[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":630},["ShallowReactive",2],{"navigation-reviews-public":3,"section-availability":33,"reviews-index":35},[4,25],{"label":5,"category":6,"to":7,"children":8},"Reviews","reviews","\u002Freviews",[9,13,16,19,22],{"label":10,"to":11,"sort_order":12},"Excalidraw","\u002Freviews\u002Fr-excalidraw",0,{"label":14,"to":15,"sort_order":12},"Legendkeeper","\u002Freviews\u002Fr-legendkeeper",{"label":17,"to":18,"sort_order":12},"Notepad++","\u002Freviews\u002Fr-notepad-plus-plus",{"label":20,"to":21,"sort_order":12},"Obsidian","\u002Freviews\u002Fr-obsidian",{"label":23,"to":24,"sort_order":12},"VSCodium","\u002Freviews\u002Fr-vscodium",{"label":26,"category":27,"to":28,"children":29},"Apps","apps-inline","\u002Fapps",[30],{"label":31,"href":32,"sort_order":12},"Manifest","\u002Fmanifest\u002F",{"novos":34,"aeldos":34,"somnos":34,"praxis":34,"blog":34,"reviews":34,"apps":34},true,[36,182,302,389,534],{"id":37,"title":10,"author":38,"body":39,"created":145,"date":145,"description":146,"extension":147,"featured":148,"image":149,"last_reviewed":145,"link":150,"meta":151,"navigation":34,"path":11,"repository":154,"seo":155,"software_category":156,"software_type":157,"status":159,"stem":161,"summary":145,"tags":162,"tech_stack":165,"tool_tags":171,"visibility":180,"__hash__":181},"reviews\u002Freviews\u002Fr-excalidraw.md","Elias Black",{"type":40,"value":41,"toc":139},"minimark",[42,46,51,55,59,66,71,96,101,106,111,122,128],[43,44,10],"h1",{"id":45},"excalidraw",[47,48,50],"h2",{"id":49},"overview","Overview",[52,53,54],"p",{},"A quick, easy to learn, extremely flexible and intuitive digital whiteboard application.",[47,56,58],{"id":57},"review","Review",[52,60,61,65],{},[62,63,64],"strong",{},"What I use it for:"," Excalidraw is frequently critical to my creative process, from diagramming concepts and software architectures to creating art assets. If I need to think something through visually or sketch and communicate a visual idea to someone else, Excalidraw is usually the first application I turn to. Well worth the subscription.",[52,67,68],{},[62,69,70],{},"Pros:",[72,73,74,78,81,84,87,90,93],"ul",{},[75,76,77],"li",{},"Great UI, extremely low friction and easy to learn",[75,79,80],{},"Flexible for numerous use cases",[75,82,83],{},"Data can be exported in SVG, PNG, or Excalidraw formats",[75,85,86],{},"Local-first and Progressive Web App for offline functionality",[75,88,89],{},"Encrypted",[75,91,92],{},"Collaborative features",[75,94,95],{},"Dark mode",[52,97,98],{},[62,99,100],{},"Cons:",[72,102,103],{},[75,104,105],{},"SVG output code can sometimes be a bit rough",[52,107,108],{},[62,109,110],{},"Buy\u002FTry if:",[72,112,113,116,119],{},[75,114,115],{},"You need a way to sketch things visually but don't like the limitations of things like Paint or the complexity of tools like Draw.io. or Miro",[75,117,118],{},"You need a digital whiteboard to sketch out your ideas",[75,120,121],{},"You're looking for a cheaper, better, open-source, and streamlined alternative to draw.io, miro, viseo, jamboard, etc",[52,123,124,127],{},[62,125,126],{},"Other Recommended Options",":",[72,129,130],{},[75,131,132,133],{},"Tldraw: ",[134,135,136],"a",{"href":136,"rel":137},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.tldraw.com\u002F",[138],"nofollow",{"title":140,"searchDepth":141,"depth":141,"links":142},"",2,[143,144],{"id":49,"depth":141,"text":50},{"id":57,"depth":141,"text":58},null,"Intuitive and flexible digital whiteboard","md",false,"\u002Fimages\u002Freview-gallery\u002Fexcalidraw-screen.png","https:\u002F\u002Fplus.excalidraw.com\u002F",{"alternatives":152,"game_tags":145,"date_created":153,"date_updated":153},"https:\u002F\u002Falternativeto.net\u002Fsoftware\u002Fexcalidraw\u002F","2025-09-25T00:00:00.000Z","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fexcalidraw\u002Fexcalidraw",{"title":10,"description":146},[58],[158],"Tool",[160],"published","reviews\u002Fr-excalidraw",[57,163,164],"recommendation","whiteboard",[166,167,168,169,170],"TypeScript","Firebase","Vercel","React","Jotai",[172,173,174,175,176,177,178,179],"Productivity","Creative","Visual","Development","Design","Organization","Communication","Data","public","H68kzi0M8-VYtkX0yaBQkcMEP0aLlnLE6pDNvj_-3LI",{"id":183,"title":14,"author":38,"body":184,"created":145,"date":145,"description":281,"extension":147,"featured":148,"image":282,"last_reviewed":145,"link":283,"meta":284,"navigation":34,"path":15,"repository":287,"seo":288,"software_category":289,"software_type":290,"status":291,"stem":292,"summary":145,"tags":293,"tech_stack":145,"tool_tags":295,"visibility":180,"__hash__":301},"reviews\u002Freviews\u002Fr-legendkeeper.md",{"type":40,"value":185,"toc":277},[186,190,192,195,197,202,206,247,251,259,263],[43,187,189],{"id":188},"legend-keeper","Legend