TagSpaces

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A quick note: This is a completely unsolicited review/recommendation. I just really like the product.

I come from before the “tag and search” era of modern computing, and I’m still skeptical of it.

I like to be able to know that if I need, say, my tax return from 2013, it’s in “/docs/money/2013/taxes”. If I need my licensure from 2016, it’s in “/docs/work/2016/licenses”. And I definitely don’t like it when “organization” applications either move my files around.

TagSpaces leaves my files where they are, but gives me a central place to look for, tag, and search them. It lets you preview documents in the app window, and can store tags in the filename, making the whole thing able to easily be used with other programs as well. Also, unlike a lot of other organizational software – particularly the open. Top reasons why people like TagSpaces: 1. Your can choose your cloud file storage 3. It renames your files in order to tag them 4.

TagSpaces leaves my files where they are, but gives me a central place to look for, tag, and search them. It lets you preview documents in the app window, and can store tags in the filename, making the whole thing able to easily be used with other programs as well. Also, unlike a lot of other organizational software – particularly the open source ones – it does not require a server running anywhere. This is a desktop app, and everything runs right on your computer.

The core of it is open source, and it’s cross-platform, running on Windows, Mac, Linux, and… Android (to my surprise!). There’s many more features you can see on their website.

The lite version is free, and has most of the features that you need. The “subscriptions” are subscriptions for updates, not for using the product. So if you get the $47 “Pro” subscription, you can cancel it after downloading the “Pro” package and keep using the software, you just won’t get updates. It is well worth that much.

Check it out at https://www.tagspaces.org

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No Login ➜ No Backend ➜ No tracking

Open and Extensible

The source code of the TagSpaces core is open source, published under the AGPL license. The application is designed to be easily extended with different extensions for visualization of directory structures or for opening of different file types. Most of the these extensions are published under the MIT open source license.

Intuitive and ease to use

TagSpaces offers you a convenient user interface to your local files and folders on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. It is implemented using modern web technologies like JavaScript and HTML5. Since version 3 the application provides a dark mode.

Privacy by design

Keep full control of your files! TagSpaces is running completely offline on your computer or smartphone and does not require internet connection or online registration. It is up to you to decide if and with which tools (e.g. Nextcloud, Dropbox, Syncthing) you can sync your tagged files across different computers.

Tag and annotate files and folders

  • Organize your photos, documents, music, recipes or invoices with tags in the same way on all platforms.
  • TagSpaces features basic file management operations, so it can be used as simple file manager.
  • You can assign custom color to every folder and tag, which makes the visual search an easy step.
  • You can add a custom thumbnail and text description to every file or folder.
  • In contrary to the most file tagging applications, TagSpaces does not persists the tags in a centralized way. As a consequence, the added meta information is not vendor locked.

Taking notes in plain files

  • TagSpaces products can be used as alternative for Evernote's note taking and web scrapping functionalities.
  • You can create and edit notes in plain text, markdown or HTML file formats.
  • You can create To-Do lists and organize them in a kind of offline personal wiki for tracking your projects, ideas or memories.

Digital Assets Management

  • Browse and preview your virtual library in one application.
  • Preview your digital photos and images, open PDF documents and collected web pages.
  • Listen your music and show your videos.
  • Organize your e-book library.
  • The list of the supported files formats is growing.
Alternative

Use TagSpaces Pro as a front-end for AWS S3 buckets

  • Browse, preview, tag and search files located on AWS S3 compatible buckets.
  • Edit files located in the cloud, directly in TagSpaces, without downloading and re-uploading them.
  • Upload new files to the AWS S3 with simple drag and drop actions.
  • Create your own Dropbox or Evernote like services only by using AWS S3 for hosting your files.

