Is Trilium free to use?

Yes, Trilium Notes is free and open source, licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 or later.

Can I sync Trilium across multiple devices?

Yes, through a self-hosted sync server, and several third-party services exist for hosting that sync server if you don't want to run one yourself.

Is there a native mobile app?

The official mobile option is a touch-optimized web frontend served by a server installation; community projects TriliumDroid, Pocket Trilium, and Trinote provide native Android and iOS clients.

How is TriliumNext related to the original Trilium project?

The original developer, zadam, handed the Trilium repository to the community, which now maintains it as TriliumNext; instances migrate with no special steps as long as versions remain sync-compatible.

Can I encrypt individual notes?

Yes, Trilium supports note encryption with per-note granularity, so you can protect specific notes rather than the whole database.

Does Trilium support automation or scripting?

Yes, notes support attributes for querying and organization plus a scripting system, and a REST API (ETAPI) is available for external automation.

Trilium: Cross-platform note app for large, hierarchical knowledge bases

Trilium Notes is a free and open-source, cross-platform note-taking application built around a hierarchical tree structure, aimed at people building large personal knowledge bases rather than jotting quick notes. It's the community-maintained continuation of the original zadam/Trilium project, now developed under the TriliumNext organization, and it scales in both usability and performance well past 100,000 notes.

Key features

Arbitrarily deep note tree: Notes are organized in a tree of any depth, and a single note can be cloned into multiple places in that tree rather than being duplicated.
Rich WYSIWYG editor: The editor supports tables, images, and math, with markdown autoformatting as you type.
Code notes with syntax highlighting: Notes can hold source code with proper syntax highlighting, useful for keeping technical references alongside regular notes.
Note versioning: Revisions are tracked automatically, so you can look back at earlier versions of a note.
Attributes and scripting: Notes support attributes for organization, querying, and scripting, enabling advanced automation and custom workflows within your knowledge base.
Encryption and secure login: Notes can be encrypted with per-note granularity, and the app supports OpenID and TOTP for more secure authentication.
Sync across devices: A self-hosted sync server keeps notes synchronized between installations, with third-party services also available for hosting the sync server.
Sharing and export: Notes can be published to the public internet, and Evernote and Markdown import/export are both supported.
Visual note types: Beyond plain text, Trilium includes canvas notes based on Excalidraw, relation and note/link maps built with jsPlumb, mind maps based on Mind Elixir, and geo maps with location pins and GPX track support.
REST API: An ETAPI-based REST API is available for automating interactions with your notes.

Ideal use cases

Trilium fits people building a large, structured personal knowledge base over years, where a hierarchical tree, note cloning, attributes, and scripting matter more than the lightweight, flat note-taking of simpler apps. Its scripting and REST API make it a reasonable fit for people who want to automate parts of their note workflow, and its sync server plus mobile-optimized frontend support using it across desktop, browser, and phone.

It's less suited to someone who just wants a minimal, distraction-free notes app; Trilium's feature set (relation maps, scripting, attributes, multiple note types) carries a learning curve that's overkill for jotting occasional notes. Native mobile support is also still evolving: the official recommendation for mobile is the web interface of a server installation, with community-built native apps (TriliumDroid, Pocket Trilium, Trinote) as alternatives rather than first-party apps.

Installation

Windows / macOS: Download the binary release for your platform from the latest release page, unzip it, and run the trilium executable.

Linux: Use your distribution's package if it's listed in the project's packaging status table, or download the binary release directly. A Flatpak build is also provided, though not yet published on Flathub.

Browser: Any OS can access Trilium through the web interface of a server installation, which is nearly identical to the desktop app. Only the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox are tested and supported.

Mobile: Use a mobile browser to reach the mobile interface of a server installation, or use a community-built native app such as TriliumDroid (Android), Pocket Trilium (Android, full offline support), or Trinote (iOS).

Server: For self-hosted server installation, including via Docker, follow the official server installation docs.

To build from source and run the server locally for development:

git clone https://github.com/TriliumNext/Trilium.git
cd Trilium
pnpm install
pnpm run server:start

The server runs at http://localhost:8080. Documentation contributions and desktop app builds use similar pnpm-based workflows, detailed in the Developer Guide.