Zim Desktop Wiki
Shares rank 8 of 9 wiki software by recommenders
Free desktop wiki that people use for years of notes and snippets, often as a daily driver; a critic finds it weak on macOS.
Free desktop wiki that people use for years of notes and snippets, often as a daily driver; a critic finds it weak on macOS.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Daily driver for most tasks
“As my main driver for most everything in my life”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “A static site generator written in POSIX shell” “my daily driver for most things in my life”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)” Early Obsidian-like wiki
“it was basically Obsidian but 15-20 years early”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline” “probably the best proto-Obsidian”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Note-Taking and Personal Knowledge Management” Long use and easy recall of notes
“have been using https://zim-wiki.org for about a decade longer, so my muscle memory is there”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “I Use Obsidian” “super handy to be able to go looking for my thoughts or snippets from 6 months ago”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Using an Engineering Notebook”
Other wiki software people recommend
The four most recommended other wiki software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confluence | 38 | 80 | 32% | 11 | 12 yrs3 owners | — |
| TiddlyWiki | 19 | 1 | 95% | 7 | — | Approved |
| MediaWiki | 15 | 9 | 63% | 8 | 6 yrs3 owners | — |
| Outline | 10 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Zim Desktop WikiThis page | 5 | 2 | 71% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
All 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I think as a desktop app (if you will), it does a really great job!”
“probably the best proto-Obsidian”
“Nowadays I use Krita, ffmpeg, Blender, Zim Desktop Wiki, and Inkscape”
“it wasn't working on macOS well enough to use that daily”
“it was basically Obsidian but 15-20 years early”
“I've already contributed a bunch of plugins to Zim”
“have been using https://zim-wiki.org for about a decade longer, so my muscle memory is there”
“super handy to be able to go looking for my thoughts or snippets from 6 months ago”
“As my main driver for most everything in my life”
“my daily driver for most things in my life”
“I use Zim wiki for everything just now and I don't like it.”
“am happier with a hacked zim-wiki”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.