Standard Notes

What is Standard Notes?

Standard Notes is an open source, end-to-end encrypted note-taking app. Every note is encrypted on your device before it syncs, so the server — whether it’s Standard Notes’ cloud or one you host yourself — only ever stores ciphertext it can’t read. Notes sync across web, desktop, and mobile.

What is Standard Notes best for?

People who want a simple, private place for long-lived notes and don’t want a company able to read them. It’s a strong fit for journals, credentials, and personal knowledge — and for privacy-conscious users who’d rather run their own sync server than trust a subscription cloud.

What can Standard Notes do?

• Encrypt every note end-to-end with a zero-knowledge design — the server never sees plaintext
• Sync across unlimited devices on web, desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux), and mobile (iOS, Android)
• Self-host the full sync server stack with Docker for complete data ownership
• Write in plain text, or with paid note types: markdown, rich text, checklists, code, and the “Super” block editor
• Organize with nested folders, tags, pinning, archiving, and saved Smart Views
• Lock access with two-factor authentication, biometric locks, and encrypted email backups

Where does Standard Notes fall short?

• The free plan is plain-text only. Rich text, markdown, spreadsheets, and the Super editor are gated behind a paid subscription — so the most useful note types cost money, even though some open source note apps give them away.
• Self-hosting the server gives you private, encrypted sync, but the premium editors and note types are built around the paid Standard Notes tiers rather than unlocked automatically by running your own instance.
• It’s deliberately minimalist. There’s no real-time collaboration, no Notion-style databases, and web clipping and third-party integrations are far more limited than Evernote’s — this is a private notebook, not a workspace.

Is Standard Notes free?

Partly. The free plan gives you unlimited notes, unlimited device sync, and full end-to-end encryption forever, but only plain-text notes. Paid plans unlock the richer editors and more storage — Productivity is about $90/year and Professional about $120/year with 100GB of encrypted storage. Self-hosting the server is free; you pay only for your own infrastructure.

What does Standard Notes replace?

Standard Notes is a privacy-first alternative to Evernote, Notion, and Bear. It covers the core “capture and sync my notes everywhere” job those apps do, but with end-to-end encryption and the option to keep everything on a server you control.

FAQ

Is Standard Notes open source? Yes. The client apps and the full server stack are open source — the sync server is licensed under GPL-3.0 — so you can audit the code and self-host it.

Can I self-host Standard Notes for free? Yes. The server is a Dockerized TypeScript/Node stack you can run on your own machine at no license cost; you pay only for the hosting. Note that premium editor features are still tied to the paid subscription tiers.

Is Standard Notes a good Evernote alternative? For privacy, yes — it’s end-to-end encrypted and self-hostable, which Evernote isn’t. But it’s more minimal: if you rely heavily on web clipping, integrations, or rich formatting, Evernote does more out of the box. For a fully-featured local-first option, compare Trilium Notes or Joplin.

Who owns Standard Notes? Proton — the maker of Proton Mail and Proton VPN — acquired Standard Notes in April 2024. It remains open source and self-hostable.