# Zennotes (open-source notes and writing app)

> 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.

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.

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | https://github.com/ZenNotes/zennotes |
| Platforms | Linux, macOS, Windows |
| Interface | desktop GUI |
| GitHub stars | 2,518 |
| License | MIT (open source) |
| Replaces | n/a |
| Language | TypeScript |
| Website | https://zennotes.org |
| Official | no |
| Category | Notes & writing |
| Latest release | v2.63.0 (Oct 6, 2026) |
| Last commit | Oct 7, 2026 |

## Install

### Homebrew (macOS)

```sh
brew install --cask zennotes
```

Package page: https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/zennotes

### AUR (Arch Linux)

Package page: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/zennotes-bin

## Similar desktop apps

- [AppFlowy](https://appsgit.com/desktop-apps/appflowy): Bring projects, wikis, and teams together with AI. (77,181 stars, AGPL-3.0, official)
- [AFFiNE](https://appsgit.com/desktop-apps/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. (73,298 stars, MIT / AFFiNE EE License, official)
- [Marktext](https://appsgit.com/desktop-apps/marktext): A simple and elegant markdown editor, available for Linux, macOS and Windows. (62,228 stars, MIT)
- [Joplin](https://appsgit.com/desktop-apps/joplin): Joplin - the privacy-focused note taking app with sync capabilities for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. (56,630 stars, AGPL-3.0-or-later, official)
- [SiYuan](https://appsgit.com/desktop-apps/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. (46,669 stars, AGPL-3.0, official)
- [Logseq](https://appsgit.com/desktop-apps/logseq): A privacy-first, open-source platform for knowledge management and collaboration. (45,173 stars, AGPL-3.0, official)

---

Canonical page: https://appsgit.com/desktop-apps/zennotes
Source: appsgit (https://appsgit.com), the app store for github. Data from the GitHub API, refreshed nightly.
Machine access: JSON API https://appsgit.com/api/v1/apps (OpenAPI: https://appsgit.com/openapi.json), MCP server https://mcp.appsgit.com/mcp, full index https://appsgit.com/llms-full.txt.