Place every file or folder on a map

  • Place any file or folder on a map
  • Annotate maps with files
  • Save favorite places, privately
  • Plan trips and places to visit
  • Extract geo coordinates from EXIF data embedded in JPGs

Collect online content locally

Save web pages, web snippets, screenshot from web page or bookmark to them on your local hard drive as simple files for later use.
  • We are offering Chrome and Firefox browser extensions for web clipping.
  • Saving whole web pages or only part of them, allowing you to use the application similar to the many 'read in later' services.
  • Take a screenshot from the visible part of the webpage or create a bookmark to it. This, together with the tagging support allows you to use TagSpaces as a full fledged bookmark manager.

Key Features

Easy File & Folder Tagging

The application supports adding tags with drag and drop to files and folders, in a transparent, not vendor locking way.

Learn more about working with tags

Tag library with colored tags

You can organize your tags thematically in groups, for example the tag group 'family' can contain tags with the names of your family member, useful for photo tagging. In addition you can assign different color to your tags.

Learn more about the tag library

Desktop Search

The application support searching for files in your current location. It can be searched explicitly for a given tag or a combination of tags (all tags, any of the tags or excluding a specific tag).

Learn more about searching

User Interface Themes

Currently TagSpaces supports a light and a dark theme, which can be switched with one click.

Learn more about dark mode

File and Folder Management

TagSpaces features a set of basic file and folder management operations such as create, rename, move and delete.

Learn more about file management

Go further with extensions

The application can be extended with additional viewers and editors for different file types and perspectives for visualizing of folder structures.

Learn more about extensions

Our Products

Liteopen source,
suitable for novice users
freeDownloads for other platforms
Includes:
  • Tag File and folder
  • Generate thumbnails for photos
  • Basic file management
  • Take notes as files
  • Preview and print files
  • Basic Search
  • Dark mode
  • Web Clipper
Compare all features
Prooptimized for advanced users
by offering additional features
/user/yearTagspaces github

30-Day Money Back GuaranteeDuring the subscription you will receive free update for the application. You can cancel anytime and still use the lastly obtained version for as long as you need.
All the benefits of Lite, plus:
  • Add description to files and folders
  • Add background color to folders
  • Connect AWS S3 buckets as locations
  • Generate persistent thumbnails
  • Monitor changes in your local files
  • Add geo-tags and place files on map
  • View your photo in a gallery mode
  • Advanced and full text search
Compare all features
Enterprisesuitable for medium-sized organizations, offering customizable web interface
price on requestLearn more
All the benefits of Pro Web, plus
  • On-premises wep application
  • PWA mobile app
  • White-label custom packages
  • Custom file viewers
  • Custom perspectives
  • Priority technical support
Compare all features

What people are saying

If you need an alternative to Evernote, check out tagspaces http://t.co/YUhRvssn4X (Open source, no cloud, dropbox/etc support)

— Jürgen Geuter (@tante) January 10, 2015

@tagspaces - finally, a simple elegant cross-platform file tagging solution.

— Jeff Beam (@threecleartones) 22. Oktober 2017

I'm switching from Evernote to @tagspaces + @ownCloud so my data is stored in my own machine.

— Nacho Amelivia (@namelivia) November 20, 2014

Since seeing the STACK of journals and binders I need to scan and thus discovering TagSpaces, I am reluctantly admitting that maybe digitizing all my notes for my book may not be the most horrible idea in the world. Very reluctantly.

— Vixoen 🦋 (@Vixoen) October 21, 2020

@tagspaces Thanks a lot for the development of tagspaces. I am really glad with this piece of software.

— Joep Hein (@joephein) December 11, 2016TagSpaces

Was really trying to find open way of 'doing' Evernote with filesystem. Almost thought of writing my own. Think I've found it: @tagspaces

— Trystan Negus (@trystann) February 2, 2015

Wow. Just found out about the TagSpaces. Very cool stuff - Evernote, bye-bye and thanks for your continued support on Linux/Chrome platforms

— Daniel Vladušič (@dvladar) January 9, 2015

Definitely. TagSpaces also supports storing metadata in per-directory hidden folders, which is probably the best way to go.

— ∰ Jesse (@holocronweaver) 27. August 2017

Help us change the way the world is organizing files. Spread the word!

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