---
title: "Articles · Locus"
description: "Honest comparisons of Notion, Obsidian, Evernote, Apple Notes, and more, plus guides to private, local-first notes and Markdown on the Mac."
url: https://locusnotes.app/articles
---

31 articles

# Articles

-   ## [The 7 best Notion alternatives for Mac in 2026](https://locusnotes.app/best-notion-alternatives)
    
    Seven Notion alternatives actually worth switching to — free and paid, compared honestly by people who build one of them. Offline support, data ownership, and what each app gets wrong.
    
-   ## [A free, private, offline Notion alternative for Mac (2026)](https://locusnotes.app/notion-alternative)
    
    Locus is a free Notion-style block editor that runs entirely on your Mac — no account, no cloud, no subscription. Blocks, covers, backlinks, and notes that never leave your Mac.
    
-   ## [A free Notion alternative — free because there’s nothing to rent](https://locusnotes.app/free-notion-alternative)
    
    Locus is a free Notion-style block editor for Mac. No free tier with a ceiling, no per-seat pricing, no subscription — your notes live in a local file, so there’s no cloud bill to pass on.
    
-   ## [A Notion alternative without AI — structurally, not by toggle](https://locusnotes.app/notion-alternative-without-ai)
    
    Looking for a notes app with no AI reading your writing? Locus has no AI features and no upload path for your writing — your notes live in a local file on your Mac, unreadable by anyone’s model.
    
-   ## [An Obsidian alternative without the setup (2026)](https://locusnotes.app/obsidian-alternative)
    
    Locus shares Obsidian’s local-first soul — your notes on your Mac, no account — but trades vaults, plugins, and raw Markdown for a calm native block editor that works the moment it opens.
    
-   ## [An Evernote alternative that can’t raise the rent (2026)](https://locusnotes.app/evernote-alternative)
    
    Leaving Evernote’s shrinking free plan and rising subscription? Locus keeps notes in a local database on your Mac — block editor, backlinks, version history, no account, free.
    
-   ## [The 7 best Obsidian alternatives in 2026 (mostly free)](https://locusnotes.app/best-obsidian-alternatives)
    
    Seven Obsidian alternatives compared honestly — most of them free — for people who love owning their notes but are done with vaults, plugins, and Markdown syntax on screen.
    
-   ## [The 7 best Evernote alternatives in 2026](https://locusnotes.app/best-evernote-alternatives)
    
    Seven Evernote alternatives compared honestly by people who build one of them — which import ENEX cleanly, which are really free, and what you lose. Joplin, UpNote, Apple Notes, OneNote, Bear, Obsidian, Locus.
    
-   ## [A OneNote alternative for Mac that actually lives there (2026)](https://locusnotes.app/onenote-alternative-mac)
    
    OneNote on a Mac is a port that keeps your notebooks in Microsoft’s cloud. Locus is a native Mac notes app with blocks, backlinks, and notes stored locally — no account.
    
-   ## [A Bear alternative with blocks instead of tags (2026)](https://locusnotes.app/bear-alternative)
    
    Love Bear’s Mac-native calm but need more structure? Locus adds real blocks — to-dos, tables, toggles, code — plus page covers and backlinks, with no subscription and no sync service.
    
-   ## [An Apple Notes alternative with blocks, Markdown & backlinks (2026)](https://locusnotes.app/apple-notes-alternative)
    
    Love Apple Notes but outgrowing it? Locus adds a block editor, Markdown that expands as you type, backlinks, code blocks, and themes — while staying just as local and private.
    
-   ## [The 7 best Google Keep alternatives in 2026](https://locusnotes.app/best-google-keep-alternatives)
    
    Seven Google Keep alternatives compared honestly — free tiers, desktop apps, encryption, and how to get your notes out of Takeout first. Apple Notes, Simplenote, Notesnook, OneNote, Joplin, Obsidian, Locus.
    
-   ## [Notion vs Obsidian in 2026: an honest comparison](https://locusnotes.app/notion-vs-obsidian)
    
    Notion and Obsidian solve opposite problems — one is a cloud workspace, the other is local files. How to pick between them, honestly, from people who build a third option.
    
-   ## [A Logseq alternative for writing in pages, not outlines (2026)](https://locusnotes.app/logseq-alternative)
    
    Locus shares Logseq’s local-first conviction but swaps the outliner for calm, document-style pages — blocks, covers, and backlinks in a native Mac app with nothing to configure.
    
-   ## [Best open-source note-taking apps for Mac (2026)](https://locusnotes.app/best-open-source-note-taking-apps)
    
    Eight open-source note apps for Mac compared on licence, where your notes are stored, sync, encryption and price, plus the popular apps people assume are open source but aren’t.
    
