Ask HN: What is your go-to solution for a personal wiki in 2026?

I've used Notion for a long time but I'm interested to hear what other alternatives exist in 2026?

For me the main requirements are:

* Backed up to cloud

* Has a mobile app that is easy to make small changes (for example if I'm doing an oil change on my car I need to be able to pull out my phone and log it in the wiki easily)

* Simple file format like markdown so that you're not locked into something proprietary (no need for crazy formatting options like MSWord)

* Option to export data out as a backup

* Allow uploading arbitrary files like PDFs, images, receipts etc...

* Nice to have: support for inline tables of data with simple calculations/sorting

12 points | by ex-aws-dude 17 hours ago

8 comments

  • sandreas 1 hour ago
    There are a few lesser known projects, I used.

    Trillium - https://triliumnotes.org/

    Joplin - https://joplinapp.org

    I personally use Flatnotes - https://github.com/Dullage/flatnotes with a connected git repository, but this does not meet your requirements.

  • kirubakaran 14 hours ago
    https://hyperclast.com/

    I built it because Notion is way too slow. I loved Obsidian, but I wanted it to be multi-player so my whole team could use it. It is fast, open, and self-hostable.

    It meets all the criteria you listed except the mobile app. Mobile app will be out next week. I'd happy to build any other features you need. Just let me know at k@hyperclast.com :-)

    • farseer 5 hours ago
      Your self hosted option only works for up to 5 employees and prices for more are not listed.
  • doritosfan84 17 hours ago
    I was on Obsidian for a while, moved away to try Supernotes and other competitors, and now I'm in the process of moving back to Obsidian.

    Has everything you want I think with plugins to do a ton more while still essentially being just Markdown.

    • ex-aws-dude 17 hours ago
      The part I'm a bit confused about with obsidian is how it works with a mobile app

      My understanding is every device syncs its own full copy of everything?

      So if you have a lot of images/PDFs, does your phone have to be able to hold everything at once?

  • scorpioxy 13 hours ago
    I don't have the same requirements and when I really thought about it, it turns out I need very few things and can get by without the other requirements.

    So for many years it's been orgmode in emacs. Not exactly a wiki, but you can treat it as such. As they are "just text files", you can treat them as that and many things become simpler. Difficult to share with non-emacs users is probably the only downside.

  • sgbeal 17 hours ago
    The Fossil SCM (<https://fossil-scm.org>) meets most of your requirements, noting that:

    - "mobile app" means "its web interface"

    - "backed up" means to wherever you upload/sync your backups to

    - No automagic table calculation support.

  • rebekkamikkoa 14 hours ago
    My go‑to for a personal wiki in 2026 is Obsidian.

    Also Logseq worth it.

  • aborsy 13 hours ago
    Bookstack.

    It stores pages in a database, but you could export them in markdown. Web interface is mobile friendly, essentially an app.

  • uberman 17 hours ago
    For a personal wiki I would use wikijs