a DEVONthink alternative for Windows
DEVONthink doesn't run on Windows, and it never has. If what you want from it is the core — one private, searchable place for your notes, PDFs, and scans — hushvault does that on Windows (and macOS), built on a plain folder instead of a database.
What you get
- One library for notes and documents. Markdown notes, PDFs, and images side by side in tabs — linked with
[[wikilinks]](even to a specific PDF page), tagged, and backlinked. - Search that actually narrows. Full-text across everything — including OCR'd text from scanned PDFs and images — with
tag:,kind:,in:and phrase filters, and saved searches in the sidebar. - PDF work without leaving the app. Read, zoom, select text, highlight (highlights travel with the file), and run a batch toolbench: merge, split, rotate, compress, protect, organize pages, extract text into notes.
- A watched inbox. Point your scanner or downloads at an
inbox/folder and file things out with links healing automatically. - No lock-in by construction. The library is an ordinary Windows folder. Sync it with anything, back it up like anything, open it in anything. Delete hushvault and you lose nothing — that's a promise.
What you don't get
Honesty first: hushvault has no "See Also" AI, no email archiving, no web clipper, and no phone app. It's a young, deliberately small tool — the full comparison spells out both columns.
Windows specifics
- Ships as a 64-bit installer (.exe or .msi), tested on Windows 10 and 11.
- The beta isn't code-signed yet, so SmartScreen warns on first run — More info → Run anyway, once.
- One purchase covers Windows and macOS; the same vault folder moves freely between them (paths and links are portable by design).
Try it in a minute
hushvault is pay-what-you-want (from $12) during the beta, one-time, with free updates and 1.0 included for beta buyers. Download it, clickCreate a sample library, and see how it fits. Get hushvault for Windows.