My notes app graveyard got crowded, so I built a free Notion / Obsidian alternative (in your browser)

Every developer has a notes app graveyard.

Mine had a workspace I opened twice, a folder of .md files I could never find, and a sticky note that just said "FIX THE THING". I never did find out what the thing was.

But the real problem wasn't the graveyard. It was the bill. Every notes tool I tried was lovely right up until I hit a limit, and then a paywall appeared, like a bouncer who had been waiting for me. Want your notes on your phone too? In Obsidian, that means paying for Sync. Want a bit more space or a bit more history somewhere else? That's the next plan up. I just wanted to write things down and open them on my phone, not subscribe to my own thoughts.

So I did the sensible, mature thing: I built my own notes app, and it's free while it's in beta.

It's called MarkdownStack. It runs in your browser, your notes are plain markdown, and you can try it right now without making an account: mdstack.in/playground

Here's what it does.

1. Your notes are on every device, with no sync bill

This one is the whole reason I built it. Your notes live in your account, so you sign in on your phone, your laptop or a borrowed computer and they're just there. There's no sync add-on to buy, nothing to set up, and no "which device has the latest version?" detective work.

It's free while it's in beta, and your notes are never trapped: you can export everything as plain markdown whenever you like.

2. You write markdown, and it just looks nice

Most markdown apps give you an Edit tab and a Preview tab, so you spend your life clicking back and forth like you're deciding between two sandwiches.

MarkdownStack has one editor. The paragraph you're typing in is plain markdown. Everything else is already pretty. Type ## Hello, move on, and it turns into a heading. Click it again and it's text again. No tabs. No clicking. No sandwiches.

Need to see the raw text of the whole note? View source is one click away. Want to read without accidentally editing something? Switch to Reading mode, and clicks stop typing into your note.

3. Try it before you commit to anything

Open the playground and start writing. No email, no password, no "tell us about your team size".

The note you write there is saved only in your browser. It's never uploaded, so I couldn't read it even if I were that bored. Close the tab, come back tomorrow, and it's still there.

4. Folders, tags, links and search

• Nested folders for the organised people.
• #tags you type right inside a note, for the rest of us.
• [[Wikilinks]] to link one note to another.
• Full-text search across titles, tags and the body, instantly, so "where did I write that?" finally has an answer.

5. Make it comfortable

Reading is personal, so the page bends to you:

• Zoom the text with Ctrl/Cmd + scroll (or pinch on a trackpad), smoothly, and it remembers your level.
• Drag the edges of a note to make the page wider or narrower. A little outline appears at the edge so you know it's there.
• Pick your reading font and size.
• Type a bracket or a quote and the closing one appears, like in a code editor.
• Dark mode, because we have standards.
• Works on your phone in the browser, with the same editor, because your best ideas arrive in places without a laptop.

6. Private by default, public when you decide

Every note starts private. Nothing leaves your vault until you publish it.

When you do:

• Publish a single note or a whole folder.
• Choose who sees it: everyone, or only your followers.
• Give it a custom short link like /my-idea instead of a long scary ID.
• Publishing a whole folder? Tick which notes go public and hide the embarrassing ones. We all have a note we'd rather the internet never read.
• Readers can upvote and comment on what you publish.

7. A tiny social side (the good kind)

Find other writers by username and send a follow request. They approve it, and you can see their followers-only notes and folders. You get notified, in the app and by email, when someone follows you.

8. AI that knows which note you're on

The built-in AI assistant sits next to your notes. It knows which note is open, and it can:

• find your notes ("find my notes about binary trees"),
• create and edit notes for you,
• explain a passage you select.

It runs on your own AI key, which stays in your browser, and it asks before making big changes.

And if you use Claude, MarkdownStack has a Claude connector: add it once and you can read, search, write and publish your notes just by talking to Claude. No copy-pasting between windows.

9. Your notes are not hostages

• Import a folder of .md files and they land exactly where they were, with folders and tags intact.
• Export any folder, or your whole vault, as a .zip of plain markdown whenever you want.

If you decide you hate me, you can leave with everything in about one click.

What it isn't

I'd rather be upfront than have you find out at 2 a.m.:

• No plugin system, graph view or canvas.
• It's mostly online, so it's not a local-first app. That's the trade-off for having your notes everywhere without a sync add-on.
• No databases, kanban boards or live team editing. If your "notes" are secretly a project tracker, a bigger workspace tool will serve you better.

It's built for people who just want to write in markdown, keep it organised, and share it when it's ready. I wrote a straightforward comparison with the big names here, if you're curious: MarkdownStack vs Obsidian and vs Notion.

Go break it

Open mdstack.in/playground and write something. It's free while it's in beta.

Then tell me in the comments what felt wrong, what you wish it did, or what I should add next. I read every one, and "this confused me" is a completely valid bug report.

Thanks for reading. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a sticky note to unfix.