OneNote alternative
OneNote is free, mature and runs everywhere, but it is built around OneDrive, a Microsoft account and a closed format. Koru is a free, open-source, native desktop app that keeps your notebooks on your own devices, works fully offline, syncs directly between them and imports your OneNote notebooks without signing in to Microsoft. If you want typed notes you own, Koru is built for you. If you write mostly with a pen, OneNote is the better fit for now.
Microsoft ended support for OneNote for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. The app is now read-only: you can view and export your notes, but not edit or sync them. Anyone who used it has to move somewhere, and many take the moment to ask whether they want to stay in OneNote at all.
Microsoft says the Windows desktop app is the only version of OneNote that can keep a notebook on your own disk. On Mac, the web, iPhone, iPad and Android, notebooks live in OneDrive or SharePoint and need a Microsoft account.
Sync problems are a long-running theme on Microsoft’s own Q&A forums, and Microsoft has a support page just for resolving conflicting page versions. When a notes app loses an edit, people stop trusting it with anything that matters.
Microsoft’s instructions export a whole notebook only from OneNote for the web, only for notebooks on a personal OneDrive, and the result opens only in OneNote for Windows. Users have been asking for Markdown in Microsoft’s community forums for years.
| Feature | Koru | OneNote |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. No account and no trial. | The app is free. 5 GB of OneDrive storage is free; more storage and Copilot come with Microsoft 365 (Personal is $99.99/year). |
| Account | None required. | A Microsoft account is needed for sync, the web and the mobile apps. |
| Where your notes live | On your own devices. Works fully offline, with no account required. | OneDrive or SharePoint. Local notebooks are possible only in the Windows desktop app. |
| Sync | Directly between your devices, peer to peer. No Koru server required. | Through OneDrive or SharePoint. |
| Platforms | Windows today. macOS in beta. iOS and Android apps in development. Linux on the roadmap. | Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and the web. |
| Open source | Open source under MPL-2.0, on GitHub. | No. Proprietary Microsoft software. |
| How you write | Structured documents: rich text, headings, tables, checklists, code blocks, images and attached files. | Free-form pages where you can place text, images and ink anywhere. |
| Pen and handwriting | Not supported. Handwriting imports as a visible placeholder. | Full ink and drawing support. |
| Search | Full-text search and #tags across your workspaces. Searching text inside images and scanned PDFs is on the roadmap. | Searches notes; the desktop apps can also find text in pictures. |
| 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. | Copilot, with a Microsoft 365 Personal, Family or Premium plan. |
| Locking notes | No password-protected notes yet. | Password-protected sections, encrypted with AES. |
| Sharing and collaboration | Not yet. Collaboration is on the roadmap. | Share notebooks and edit them together. |
| Export | Markdown and TextBundle. | Whole notebooks from OneNote for the web, as a package that opens in OneNote for Windows. |
OneNote can keep a notebook on your disk, but only in the Windows desktop app, and only until you want it on a second device. Then it needs OneDrive.
Koru starts from the other end. Your workspace lives on your computer, works with no connection and no account, and syncs directly to your other devices when they can reach each other. Koru Cloud, an optional paid service, is coming soon for people who want an always-on copy, but you never need it to use your notes.
OneNote’s free-form page, where you click anywhere and type or draw, is what many people love about it. Koru is different: it is a document editor, closer to a word processor, with headings, lists, tables, checklists and code blocks that flow top to bottom.
If your notebooks are mostly typed text, Koru will feel tidier and is easier to search and export. If they are full of ink, diagrams and scattered boxes, OneNote is still the better tool. Koru Canvas and whiteboards are on the roadmap, but pen input is not.
OneNote’s notebook format is Microsoft’s, and leaving means exporting through OneNote for the web or using third-party tools. Koru’s code is open source under MPL-2.0 and exports Markdown, so your notes are never stuck in one app, including Koru.
Copilot in OneNote is part of the paid Microsoft 365 plans. Koru does not include its own AI yet. Instead, its built-in MCP server lets the AI you already use, such as Claude, ChatGPT or a local model through Ollama, read and 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 OneNote offline. It reads the exported files directly and never asks you to sign in to Microsoft.
Yes. Koru is free 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.
Not for the import itself. Koru reads OneNote files offline and never signs in to Microsoft. You may need your account to export notebooks that live in OneDrive.
Microsoft says that app is now read-only but you can still view and export your notes. Export them, or open them in OneNote on Windows and export from there, then import the files into Koru.
Koru does not support pen input. Handwritten ink is kept as a visible placeholder so you can see where it was, but it is not converted to text. If most of your notes are handwritten, OneNote is the better fit for now.
Koru runs on Windows today. The Mac app is in beta, and the iOS and Android apps are in development.
Yes. The Koru app is open source under the MPL-2.0 license, and its code is on GitHub. Koru Cloud, the optional hosted service, is a separate paid product.
