What it does
Baalda is an open-source team notes workspace that keeps notes as Markdown files on disk and supports real-time co-editing, per-file permissions, and separate vaults for teams or clients. Its pricing page says the app is free and Apache-2.0 licensed, self-hosting is unlimited at no cost, and the managed backend is free for two people and one synced vault; larger teams can buy a per-seat Team plan.
Baalda combines personal Markdown ownership with team collaboration: each note remains a normal file while teammates can edit together, and the product describes per-file access controls for shared vaults. That is a useful distinction for teams that want a knowledge base without putting every document into a proprietary block database. The vendor offers both self-hosting and a managed service; self-hosting is free, while the managed tier includes a free two-person, one-vault allowance and a paid seat-based plan for larger teams. The paid Team price was not visible in the text retrieved from the pricing page. The product is early in its release history; the site showed version 0.1.88. No collaboration or self-hosted deployment was tested.
Strengths
- Notes remain Markdown files on disk and can be edited collaboratively in real time.
- The product documents per-file permissions and separate team or client vaults.
- The app and self-hosted backend are described as open source; a free managed tier covers two people and one synced vault.
Best for
- Small teams that want collaborative Markdown notes with file-level access controls
- Organizations willing to self-host a shared notebook instead of using a managed service
Sources
- Baalda | The team second brain (Oct 25, 2026)
- Pricing | Baalda (Oct 25, 2026)