Zettlr
FreeA one-stop Markdown workbench for researchers and writers
An open-source Markdown editor for academic and long-form writing, with built-in Zotero/JabRef citations, Zettelkasten links, LaTeX math and export. Files stay local, with no forced cloud sync and no telemetry.
Why we picked it
Zettlr is built for researchers and long-form writers rather than general note-taking. 13,382 stars, GPL-3.0.
It closes the loop on academic writing: citation management, Zotero integration, footnotes, and export to journal-ready PDF and Word. For papers, books or any long piece that needs a bibliography, it saves considerably more effort than a general note app.
The reverse also holds. If you only keep daily notes and to-dos, none of that machinery applies and something lighter will serve you better. The test is simple: does what you write need citations?