Craft
A weekend of work, and real gaps remain.
A document and note app built around blocks and nested pages, with a strong emphasis on typography and on documents that look finished when shared.
Build a block editor over Markdown, and be honest about the polish gap. STACK - Astro with a Node adapter, SQLite, TipTap or ProseMirror for the editor WHAT NOT TO WRITE - The editor core. ProseMirror handles selection, undo and collaborative editing; writing that yourself is months DOCUMENTS - Stored as Markdown with front matter, so nothing is trapped in a proprietary format - Nested pages as a parent id, not as folders SHARING - A share is a random token with an expiry and view-or-edit - A shared document renders to a static page with its own stylesheet, cached hard THE TYPOGRAPHY, WHICH IS THE POINT - One measured type scale, a comfortable measure, and generous spacing - Spend the time here: it is the entire difference between this and a textarea OFFLINE - IndexedDB with a write queue replayed on reconnect, and a visible pending state Include the schema, the editor setup and the type scale.
What you lose
- Typography and layout refined to a point a home-made editor will not reach quickly
- Native apps across Apple platforms with offline editing and sync
- Shared documents that look presentable to someone outside the company
If you would rather not build
- Obsidian, free and local
- Notion, for the shared-document case
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
AppFlowy
$0An open-source block editor and workspace with local storage.
AppFlowy-IO/AppFlowyfree · open source
TipTap
$0A ProseMirror wrapper that gives you a block editor in a day.
ueberdosis/tiptapfree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
58/100
Verdict kinda at 58. ProseMirror gives you a real editor quickly; matching the typography and the native apps is what makes it a weekend rather than an evening.
History
tracked since 10 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Questions about Craft
answered from the record above
Is Craft free?
No — the plan we track is $10 a month. Personal Pro at around $10/month billed monthly, cheaper annually.
Can you replace Craft by building your own?
ALMOST. A weekend of work, and real gaps remain. Replacement score 58 out of 100, build time a weekend. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does Craft cost?
$10 a month on Personal Pro — $120 a year. Recorded 10 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing Craft?
Typography and layout refined to a point a home-made editor will not reach quickly; Native apps across Apple platforms with offline editing and sync; Shared documents that look presentable to someone outside the company. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Craft?
Yes: AppFlowy, TipTap. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
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