What are the best open-source writing & notes apps for Mac?

By community activity, MarkEdit, CotEditor and Logseq are the top picks on Mac App Index right now.

Are open-source writing & notes apps free on Mac?

Yes. Every open-source writing & notes app here is free or free to start.

How many open-source writing & notes apps are there for Mac?

Mac App Index lists 4 apps: 4 completely free, 0 free to start, 0 paid upfront and 0 by subscription. 4 are open source.

Open-source writing & notes apps for Mac

4 open-source writing & notes apps for Mac, with code you can read, build and fork. 4 are free to download. Most popular right now: MarkEdit, CotEditor and Logseq.

All Free Freemium Paid Subscription

MarkEdit

Lightweight Markdown editor

78FreeWriting & notes

CotEditor

Plain-text editor built for macOS

14FreeDeveloper tools

Logseq

Outliner for linked notes

54FreeProductivity

Joplin

Open-source notes with encrypted sync

16FreeWriting & notes

How we picked: every app here is listed in writing & notes on Mac App Index and publishes its source code. Apps are sorted by community activity; switch to Top or New to reorder them. How we rank apps

Frequently asked questions

What are the best open-source writing & notes apps for Mac?: By community activity, MarkEdit, CotEditor and Logseq are the top picks on Mac App Index right now.
Are open-source writing & notes apps free on Mac?: Yes. Every open-source writing & notes app here is free or free to start.
How many open-source writing & notes apps are there for Mac?: Mac App Index lists 4 apps: 4 completely free, 0 free to start, 0 paid upfront and 0 by subscription. 4 are open source.