Notebooks
Keep track of your notes and journalings without giving them to a third-party.
If you are currently using an application like Evernote, Google Keep, or Microsoft OneNote, we suggest you pick an alternative here that supports E2EE.
Cloud-based¶
Standard Notes¶
Standard Notes is a simple and private notes app that makes your notes easy and available everywhere you are. It features E2EE on every platform, and a powerful desktop experience with themes and custom editors. It has also been independently audited.
Standard Notes has joined Proton AG as of April 10, 2024.
Notesnook¶
Notesnook is a free (as in speech) & open-source note-taking app focused on user privacy & ease of use. It features end-to-end encryption on all platforms with a powerful sync to take your notes on the go. You can easily import your notes from Evernote, OneNote & a lot of other apps using their official importer.
Notesnook only allows local note encryption with the private vault feature on their pro plan, otherwise your notes are not stored encrypted on your device. Your notes are always encrypted before being synced to their servers with keys which only you have access to.
Joplin¶
Joplin is a free, open-source, and fully-featured note-taking and to-do application which can handle a large number of markdown notes organized into notebooks and tags. It offers E2EE and can sync through Nextcloud, Dropbox, and more. It also offers easy import from Evernote and plain-text notes.
Joplin does not support password/PIN protection for the application itself or individual notes and notebooks. However, your data is still encrypted in transit and at the sync location using your master key. Since January 2023, Joplin supports biometrics app lock for Android and iOS.
Cryptee¶
Cryptee is an open-source, web-based E2EE document editor and photo storage application. Cryptee is a PWA, which means that it works seamlessly across all modern devices without requiring native apps for each respective platform.
Downloads
Cryptee offers 100MB of storage for free, with paid options if you need more. Sign-up doesn't require an e-mail or other personally identifiable information.
Local notebooks¶
Org-mode¶
Org-mode is a major mode for GNU Emacs. Org-mode is for keeping notes, maintaining to-do lists, planning projects, and authoring documents with a fast and effective plain-text system. Synchronization is possible with file synchronization tools.
Criteria¶
Please note we are not affiliated with any of the projects we recommend. In addition to our standard criteria, we have developed a clear set of requirements to allow us to provide objective recommendations. We suggest you familiarize yourself with this list before choosing to use a project, and conduct your own research to ensure it's the right choice for you.
Minimum Requirements¶
- Clients must be open source.
- Any cloud sync functionality must be E2EE.
- Must support exporting documents into a standard format.
Best Case¶
- Local backup/sync functionality should support encryption.
- Cloud-based platforms should support document sharing.
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