Keeper",[47,191,50],{"id":49},[52,193,194],{},"Legend Keeper is a toolkit aimed at storytellers, DM's, authors, and world builders complete with a map manager, personal wiki, whiteboard, and timeline tools, all made by a very skilled solo developer. It's an amazing set of tools for building fictional worlds and was my primary tool for my last major Worldbuilding project, a science fantasy setting called Aeldos. LK is my go to recommendation for anyone looking for a sleek, well designed, and easy to learn toolset for building worlds and running ttrpgs. It's not a VTT but if you run games less focused on tactical combat and more focused on rich settings it's perfect.",[47,196,58],{"id":57},[52,198,199,201],{},[62,200,64],{}," I don't actually use it much these days as I have transitioned to using Obsidian and building my own custom tools but it was home to my game world, rule book, and even character sheets, session notes, and more for nearly 5 years.",[52,203,204],{},[62,205,70],{},[72,207,208,211,214,217,220,223,226,229,232,235,238,241,244],{},[75,209,210],{},"Excellent, intuitive UI",[75,212,213],{},"Rich set of tools for managing maps, adding pins, associating map pins with articles and node and edge style diagram boards, a file tree, image gallery, and timeline functionality",[75,215,216],{},"map system is basically like a Google maps for your own fictional world, with automatic tiling for loading and resolution handling and tonnes of other map related functionality",[75,218,219],{},"publish and share functionality to share creations broadly or with specific groups of people and permission management to further break down sharing and access",[75,221,222],{},"wiki style linking and preview on hover",[75,224,225],{},"configurable sidebars with rich custom property options",[75,227,228],{},"a smart template system",[75,230,231],{},"amazing autolinker that allows you to scan a page and automatically link other pages in your world",[75,233,234],{},"small dev team with a focused vision and dedication to good UI\u002FUX and high quality code",[75,236,237],{},"dark mode UI and very neutral and flexible design space that can accomodate various genres",[75,239,240],{},"progressive Web app with local functionality and remote syncing",[75,242,243],{},"great discord community with lots of community built templates and guidance",[75,245,246],{},"reasonable price",[52,248,249],{},[62,250,100],{},[72,252,253,256],{},[75,254,255],{},"subscription tool but release schedule is a bit sluggish",[75,257,258],{},"because if is a 1-2 person dev team focus is often split between outreach, support, and advertising. Development cycle is affected accordingly",[52,260,261],{},[62,262,110],{},[72,264,265,268,271,274],{},[75,266,267],{},"You want to try world building and need a place for all your ideas and notes",[75,269,270],{},"You need a place to organise and share your ttrpg notes, setting and\u002For game system",[75,272,273],{},"Obsidian is too plug-in driven and you want something more opinionated for organising your notes",[75,275,276],{},"You want to build your world \"map first\", annotating and linking articles, creating a rich user experience",{"title":140,"searchDepth":141,"depth":141,"links":278},[279,280],{"id":49,"depth":141,"text":50},{"id":57,"depth":141,"text":58},"Worldbuilding tool for storytellers and