-   ## [Obsidian vs Logseq in 2026: which local-first app fits your brain?](https://locusnotes.app/obsidian-vs-logseq)
    
    Both keep your notes as files you own — the real difference is documents versus outlines. An honest comparison from people who build a third local-first option.
    
-   ## [Notion vs Apple Notes in 2026: workspace or legal pad?](https://locusnotes.app/notion-vs-apple-notes)
    
    One is a build-anything cloud workspace, the other is the fastest capture tool on a Mac. When each is right, honestly compared by people who build a third option.
    
-   ## [Notion vs Craft in 2026: the workspace or the writing desk?](https://locusnotes.app/notion-vs-craft)
    
    Notion builds systems; Craft makes beautiful documents. An honest comparison of the two block editors — from people who build a third, local-first one.
    
-   ## [The 6 best private notes apps for Mac in 2026](https://locusnotes.app/best-private-notes-apps-mac)
    
    Six genuinely private notes apps for Mac, compared honestly — end-to-end encrypted, local-only, and locked. What each privacy model actually protects you from, from the makers of one of them.
    
-   ## [Anytype vs Notion in 2026: the local-first challenger, honestly](https://locusnotes.app/anytype-vs-notion)
    
    Anytype rebuilds Notion’s object model without Notion’s cloud. Where it succeeds, where it strains, and who should pick which — from people who build a third option.
    
-   ## [Bear vs Obsidian: which notes app fits you](https://locusnotes.app/bear-vs-obsidian)
    
    Bear is a polished Apple-only writing app; Obsidian is a free, endlessly extensible folder of Markdown files. A side-by-side on writing, organizing, files, sync, privacy and price, with a clear answer for each kind of note-taker.
    
-   ## [A truly private notes app for Mac — no account, no cloud](https://locusnotes.app/private-notes-app-mac)
    
    Locus keeps your notes in a local database on your own Mac. No sign-up, no sync service, no telemetry — privacy by construction, with daily backups and full export.
    
-   ## [Local-first notes app: why your notes should live on your Mac](https://locusnotes.app/local-first-notes)
    
    What local-first software means for note-taking — ownership, longevity, speed, and privacy — and the seven tests any local-first notes app should pass.
    
-   ## [How to make your notes private — a practical Mac guide](https://locusnotes.app/how-to-make-notes-private)
    
    Five honest steps to private notes on a Mac: find out where your notes actually live, turn off sync you never chose, lock the screen layer, let FileVault encrypt the disk, and pick an app that can’t leak.
    
-   ## [How to export Notion to Markdown (and own your notes again)](https://locusnotes.app/export-notion-to-markdown)
    
    A short, current guide to getting your pages out of Notion as Markdown files — plus what breaks in the export, how to check nothing’s missing, and where to keep the files afterward.
    
-   ## [A notes app with password protection, the Mac-native way](https://locusnotes.app/notes-app-with-password)
    
    Locus App Lock gates your notes behind Touch ID, Apple Watch, or your Mac login password — no separate password to invent, store, or forget. Local notes, locked doors.
    
-   ## [Forgot your Notes password? What still works](https://locusnotes.app/forgot-apple-notes-password)
    
    Forgot the password for locked notes on iPhone or Mac? Apple can’t recover it, but four things might still open your notes. Then: how to reset it, what happens to old notes, and how to never need it again.
    
-   ## [Where are Apple Notes stored on Mac? Finding and exporting them](https://locusnotes.app/where-are-apple-notes-stored)
    
    Apple Notes lives in a database at ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes — not in files you can read. Where your notes actually are, how to keep them local, and how to get them out.
    
-   ## [Markdown in Bear: how it works, and where it ends](https://locusnotes.app/bear-markdown)
    
    Bear speaks Markdown as you type — but your notes live in a database, and .md files only exist when you export. Here’s exactly how Bear’s Markdown works, how to get it out, and what a blocks-based alternative changes.
    
-   ## [Apple Notes and Markdown: import, export, copy](https://locusnotes.app/apple-notes-markdown)
    
    Apple Notes now imports Markdown files, exports notes as .md, and copies selections as Markdown. Here’s exactly where each option lives on Mac and iPhone, what it can’t do, and what to check before moving a whole library.
    
-   ## [Markdown in Evernote: typing, pasting, exporting](https://locusnotes.app/evernote-markdown)
    
    Evernote understands some Markdown when you type or paste it, but it can’t export .md files. Here’s the syntax it supports, the paste trick that makes Markdown convert, and how to turn an Evernote export into Markdown files.