An offline Notion alternative for your own docs, on one Mac

One person, with their own documents, on one Mac. Koi keeps every page on your Mac instead of in a cloud, with tables, 11 chart types, LaTeX and Word export. It's not for a team wiki, a database or your phone: Koi has no databases, no sync, no sharing and no iPhone app.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Every fact about Notion and the other apps comes from their own pages, checked October 16, 2026, or a dated report where we say so. We didn't run tests or speed checks.

Yes, with limits. Notion added offline mode in August 2025 (release notes), and its offline guide sets out how it works today:

• It works in the desktop and mobile apps.
• You turn on Available offline for each page, on each device. A parent page doesn't bring its sub-pages; each one needs it too.
• A database downloads its first 50 rows. The rest come one by one.
• Embeds, forms and buttons need a connection, and so do sharing and permissions.
• Paid plans also download your recent and favorite pages by themselves.
• Changes sync when you're back online. Text merges by itself; something like an image may need you to check it.

Koi works the other way round. Your documents aren't fetched from a server at all: every page, picture and recording is stored on your Mac, so there's no page to mark for offline and no database to download. Dictation runs on your Mac and works with no connection.

Koi still goes online for some things: signing in, since it needs an account and a plan; starting a call recording, which checks your plan with Koi's server first; and everything its AI does, because the AI is online.

Notion's Mac app is built on Electron, web technology in a desktop window. Notion is moving its interface to SwiftUI, Apple's own, with no date given (MacRumors, June 12, 2026). Koi is a native Mac app written in Swift, for Apple silicon and Intel. We haven't measured either, so we won't tell you which is faster.

Headings, bold, italic, underline, lists, to-dos, colour and pictures you drag in. Type / for the rest: /table for a table like Notion's simple ones, /chart for one of 11 chart kinds drawn from a small table of its own, /equation for LaTeX, and /flashcards for cards you study one at a time, each coming back when it's due.

Pages start Normal, as wide as the window, or pick A4, US Letter, A5 or US Legal and the page becomes a sheet of that paper, with a faint line where each page ends. More on Koi's documents.

What it doesn't have: databases, relations, views or formulas, backlinks, templates, comments, version history, a web clipper or whiteboards. Notion draws equations too, with KaTeX, and makes charts from its databases. Koi's charts need no database, just the numbers.

Any Koi document exports to Word or PDF, or prints, on its own paper size, with tables as real tables and charts as drawn. Share… sends a PDF to Mail, Messages, AirDrop or Slack. Copy as Markdown and Copy text put a page on the clipboard.

Notion exports PDF, HTML, and Markdown with CSV for databases, but not Word. Including sub-pages in a PDF needs Business, and a database exports only its current or default view (Notion's export help). Where Notion wins: it exports a whole workspace as Markdown files. Koi has no bulk Markdown export.

Start a page by talking. Tap Fn + ⌥ and Koi types what you say, on your Mac, in any of 57 languages, in Koi or any other app.

Tap Fn + ⌃ on a call and pick Online call, and the call becomes a page as it goes: the video, then You and Them in turns, transcribed on your Mac. No bot joins. Notion's own AI Meeting Notes needs its Business plan, at $20 to $24 a member a month, and transcribes in the cloud. We compare the two in Notion AI Meeting Notes alternatives.

Notion's Free and Plus plans get a limited trial of Notion AI. Notion Agent, AI Meeting Notes and Enterprise Search come with Business, at $20 a member a month billed yearly or $24 monthly, and Custom Agents run on credits, $10 per 1,000 (Notion's pricing).

Koi's AI comes with Pro, with a monthly allowance. Tap Fn + ⌘ and say “make me a page comparing these plans”, and Koi writes it, tables and all. On an open page it can write where your cursor is, add a summary, or change several places at once. Ask “what did Sam say about pricing?” and it answers from your pages and recorded calls.

Koi's AI is online. With “Let Koi write and edit for me” on, the page open in Koi's window goes along with each question so Koi can change it, and our server keeps none of it. Your documents, dictation and call transcripts stay on your Mac.

From each app's own site, checked October 16, 2026: Notion, Craft and its help, Obsidian.

Craft is the closest native Mac app to Notion, with databases, sync and an iPhone app, and it costs less than Koi (more in our Craft alternatives page). Obsidian is free and keeps plain Markdown files, which Koi doesn't. Koi's edge is the editor working from your Mac, Word export, charts from a table, and voice: dictation and calls in the same app. Only taking quick notes? See our Apple Notes alternative page.

If you don't need AI or calls, Notion Free or Plus costs less than Koi. Koi Pro starts with a 3-day free trial that needs a card, and there's no free plan. Lifetime includes a limited amount of Koi's AI; documents, dictation and recorded calls are unlimited on every plan. See the plans.

1. In Notion, export the pages you want as Markdown & CSV.
2. In Koi, choose File, then Import…, or Import in the Documents panel, and pick a Markdown file.
3. Koi reads it on your Mac and makes a page of its words. Databases have nothing to land in, so their CSV files stay behind.