writers","\u002Fimages\u002Freview-gallery\u002Flegendkeeper-screen.jpg","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.legendkeeper.com",{"alternatives":285,"game_tags":145,"date_created":286,"date_updated":286},"https:\u002F\u002Falternativeto.net\u002Fsoftware\u002Flegendkeeper\u002F","2025-09-29T00:00:00.000Z","N\u002FA",{"title":14,"description":281},[58],[158],[160],"reviews\u002Fr-legendkeeper",[57,163,294],"personal-knowledge-management",[172,173,174,176,177,178,296,297,298,299,300],"TTRPG","Worldbuilding","Writing","Maps","Online","rR2zrZDQruEnbbPaKN-wgPaEJwNoMe69uDSrwO23at8",{"id":303,"title":17,"author":38,"body":304,"created":145,"date":145,"description":370,"extension":147,"featured":148,"image":371,"last_reviewed":145,"link":372,"meta":373,"navigation":34,"path":18,"repository":287,"seo":375,"software_category":376,"software_type":377,"status":378,"stem":379,"summary":145,"tags":380,"tech_stack":383,"tool_tags":386,"visibility":180,"__hash__":388},"reviews\u002Freviews\u002Fr-notepad-plus-plus.md",{"type":40,"value":305,"toc":366},[306,309,311,314,316,321,325,342,346,351,355],[43,307,17],{"id":308},"notepad",[47,310,50],{"id":49},[52,312,313],{},"The sweet spot between Notepad and an IDE. Notepad++ has been my rough draft text editor and scratchpad for over a decade. Simple to get started with but with surprisingly deep supplementary functionality you can dive into at your own pace. It's also extremely performant, even with huge text files, and has a plethora of built in tools for text manipulation.",[47,315,58],{"id":57},[52,317,318,320],{},[62,319,64],{}," Notepad++ is where I go to take quick notes when I need to jot something down, store some copied text, or do any sort of text manipulation such as find and replace or run regular expressions to clean data. It's one of a handful of apps that is perpetually open on my computer.",[52,322,323],{},[62,324,70],{},[72,326,327,330,333,336,339],{},[75,328,329],{},"Solid, fast, easy to use",[75,331,332],{},"Lots of built in functions and plug-in options for everything from changing text cases or sorting lines to using regex to find and replace or modify data",[75,334,335],{},"configurable appearance let's you build a UI that works for you",[75,337,338],{},"rock solid state and save handling. As far as I can recall, in ten years of using it, I don't think I've ever lost data",[75,340,341],{},"free",[52,343,344],{},[62,345,100],{},[72,347,348],{},[75,349,350],{},"default UI is a bit dated",[52,352,353],{},[62,354,110],{},[72,356,357,360,363],{},[75,358,359],{},"You need a basic text editor thats vastly superior to windows Notepad",[75,361,362],{},"you want to delve into IDEs and VS studio and VS Code are too daunting",[75,364,365],{},"You need to do data cleanup or remediation and are comfortable with Regular Expressions",{"title":140,"searchDepth":141,"depth":141,"links":367},[368,369],{"id":49,"depth":141,"text":50},{"id":57,"depth":141,"text":58},"Free source code editor and notepad replacement","\u002Fimages\u002Freview-gallery\u002Fnotepad-plus-plus.png","https:\u002F\u002Fnotepad-plus-plus.org",{"alternatives":374,"game_tags":145,"date_created":286,"date_updated":286},"https:\u002F\u002Falternativeto.net\u002Fsoftware\u002Fnotepad-plus-plus\u002Fabout\u002F",{"title":17,"description":370},[58],[158],[160],"reviews\u002Fr-notepad-plus-plus",[57,163,381,382],"ide","code",[384,385],"C++","Scintilla",[172,177,178,179,175,387],"Text","sl_A3ph2SDQzco1SRxZsurBYAtGui-kAMDfpshtvbfo",{"id":390,"title":20,"author":145,"body":391,"created":145,"date":145,"description":516,"extension":147,"featured":148,"image":517,"last_reviewed":145,"link":518,"meta":519,"navigation":34,"path":21,"repository":522,"seo":523,"software_category":524,"software_type":525,"status":526,"stem":527,"summary":145,"tags":528,"tech_stack":529,"tool_tags":532,"visibility":180,"__hash__":533},"reviews\u002Freviews\u002Fr-obsidian.md",{"type":40,"value":392,"toc":512},[393,396,398,401,403,418,422,466,470,478,482,499,503],[43,394,20],{"id":395},"obsidian",[47,397,50],{"id":49},[52,399,400],{},"Excellent personal information or knowledge management application. If you write, code, or just generally need a way to track lots of primarily text-based content, Obsidian is an extremely flexible and well made application that can act as a second brain.",[47,402,58],{"id":57},[52,404,405,407,408,412,413,417],{},[62,406,64],{}," As my primary writing and data organization application Obsidian is is central to my life at this point. It handles journaling, fiction writing, worldbuilding, and general ideation, as well as backlog and technical specifications and the organization and management of all of the above. All the content on this website originates in notes in my Obsidian vault so it is also functionally the content backend for my website.