TiddlyWiki
A complete non-linear notebook in a single HTML file.
About
TiddlyWiki is a personal wiki and non-linear notebook created by Jeremy Ruston and maintained by a community collective since 2004 — one of the longest-lived tools in this space. Its defining trait is radical portability: the entire wiki — content, code, and styling — is a single self-contained HTML file. Save it to a USB drive, email it to yourself, or host it anywhere; it opens in any browser with no install and works fully offline.
Content is organized into tiddlers, small discrete units (a note, an idea, a task, a journal entry) that you link, tag, filter, and transclude into each other, building a web of knowledge rather than a hierarchy. It supports Markdown formatting, is customizable with plugins and themes, and a Node.js version enables filesystem storage and server-style workflows. The 5.x line is JavaScript throughout (v5.4.1 shipped July 2026), available in 30+ languages, with roughly 8,700 GitHub stars. Tradeoffs: the non-linear model has a learning curve for people used to folders, saving the single file from a browser needs a saver plugin or the Node.js build, and the default aesthetic is dated without theming.
What it can do
- Entire wiki in one self-contained HTML file — portable, offline, no install
- Tiddlers: atomic, linkable, transcludable units of content
- Non-linear organization via links, tags, filters, and lists
- Markdown formatting support
- Highly customizable with plugins and themes
- Node.js edition for filesystem storage and server use
- Multilingual (30+ languages), v5.4.1 (July 2026)
- ~8.7k GitHub stars; community-maintained since 2004
Setup
Download the empty TiddlyWiki HTML file from tiddlywiki.com and open it in any browser — no install needed. Create tiddlers with the + button or by linking to a non-existent tiddler name. Install a saver (e.g. the TiddlyWiki browser extension) to persist changes, or run the Node.js version for automatic filesystem saving.
Prerequisites
Any modern web browser; nothing else. Node.js only for the server/filesystem edition.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (verified tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: ~8.7k GitHub stars with commits pushed October 9, 2026; Wikipedia and multiple independent reviews confirm the single-HTML-file architecture, tiddler model, transclusion, offline operation, and the July 2026 v5.4.1 release; the project has shipped continuously since 2004. Strengths: unmatched portability and longevity, zero lock-in, genuinely free. Docked for: (1) the non-linear model and saver mechanics have a learning curve; (2) default UI feels dated without theming; (3) license metadata is mixed (Wikipedia lists BSD-3-Clause; the repo declares no single SPDX identifier). License: BSD-3-Clause (per Wikipedia; repo metadata mixed).
★ 8,690 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 7.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 8.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 9.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 7.0/10
- · ~8.7k GitHub stars (Oct 9, 2026 push); continuously developed since 2004; v5.4.1 Jul 2026; 30+ languages
- · Single self-contained HTML file (app+content+code); tiddlers with linking/transclusion; offline in any browser; Node.js edition for filesystem storage
- · Non-linear model + saver mechanics have a learning curve; default UI dated; license metadata mixed (Wikipedia: BSD-3-Clause)
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.