Notion alternative
Notion is a cloud workspace built for teams: databases, wikis and real-time collaboration. Koru is a free, open-source, native desktop app for your own notes and documents: everything lives on your own devices, works fully offline and syncs directly between them. If your Notion is mostly your own pages, Koru imports them in one step. If your team runs on Notion databases, Notion is the better fit for now, and we want to hear what would bring you over.
Notion added offline mode in August 2025, but only in the desktop and mobile apps, not the browser. You choose pages to download one by one on each device, sub-pages are marked separately, and only the first 50 rows of a database download automatically.
Notion loads your workspace from its servers, and a common complaint from heavy users is that large workspaces feel sluggish. For quick personal notes, waiting on a network round trip is friction you feel every day.
Notion encrypts data in transit and at rest, and does not list end-to-end encryption on its security page. For journals, research and anything personal, some people would rather the only copy lived on their own devices.
Notion’s power, with databases, relations, views and team permissions, is also its weight. If you mostly write pages for yourself, you are carrying a team platform to do it, and Notion AI is included only from the Business plan up.
| Feature | Koru | Notion |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. No account and no trial. | Free for individuals. Plus: $10/seat/month billed yearly. Business, which includes Notion AI: $20/seat/month billed yearly. |
| Where your notes live | On your own devices. Works fully offline, with no account required. | On Notion’s servers. |
| Offline | Everything, always. There is nothing to download first. | Pages you mark for offline, in the desktop and mobile apps only. Databases download their first 50 rows automatically. |
| Sync | Directly between your devices, peer to peer. No Koru server required. | Through Notion’s cloud. |
| Platforms | Windows today. macOS in beta. iOS and Android apps in development. Linux on the roadmap. | Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and the web. |
| Open source | Open source under MPL-2.0, on GitHub. | No. Proprietary. |
| Databases | No databases. Imported Notion databases become tables, with the original CSV attached. | Databases with multiple views. |
| Collaboration | Not yet. Collaboration is on the roadmap. | Built for it: sharing, guests and editing together. |
| AI | Connect Claude, ChatGPT or a local model to your notes through the built-in MCP server. Bring-your-own AI provider chat is on the roadmap. | Notion AI on Business and Enterprise, with a trial on other plans. A hosted MCP server. |
| Web clipper | On the roadmap. | Yes. |
| Version history | Saved, named versions you can compare. | Page history; 7 days on the Free plan. |
| Export | Markdown and TextBundle. | PDF, HTML, Markdown and CSV, per page or for the whole workspace. |
Notion is a cloud service that can keep copies of selected pages for when you lose your connection. Koru is the other way round: your workspace is on your computer, every page is always available, and the network is only for syncing between your devices.
That difference shows in daily use. Opening a page, searching and switching workspaces in Koru never wait on a server.
Notion shines when a team shares a wiki, a roadmap or a database. Koru does not try to do that yet. It has no databases, and collaboration is on the roadmap, not in the app.
What Koru does well is the personal side: documents with headings, tables, checklists and code, nested pages, #tags, profiles that keep work and personal workspaces apart, saved versions, and on-device dictation with Koru Voice.
Notion protects your data on its servers. Koru keeps it off servers altogether: no account, no upload, and device-to-device sync that does not need a Koru server. The app is open source under MPL-2.0, so anyone can verify what it does.
Notion AI is part of the Business plan, and Notion offers a hosted MCP server for tools such as Claude Code. Koru does not include its own AI yet. Its MCP server runs locally on your computer, so the AI you already use, such as Claude, ChatGPT or a local model through Ollama, can work with your notes. With a local model, nothing leaves your machine.
Missing something you rely on? Tell us at hello@koru.do. What people ask for shapes the roadmap, and when Koru Cloud launches, subscribers will vote on what we build next.
Koru imports Notion offline from a standard Notion export. Nothing is fetched from Notion and you do not connect your account.
For personal notes and documents, yes. For team wikis and databases, not yet: collaboration is on the roadmap, and if databases are what keep you on Notion, tell us at hello@koru.do so we know what to build next.
Completely. Your workspace lives on your computer, so every page is available with no connection and no account. Devices sync with each other directly when they can reach each other.
Full-page databases become tables in Koru, and the original CSV is attached so no data is lost. Database views, filters and formulas do not carry over.
Yes, with no account and no trial. Koru Cloud, an optional paid sync service, is coming soon from $9.99 a month, but your notes and device-to-device sync never depend on it.
Koru runs on Windows today. The Mac app is in beta, and the iOS and Android apps are in development.
Yes, with the AI you already use. Koru’s built-in MCP server lets tools such as Claude, ChatGPT or a local Ollama model read and work with your notes. Built-in AI chat with your own provider is on the roadmap.
