flatnotes
Database-less note-taking web app that utilises a flat folder of markdown files for storage.
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Yes: 9 commits in the last 90 days, latest release v5.5.5 (Aug 2026).
At a glance
flatnotes quick facts
- Health score
- 70/100 GOOD
- Stars
- 3,267
- Last commit
- 2 months ago (Aug 2026)
- Latest release
- v5.5.5, Aug 2026
- Licence
- MIT
Top alternatives to flatnotes
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
flatnotes scores 70/100, #17 of 21 in Note-taking & Editors: 9 commits in the last 90 days earn 10.5 of 35 points, the latest release (v5.5.5, 2 months ago) earns 25.0 of 25, 3,267 stars add 14.1 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and Docker support adds the final 10. That places it in the good band (70 and above). The biggest shortfall is commit activity, worth 24.5 more points.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
- Commit activity biggest shortfall 10.5 / 35
9 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency 25.0 / 25
v5.5.5 released 2 months ago
- Stars 14.1 / 20
3.3k stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support 10.0 / 10
Docker image or Compose file available
Commit activity
- 9
- Last 90 days
- 10
- Last 12 months
- 2 months ago
- Last push
Ranked #17 of 21 tools in Note-taking & Editors by health , between Blinko (#16) and Overleaf (#18) .
Details
| Licence | MIT |
| Platforms | Docker |
| Latest release | v5.5.5 · 2 months ago |
| Stars | 3,267 |
| Open issues | 119 |
| Docker | Yes |
| Repository | dullage/flatnotes ↗ |
flatnotes vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a category with flatnotes (Note-taking & Editors), scored on the same five terms.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TriliumNext Notes | 98 | 39k | AGPL-3.0 | today |
| SilverBullet | 95 | 6.4k | MIT | today |
| Many Notes | 92 | 1.1k | MIT | 6 days ago |
| Joplin | 89 | 57k | MIT | yesterday |
| plumio | 89 | 141 | AGPL-3.0 | 9 days ago |
| flatnotes (this tool) | 70 | 3.3k | MIT | 2 months ago |
flatnotes: common questions
Is flatnotes still maintained?
flatnotes had 9 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was 2 months ago; the latest tagged release, v5.5.5, is from 2 months ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.
Run itSponsored
Run flatnotes on a VPS from $4/mo
flatnotes ships a Docker image, so any of these providers can run it on a small instance.
- is*hosting NVMe VPS in 20+ locations, hourly billing from $5/mo Deploy ↗
- ProHoster VPS with DDoS protection included from $4/mo Deploy ↗
- GODLIKE Game and app servers on NVMe from $4/mo Deploy ↗
Affiliate links. Repoly may earn a commission, which never affects health scores.