Alternatives
Products that do what I built an app that competes with Notion and Obsidian does
App summary: Local-first productivity tool that combines note-taking, task tracking and journaling into one simple app. Advantages over Notion: Way simpler UI, all user data is only stored locally on their device - providing significantly faster load time, fully functional offline mode and complete privacy of their data Advantages over Obsidian: Dedicated features for task tracking and journaling - not just note-taking, with cheaper end-to-end encrypted device syncing compared to Obsidian Sync
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2021 · obsidian.md
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Hi everyone I'm a Notion-addicted person and love to build my own template to cover different aspects of my life, either work or personal stuff. Once, I wanted to build a habit tracker template, and I realized Notion was not the best solution. You can organize it in a much more efficient way just with a pen and a piece of paper. However, the best tool should live on your devices and have a correct structure. Then, I decided to try to build an app using SwiftUI and SwiftData. The goal was to make it a very basic version in one month. But it took me two months. I tried to add only the core…
2023 · apps.apple.com
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2018 · yournote.app
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Customizable Obsidian template for productivity
Apr 2026 · joem.app
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2013 · janusnotes.com
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I got the idea of [mindmap.so](http://mindmap.so/) out of my own frustration of managing my personal notes in Notion and Miro in parallel. I have built it 3 months back on top of excalidraw, posted it in Reddit a couple of times, and never looked back (was using it only for personal use). Little did I know that the small and nimble tool that I created has crossed 2000+ users (was so surprised when I saw the dashboard last week). It was all organic and word of mouth . Having 2000+ users trusting a product is no easy feat. That’s when I thought may be I should put some more…
2024 · mindmap.so
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My Public Second Brain (https://brain.sspaeti.com) is built with the help of a wonderful tool called Quartz (https://brain.sspaeti.com/quartz-publish-obsidian-vault/). Obsidian (https://brain.sspaeti.com/obsidian/) has become my favorite for note-takers, given its flexible and linked structure that closely mirrors our natural way of thinking. With Quartz, I was able to seamlessly publish my Obsidian notes to a public vault, providing the groundwork for my Public Second Brain. The journey of making this possible involved some scripting as…
2023
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Care to share a screenshot and the 'killer feature' of any of your personal, self-built productivity tools? eg. I made my own calendar and money-tracker last year - there are no other users, it makes no money, I have no plans to make it public, but it holds my life together :) http://i.imgur.com/h2keJDg.png GREAT BECAUSE... it tells me how much I'm going to get paid this month. Absolutely no ulterior motive here (ie. I'm not canvassing opinions for a productivity app startup or anything), just interested.
2013
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I’ve always liked fast online tools for jotting notes or organizing thoughts — but most “productivity” sites either save data to the cloud, require sign-ups, or are full of distractions. So I built an online productivity tools website, a small collection of browser-based tools. It includes an online notepad where you can write and save notes right in your browser, a cornell notes tool available in more than 20 languages, and more coming soon like a pomodoro timer and a simple blank page for focused writing. Everything works entirely in-browser using localStorage — no accounts, no cloud sync,…
Oct 2025 · onlinenotep.ad
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