I Built an Open-Source Obsidian Alternative — Here's What I Learned

Obsidian is great. I used it for two years. But two things kept bugging me. First, sync costs $50 a year. For a note-taking app. That stores plain text files. On my own devices. I get that they need revenue, but paying $50/year to sync markdown files across my laptop and phone felt wrong when I could rsync them for free. Second, it's closed source. The plugin ecosystem is open, but the core app isn't. I couldn't fix bugs myself. I couldn't see how my data was being handled. And when features I needed weren't prioritized, I was stuck waiting. So I built Noteriv. What Noteriv Does It's a full note-taking app — desktop (Electron) and mobile (React Native) — that covers most of what Obsidian offers: Markdown editor with live preview and split view Wiki-style [[links]] between notes with backlink tracking Canvas/whiteboard for visual thinking Flashcards built from your notes for spaced repetition Mermaid diagrams rendered inline Drawing editor for quick sketches PDF annotation viewer — high