Best Alternatives to Novi Notes in 2025
Novi Notes is a local-first AI note app for Mac that prioritizes privacy and offline functionality, but if you're exploring other options, here are the best alternatives to consider.
Notion
The all‑in‑one workspace
Notion offers a highly flexible, all-in-one workspace with AI features, but it's cloud-based and requires internet for full functionality, unlike Novi's local-first approach.
Obsidian
A versatile writing app tailored to your thinking
Obsidian is a powerful local-first note-taking app with a vast plugin ecosystem, but it lacks built-in AI integration and requires manual setup for MCP-like features.
Evernote
Evernote provides robust cross-platform note-taking with AI-powered search and organization, but it's subscription-based and stores data in the cloud, not locally.
Bear
Bear is a beautifully designed, local-first note app for Mac with Markdown support, but it lacks AI capabilities and structured workflows like daily notes and calendars.
SimpleNote
SimpleNote is a minimalist, free note app that syncs across devices, but it's cloud-dependent and offers no AI or advanced features like Novi's zero-config MCP integration.
Logseq
Open source knowledge management
Logseq is an open-source, local-first knowledge management tool with a graph database, but it requires more configuration for AI and lacks the streamlined daily note workflow of Novi.
Craft
Craft is a modern, local-first note app for Mac with AI writing assistance and rich formatting, but it uses a subscription model and doesn't offer zero-config MCP integration.
While Novi Notes excels with its local-first AI and zero-config MCP integration, alternatives like Obsidian and Logseq offer similar offline capabilities, and Notion or Craft provide more advanced AI features, though often with cloud dependency or subscriptions.