Dnote vs marimo
Dnote
getdnote.com
marimo
marimo.ioSide by side
| Figure | Dnote | marimo |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Notebook Software | 8.2 (#11) | 8.6 (#8) |
| Deployment | The self-hosted server can run through Docker Compose, Docker, or as a standalone binary. | Notebooks can be served as web apps, executed as scripts, or exported as WebAssembly-powered HTML. |
| Founded | 2017 | 2024 |
| Security | Dnote's end-to-end encryption feature was removed; the maker says the removal restored full-text search on the web, embedded notes in emails, and password recovery. | marimo says no user code runs without explicit user action, and notebooks opened in edit mode are statically loaded rather than executed as Python modules. |
| Support | The maker's documentation links to GitHub for the project and documentation feedback. | The maker directs users with installation issues to GitHub or Discord and lists [email protected] for general contact. |
Plans
In their own words
Dnote
Dnote is a free, open-source terminal notebook for storing commands, snippets, and insights, then locating them with full-text search. It runs locally on Linux, macOS, and Windows, with an API platform option and self-hosted deployment. Notes live in books; Dnote creates a book automatically when its first note is added. Editing uses the text editor configured on your system, whether terminal-based or graphical. The command-line client stores data in SQLite and follows the XDG Base Directory convention for configuration and data paths. You can optionally run a self-hosted server to synchronize notes between devices. That server exposes a REST API for notes and books, reachable from any HTTP client, while the CLI accepts standard-input piping. Deployment options include Docker Compose, Docker, or a standalone binary. The web note-taking interface was removed, and end-to-end encryption was removed according to the maker.
marimo
marimo is an open-source reactive Python notebook for reproducible experiments, data work, and interactive apps. When a cell runs, dependent cells run as well or are marked stale, helping keep code and outputs consistent. Notebooks are stored as Python files that can be tracked with Git, run as scripts, or reused as modules. Users can build interfaces with sliders, dropdowns, dataframe tables, and selectable plots, then deploy notebooks as interactive web apps or run them in browsers through WebAssembly. SQL cells work with dataframes, databases, CSVs, and Google Sheets, with named backends including Polars, Pandas, PyArrow, DuckDB, SQLite, and Postgres. AI notebook features support OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama, and compatible APIs. marimo has extensions for VS Code and PyCharm, with the VS Code extension also working in Cursor and other VS Code forks. The free hosted option molab provides 4 CPUs, 32 GB RAM, and sessions up to 12 hours; notebooks are public by default. Running notebook code can execute arbitrary code, so the maker advises using trusted notebooks or reviewing code first. The open-source notebook is free.