\nThe core functionality is great, clean and well thought out with a focus on function but attention to form. If Obsidian can't do something out of the box it has an enormous library of plugins (",[134,409,410],{"href":410,"rel":411},"https:\u002F\u002Fobsidian.md\u002Fplugins",[138],") made by the community that can extend it further. I've tried lots of different personal knowledge management tools, from plain text in Notepad++ to Word documents to Keynote (",[134,414,415],{"href":415,"rel":416},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fdpradov\u002Fkeynote-nf",[138],"), to Notion, Joplin, and many many more. Obsidian is the first one that stuck for me.",[52,419,420],{},[62,421,70],{},[72,423,424,427,430,433,436,439,442,445,448,451,454,457,460,463],{},[75,425,426],{},"Intuitive interface but deep well of optional functionality means it's easy to learn but there's lots of room to learn more and adapt it even more to your use case",[75,428,429],{},"Flexible for numerous use cases. A functionally infinite digital notebook or personal wiki",[75,431,432],{},"Markdown first notes means your data is always accessible and not locked in a proprietary format. If you ever stop liking it or the company that makes it, it's easy to take your data elsewhere",[75,434,435],{},"Standard markdown syntax and wiki style linking",[75,437,438],{},"Embed images, use the Canvas system to create integrated whiteboards, or the Bases system to create databases so you're not stuck with just text",[75,440,441],{},"Integrated transclusion (note embedding) which allows you to organize your info in a DRY way (iykyk)",[75,443,444],{},"Countless configurable settings to make it look and work the way you want",[75,446,447],{},"Extremely customizable, from CSS for style to Plugins for new functions and integrations",[75,449,450],{},"Content is all plain markdown with  optional YAML frontmatter for metadata. Open formats means its easy to learn, easy to use, easy to modify, and infinitely portable",[75,452,453],{},"The relationships between notes can be viewed and navigated as a graph which can be fun",[75,455,456],{},"Excellent performance for both desktop and mobile Apps",[75,458,459],{},"Secure and private with syncing functionality between devices (Subscription service) using AES-256 end-to-end encryption. Otherwise data is just kept on your device",[75,461,462],{},"Theme system with dark mode and community made themes. Make your own if you want!",[75,464,465],{},"Parent company, Dynalist.inc is Canadian, based out of Oakville",[52,467,468],{},[62,469,100],{},[72,471,472,475],{},[75,473,474],{},"Easy to get distracted tinkering with it, adding new features and plugins or customizing it and with 2,000+ plugins there are usually multiple plugins for any given purpose so its up to you to decide which one to use",[75,476,477],{},"Cross-device synchronization is paywalled but the price is reasonable and there are workarounds if that's important",[52,479,480],{},[62,481,110],{},[72,483,484,487,490,493,496],{},[75,485,486],{},"You need a way to organize a lot of information and want a personal knowledge base or wiki",[75,488,489],{},"You are tired of managing discrete files for notes and need something more organized",[75,491,492],{},"You have tried other PIM software and are looking for an alternative",[75,494,495],{},"You're not onboard for the mandatory integration of LLMs into your notetaking app (e.g. Notion)",[75,497,498],{},"You want something that focuses on a solid set of core features and performance and easy to learn but also want something that can be tinkered with and extended as needed",[52,500,501,127],{},[62,502,126],{},[72,504,505],{},[75,506,507,508],{},"Joplin: ",[134,509,510],{"href":510,"rel":511},"https:\u002F\u002Fjoplinapp.org",[138],{"title":140,"searchDepth":141,"depth":141,"links":513},[514,515],{"id":49,"depth":141,"text":50},{"id":57,"depth":141,"text":58},"Personal knowledge base or information