as the Raycast extension.
Install Zennotes
Package names found in the project's README. Each links to its package page so you can check the publisher first.
brew install --cask zennotesAUR (Arch Linux)
Similar apps
More open-source note-taking and writing apps
AppFlowy
AppFlowy-IO/AppFlowy
Bring projects, wikis, and teams together with AI.
OfficialNotes & writingWindowsmacOSLinuxAFFiNE
toeverything/AFFiNE
There can be more than Notion and Miro. AFFiNE(pronounced [ə‘fain]) is a next-gen knowledge base that brings planning, sorting and creating all together.
OfficialNotes & writingWindowsmacOSLinuxMarktext
marktext/marktext
A simple and elegant markdown editor, available for Linux, macOS and Windows.
Notes & writingWindowsmacOSLinuxJoplin
laurent22/joplin
Joplin - the privacy-focused note taking app with sync capabilities for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.
OfficialNotes & writingWindowsmacOSLinuxSiYuan
siyuan-note/siyuan
An open-source, privacy-first, self-hosted knowledge workspace where humans and AI agents work together 开源、隐私优先、自托管的知识工作空间，让人与智能体在此协作.
OfficialNotes & writingWindowsmacOSLinuxLogseq
logseq/logseq
A privacy-first, open-source platform for knowledge management and collaboration.
OfficialNotes & writingWindowsmacOSLinux
What is Zennotes?
Zennotes is a free, open-source notes and writing app for Windows, macOS and Linux. Keyboard-first local Markdown notes with Vim motions, diagrams, and MCP integration. It has 2,518 GitHub stars and is released under the MIT license. Its source code is on GitHub at ZenNotes/zennotes.
Is Zennotes free and open source?
Yes. Zennotes's source code is public on GitHub under the MIT license, which is OSI-approved or FSF-free, so you can use, copy and change it for free.
How do I install Zennotes?
Homebrew: brew install --cask zennotes and the AUR package zennotes-bin. The commands are on this page. Installers are also on its GitHub Releases page (latest: v2.63.0).
Is Zennotes still maintained?
The repository's most recent commit was on Oct 7, 2026. appsgit only lists apps whose repository had a commit in the last six months.