T4A
Tools4All
Productivity published

Trilium Notes

Trilium Notes is a free, open-source, cross-platform hierarchical note-taking application designed for building extensive personal knowledge bases ...

Trilium Notes

Trilium Notes is a powerful and flexible personal knowledge base system that allows users to organize notes into an arbitrarily deep tree structure. It's built to handle large amounts of information, making it ideal for anyone looking to centralize and manage their digital knowledge effectively.

Beyond basic note-taking, Trilium offers robust features like rich text editing, code syntax highlighting, integrated diagramming tools (mind maps, geo maps, Excalidraw canvas), and strong encryption. It emphasizes self-hosting and provides a scriptable environment and REST API for advanced customization and automation.

Overview

Trilium Notes is a free and open-source hierarchical note-taking application designed for creating and managing extensive personal knowledge bases. It supports cross-platform usage, including desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux) and mobile web interfaces for server installations. The project is community-driven under TriliumNext, offering continuous development and support.

How It Works

Users organize notes in a flexible tree structure, with the ability to clone notes to appear in multiple locations without duplication. The application features a rich WYSIWYG editor for text, images, and math, alongside dedicated support for source code with syntax highlighting. Notes can be enhanced with attributes for organization and advanced scripting. For data security, Trilium offers robust per-note encryption and synchronization with self-hosted servers, giving users full control over their data. It also integrates various tools for visualization, such as Excalidraw-based canvas notes, Mind Elixir for mind maps, and Leaflet for geo maps.

Key Benefits

Trilium Notes excels in its ability to scale, handling over 100,000 notes efficiently in terms of both usability and performance. Its self-hosting capability provides unmatched data privacy and ownership. The comprehensive feature set, including scripting, a REST API, and various diagramming tools, makes it highly versatile for diverse knowledge management needs. Furthermore, the active community and continuous development ensure a feature-rich and well-maintained application.

Who It's For

Trilium Notes is ideal for power users, developers, researchers, and anyone who needs a robust and customizable system for managing large amounts of information. It's particularly suited for individuals who prioritize data control, require advanced organizational features, and appreciate the flexibility offered by scripting and API access. Students, academics, and professionals building extensive personal knowledge bases or managing complex projects will find Trilium Notes invaluable.

Features

Hierarchical Note Tree with Cloning
Rich WYSIWYG & Source Code Editor
Integrated Diagramming (Canvas, Mind Maps, Geo Maps)
Self-hosted Sync Server & Strong Encryption
Scripting Capabilities & REST API

Use Cases

  • Creating Comprehensive Personal Knowledge Bases
  • Organizing Research and Academic Notes
  • Managing Project Documentation and Code Snippets
  • Collaborative Note Sharing (with self-hosted server)
  • Personal Journaling and Idea Capture

Tags

Last verified: February 19, 2026