# Linwood Butterfly

> Open-source handwriting and sketching app with an infinite canvas

Linwood Butterfly is a free, open-source app for handwritten notes, sketches and PDF markup on an infinite canvas. It accepts stylus, touch or mouse input, keeps documents on the device by default and can sync them through a WebDAV service such as Nextcloud. It runs on Android, Windows, macOS, Linux and in a browser, and an iOS preview build is offered for sideloading.

- **Category:** Note-Taking Apps
- **Made by:** Linwood
- **Website:** https://butterfly.linwood.dev
- **Runs on:** Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 9, 2026

## Pricing

Linwood Butterfly is free to use.

- **Pricing model:** Free
- **Free plan:** The whole app is free and open source under the GNU AGPL-3.0 license on every platform; the project's own comparison table lists its cost as Free.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Butterfly | $0 | The full app for Android, Windows, macOS and Linux, a web app that installs for offline use, and a Docker image for hosting the web app yourself. |

Read from https://butterfly.linwood.dev/ on Oct 9, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Linwood Butterfly before buying.

## Key features

- **Infinite canvas with editable elements:** Handwriting, shapes and imported media sit on an unbounded canvas, and each element can be moved, resized, recolored and reorganized after it is placed.
- **Pen and drawing tools:** Stroke width, color, smoothing and texture are adjustable, and the toolbox adds labels, shapes, polygons, tables, rulers, grids, stamps, a laser pointer and a presentation tool.
- **Import and export:** Imports PDFs, images, SVG, Markdown, Xournal++ files and OneNote sections. Exports to PDF, SVG, image and Xournal++, plus its own documented .bfly and .tbfly formats.
- **Templates and packs:** Templates bundle backgrounds, tools, layers, areas and pages for new documents, and packs hold reusable stamps, palettes and styles that are available across documents.
- **Local storage with WebDAV sync:** Notes are saved to a folder on the device. The native apps can add a WebDAV connection such as Nextcloud and mark remote files for offline editing.
- **Experimental collaboration:** Behind an experiment flag, several people can edit one document at once through an end-to-end encrypted Swamp relay or a WebSocket server run on one participant's computer.

## Good for

- Handwritten lecture notes and PDF markup with a stylus
- People who want a free, AGPL-licensed note app on Android and desktop
- Nextcloud users who want their notes synced over WebDAV

## Worth knowing

- iOS is a preview only: an unsigned IPA that has to be sideloaded with AltStore or Sideloadly, and it is not on the App Store.
- There is no hosted sync service. Remote storage supports only WebDAV, and it is not available in the web version.
- Collaboration is experimental and has to be switched on with an experiment flag.
- The web app performs better in Chromium-based browsers; the docs say Firefox and Safari lack the WebAssembly features it uses.

## Works with

Nextcloud

**Tags:** Open source, Self-hostable, Works offline, Local-first, Notes, Whiteboard, Templates

## Alternatives

- [Xournal++](https://toolgpa.com/tools/xournalpp): Open-source handwriting notes and PDF annotation for desktop. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/linwood-butterfly-vs-xournalpp)
- [Rnote](https://toolgpa.com/tools/rnote): Open-source app for sketching and handwritten notes with a stylus. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/linwood-butterfly-vs-rnote)
- [Saber](https://toolgpa.com/tools/saber): Open-source handwritten notes app for phones, tablets and PCs. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/linwood-butterfly-vs-saber)
- [Stylus Labs Write](https://toolgpa.com/tools/stylus-labs-write): Open-source handwriting word processor for desktop and mobile. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/linwood-butterfly-vs-stylus-labs-write)
- [Microsoft OneNote](https://toolgpa.com/tools/microsoft-onenote): Microsoft's free digital notebook for typed, inked and audio notes. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/linwood-butterfly-vs-microsoft-onenote)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 9, 2026:

- https://butterfly.linwood.dev/
- https://butterfly.linwood.dev/downloads/
- https://butterfly.linwood.dev/downloads/ios/
- https://butterfly.linwood.dev/downloads/web/
- https://butterfly.linwood.dev/downloads/selfhosting/
- https://butterfly.linwood.dev/docs/v2/storage/
- https://butterfly.linwood.dev/docs/v2/collaboration/
- https://butterfly.linwood.dev/docs/v2/importing/
- https://butterfly.linwood.dev/docs/v2/exporting/
- https://butterfly.linwood.dev/community/faq/
- https://butterfly.linwood.dev/community/comparison/

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/linwood-butterfly
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).