Does Blinko need an AI provider to work?
No. Blinko works as a plain note app with the AI settings off, and when you turn them on you can point it at a local Ollama server instead of OpenAI, Anthropic or another hosted API.
Blinko: AI Notes You Host Yourself
Capture a thought in Blinko and it sits as a Markdown card you can tag, search and expand into a full note. The note app's AI search, tagging and chat run against Ollama on your own hardware, or a hosted model if you prefer.
Compare with similar apps
How Blinko stacks up against other productivity apps. Add or remove apps to change the comparison.
| Requirement | Blinko | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free + Paid | Free | Free |
| Web UI | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Architecture | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM |
| Containers | 2Plus Postgres | 1The app alone | 1The app alone |
| Database | Postgres | SQLite | SQLite |
| Runtime | Node.js | Node.js | Go |
| Docker | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linux package | – | Yes | – |
| Windows | – | Yes | – |
| macOS | – | Yes | – |
| Android | Yes | – | – |
| macOS | Yes | Yes | – |
| Windows | Yes | Yes | – |
| Linux | Yes | Yes | – |
| Full comparison | This app | Blinko vs Trilium Notes | – |
Client apps
Official client for phone and desktop.
Common questions
Where does Blinko store my notes?
In its Postgres database, so the Postgres volume has to be mounted or the notes go with the container. Attachments go into the /app/.blinko data volume by default, or into an S3 bucket once you configure one.
Does Blinko work without internet access?
Yes on your own network. Notes, tags, search and the desktop and Android apps all work offline from the internet, and only a hosted AI provider or the Blinko Hub needs a route out.
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