manager","\u002Fimages\u002Freview-gallery\u002Fobsidian-icon.png","https:\u002F\u002Fobsidian.md",{"alternatives":520,"game_tags":145,"date_created":521,"date_updated":153},"https:\u002F\u002Falternativeto.net\u002Fsoftware\u002Fobsidian\u002F","2020-03-01T00:00:00.000Z","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fobsidianmd",{"title":20,"description":516},[58],[158],[160],"reviews\u002Fr-obsidian",[57,163,294],[530,531],"Electron","JavaScript",[172,173,174,175,176,177],"nsYNXWz_5D48NxdwaKQdIjeWD3oYO77LnO_IhGxz-qU",{"id":535,"title":23,"author":38,"body":536,"created":145,"date":145,"description":612,"extension":147,"featured":148,"image":613,"last_reviewed":145,"link":614,"meta":615,"navigation":34,"path":24,"repository":618,"seo":619,"software_category":620,"software_type":621,"status":622,"stem":623,"summary":145,"tags":624,"tech_stack":625,"tool_tags":628,"visibility":180,"__hash__":629},"reviews\u002Freviews\u002Fr-vscodium.md",{"type":40,"value":537,"toc":608},[538,541,543,546,552,554,559,563,580,584,592,597],[43,539,23],{"id":540},"vscodium",[47,542,50],{"id":49},[52,544,545],{},"VSCodium is the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) I use it for code. If you code you know, but if you don't code you should give it a try. And if you do code you probably already have a preferred IDE so I'm not sure you would care what I have to say. In any case, VSCodium is free and even if you just use it for editing markdown and yaml it's got a huge ecosystem of extensions to help with that. If you're new to coding it's a bit intimidating but if you approach it slowly, piece by piece, eventually you'll have an enormously powerful tool that can make your life (and the lives of others) much easier.",[547,548,549],"blockquote",{},[52,550,551],{},"Why not regular VSCode? Because it's got less bloat, fewer analytics feeding the Microsoft beast. That's about it",[47,553,58],{"id":57},[52,555,556,558],{},[62,557,64],{},"\nCoding. This site, all the widgets and apps on it, it all passed through VSCodium at some point. It's also great for managing large sets of data in text, whether that's doing data clean up on catalogs of Traits and Feats or million line files of names for a random name generator. It's not my sole text editor, I switch between Obsidian, Notepad++, and VSCode regularly and each has a set of features that can make things so much easier once you learn to use them,",[52,560,561],{},[62,562,70],{},[72,564,565,568,571,574,577],{},[75,566,567],{},"Excellent performance. It's my go-to when other tools struggle with very large text files",[75,569,570],{},"Clean, configurable interface; Structure panels in a way that makes sense to you, use themes to dress it up however you like.",[75,572,573],{},"Extremely configurable and extendible. Huge extension library and lots of documentation.",[75,575,576],{},"Functionally identical to VSCode without the Microsoft bloat",[75,578,579],{},"It's not 'AI First' by default so you get to decide if and how to integrate that",[52,581,582],{},[62,583,100],{},[72,585,586,589],{},[75,587,588],{},"If you're new to coding all the UI and configuration can be a bit overwhelming",[75,590,591],{},"It doesn't have some of the fancier newer patterns seen in the latest IDEs (could be a pro depending on your viewpoint)",[52,593,594],{},[62,595,596],{},"Try if:",[72,598,599,602,605],{},[75,600,601],{},"Do work with text in any way and you need something more powerful than Notepad++",[75,603,604],{},"If you're starting out as a developer and looking for a good workhorse IDE.",[75,606,607],{},"You use VSCode but want something with a bit more privacy",{"title":140,"searchDepth":141,"depth":141,"links":609},[610,611],{"id":49,"depth":141,"text":50},{"id":57,"depth":141,"text":58},"Community-driven, freely-licensed binary distribution of Microsoft’s editor VS Code IDE","\u002Fimages\u002Freview-gallery\u002Fvscodium-icon.svg","https:\u002F\u002Fvscodium.com",{"alternatives":616,"game_tags":145,"date_created":286,"date_updated":617},"https:\u002F\u002Falternativeto.net\u002Fsoftware\u002Fvscodium\u002F","2026-01-11T00:00:00.000Z","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002FVSCodium\u002Fvscodium",{"title":23,"description":612},[58],[158],[160],"reviews\u002Fr-vscodium",[57,163,381,382],[626,627,530],"Chromium","Node.js",[172,179,175,387],"GOQ6NFtLE-h4n6KqGNQVp6KhVLpTi9K4wbuRmsFUT14",1776259762692]