100% Free and Open Source

About Notedrop

Built in the open, by the community, for everyone. No venture capital, no tracking, no bullshit.

Why Open Source?

We believe that software for learning should be free as in freedom, not just free as in beer. When your notes contain your thoughts, ideas, and knowledge, you deserve to know exactly what happens to them.

Open source means you can inspect every line of code, verify there's no telemetry or tracking, and even run Notedrop on your own server if you want complete control. Your data stays yours.

Community Driven

Notedrop isn't built by a faceless corporation chasing growth metrics. It's built by students, developers, and educators who actually use it. Every feature request comes from real users, and every contribution is welcomed.

We don't have a product roadmap dictated by investors. Our roadmap is shaped by the community through GitHub Discussions. If you want a feature, propose it. If you can build it, submit a PR. That's how open source works.

Our Principles

These aren't marketing buzzwords. They're commitments we make to every user.

Transparency

Every line of code is public. No hidden tracking, no secret algorithms, no surprises.

Privacy First

No analytics, no telemetry, no selling your data. We literally can't read your notes.

Accessible

Free forever. Self-hostable. Works offline. Education tools should be available to everyone.

Learning Focused

Built by people who actually study. Features that help you learn, not features that look good in demos.

The FOSS Philosophy

Free and Open Source Software isn't just a licensing choice—it's a statement about how we believe software should be built. When Richard Stallman started the GNU project in 1983, he articulated four essential freedoms that we still hold dear:

  • 0The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
  • 1The freedom to study how the program works, and change it.
  • 2The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others.
  • 3The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions.

Notedrop embraces all four freedoms. We chose the AGPL-3.0 license because we believe that improvements to Notedrop should benefit everyone. If you modify and deploy Notedrop, you must share your changes with the community. This ensures that no corporation can take our work, improve it, and keep those improvements proprietary. Fork it, improve it, share it back.

Join the Movement

Whether you're a developer, designer, translator, or just someone who cares about open source education tools—there's a place for you in the Notedrop community.