Notion vs Trilium
Choose Trilium when the priority is an open-source, offline-capable personal knowledge base with hierarchical notes, local desktop use, or self-hosted synchronization. Choose Notion when the requirement is a broader team workspace spanning collaborative knowledge, project delivery, connected-app search, meeting notes, and managed AI workflows. The central tradeoff is deployment control and note-focused depth versus a
Decision guide
The practical reasons to choose either option, based on documented capabilities.
Choose Trilium if
- Individuals building large hierarchical personal knowledge bases
- Users who need offline desktop note-taking without an account
- Teams willing to operate a self-hosted synchronization server or Docker deployment
Stay with Notion if
- Multiple users need documented collaborative document editing rather than personal notes with synchronization and public publishing
- Workflows depend on enterprise search across connected applications
- Teams require built-in AI meeting notes, custom task-routing agents, or reporting agents
Deployment and operations
Trilium is AGPL-3.0 licensed and available as desktop binaries for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It can run locally without an account or offline, and a self-hosted server—including Docker—is available for synchronization and browser access. The README identifies stable releases as recommended for most users, provides separate daily nightly builds, and links upgrade documentation. The project is community-maintained; self-hosters must plan for installation and upgrades.
Migration considerations
Trilium documents Markdown import and export, which may provide a file-based migration path if Notion content is first exported in a compatible form. The supplied sources do not document a direct Notion importer or preservation of Notion databases, relations, permissions, projects, or other workspace structures, so migration fidelity is unestablished.
Feature fit
What Trilium covers
- Structured knowledge-base notes
- Rich-text document editing
- Full-text workspace search
- Calendar and Kanban views
- Programmable workflow automation
- Optional AI for stored notes
What’s different or missing
- No documented connected-app enterprise search
- No documented AI meeting notes
- No documented custom AI agents
- No documented direct Notion import
- No documented real-time collaborative editing
Project snapshot
- GitHub stars
- 37,438
- Contributors
- 428
- Language
- TypeScript
- Last commit
- Aug 15, 2026
- Latest release
- Jul 25, 2026
Categories: Document Collaboration, Knowledge Management, Project Management, Content Management Systems, AI Assistants, Business Intelligence, Data Integration, Note Taking, File Sync & Storage, Calendars & Scheduling, Task Management, Search Engines, Digital Whiteboards
Sources and editorial review12 linked sources
Public documentation supports this comparison. Automation assists collection and classification; editorial standards and corrections remain the responsibility of Kris.
a hierarchical note taking application with focus on building large personal knowledge bases
readme · github.comNotes can be arranged into arbitrarily deep tree. Single note can be placed into multiple places in the tree
readme · github.comRich WYSIWYG note editor including e.g. tables, images and math
readme · github.comFast and easy navigation between notes, full text search and note hoisting
readme · github.comSynchronization with self-hosted sync server
readme · github.comTo install TriliumNext on your own server (including via Docker from Dockerhub)
readme · github.comTrilium Notes is a free and open-source, cross-platform hierarchical note taking application with focus on building large personal knowledge bases.
verdict · github.comCollections give a group of notes a purpose-built view. Display the very same notes as a calendar, a table, a Kanban board, an interactive map and more, then switch between layouts whenever your needs change.
shared feature · triliumnotes.orgOptional, and entirely on your terms. AI features are opt-in and disabled by default: your notes are never sent anywhere unless you enable them and connect your own provider.
shared feature · triliumnotes.orgTo install TriliumNext on your own server (including via Docker from [Dockerhub](https://hub.docker.com/r/triliumnext/trilium)) follow [the server installation docs](https://docs.triliumnotes.org/user-guide/setup/server).
deployment · github.comThis program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
deployment · github.com[Evernote](https://docs.triliumnotes.org/user-guide/concepts/import-export/evernote) and [Markdown import & export](https://docs.triliumnotes.org/user-guide/concepts/import-export/markdown)
migration · github.com
