Our world is overflowing with information, far too much for our brains to readily retain and recall in any kind of efficient manner. Even our personal lives can be a lot to keep up with, which is why many people turn to some type of note-taking practise. This could be in the from of sticky notes dotted around your home; a simple pen and paper notebook; or one of 5 dozen different note-taking apps and services you’ll find on your mobile app store of choice.

I take note-taking fairly seriously - being able to retain interesting information and come back to it when I need it is important to me - and over the years, I’ve tried just about every kind of digital note-taking method you can imagine. From something as simple as taking Markdown notes with a basic text editor synced to local devices, to more complex apps packed with powerful features, to personal knowledge management systems designed to give you a second brain - I’ve given most of them a shot at least once. Finding the right note-taking method for your own needs is very much a personal endeavour, but whatever you decide to use, a critical feature should be the preservation of your personal privacy.

The notes you create are an extension of who you are, regardless of how sensitive the content is, and they should only be visible to you or whoever you deliberately decide to share them with. There are generally two ways of going about this:

  1. Using a local notebook app on your phone, tablet, or computer. 
  2. Using a cloud-based notebook that utilises end-to-end encryption.

Most of the cloud services that people tend to use for note-taking (Google Keep, Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, etc) don’t come with end-to-end encryption. What this means is that the company providing the service has the ability to read your notes, and can then use this information to build a profile about you (usually for advertising), or to pass it on to authorities should the company receive the relevant court order. If this is something that worries you at all and you want better privacy, the following note-taking apps and services are worth checking out.

Notes In The Cloud

Standard Notes

Standard Notes is a veteran in this space, having been around for almost a decade. Anyone that wants a powerful note-taking service that promises audited security practices will want to start here. The service is well-known for its reliability and security, the latter of which guarantees that only you have access to the notes that you create. Standard Notes also has one of the most well-regarded customer support platforms around, and it doesn’t take long for issues to be resolved.

Additionally, it’s available across a range of different platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, MacOS, and/or your chosen browser. There are plenty of features that come with your Standard Notes subscription, but keep in mind that the annual price of the service is fairly steep in comparison to most of the other note-taking services we’ll cover here. I am a big fan of Standard Notes and I feel like they offer an extremely well-rounded product, but the high price has always made it a bit out of my personal financial scope. Of note is that Standard Notes was acquired by Proton AG in 2024, and many are hopeful that Proton will one day integrate Standard Notes into their growing ecosystem.

Notesnook

Notesnook took the private note-taking world by storm, and has become a commonly-recommended service for anyone keen on a cheaper alternative to Standard Notes. Even if you’re not interested in paying, the free version of Notesnook is typically more than enough for most casual users. Baked in features include end-to-end encryption and real-time sync, meaning that everything you type on your desktop browser or app is almost instantly sent through to any other Notesnook apps that you’re logged in to and have open, but done in a way that nobody else can see the content. Similarly to Standard Notes, Notesnook is offered on every platform under the sun, making it easy to use on whichever devices you have lying around.

For those that care about code availability, Notesnook is FOSS, and the people developing it are extremely active, with great customer support. One thing that I really appreciate about Notesnook is that the price is based on region, meaning that you won’t have to pay a universal flat rate, even if you live in a country with a weaker currency - great for us that always cringe internally when we look at a Dollar or Euro price tag. It’s not all perfect, however, and users have complained of syncing issues over the years, and personally I have encountered my fair share of bugs - but it remains my go-to when I need cloud-synced notes.

Cryptee

Cryptee is a project that I’ve always had a soft spot for; partly because it’s a really great service, and partly because the team behind it has gone to great lengths to ensure that your privacy comes first. Cryptee’s got arguably one of the best interfaces around, and you can tell that the developers behind it put a lot of effort into creating a unique style. It comes with an integrated word processor, a file manager that can also serve as cloud storage, as well as a photo backup and management system. It’s designed to work in your browser or as a Progressive Web App, making it easy to access your documents and photos, but keep in mind that the lack of a dedicated app means that you won’t have certain niceties like automatic photo uploading.

I’ve never found Cryptee exceptionally good for taking quick notes as you go throughout your day. Rather, I feel that it’s better-suited as a Google Docs alternative, which I believe is part of the intent of the service. But where Cryptee really shines is as the ultimate online privacy vault for people that are in difficult situations, such as those in abusive relationships or journalists reporting on dangerous stories, and it’s the service I’d likely recommend for these circumstances, while also remaining an excellent tool for general journalling and even professional work.

Joplin

A name worth knowing in the private note-taking sphere, Joplin is a really solid alternative to Standard Notes and Notesnook. I don’t have as much experience with Joplin as most of the others on this list, but I have played around with it before and it offers everything you could realistically need for taking notes privately. Not only that, but Joplin is cross-platform, open-source, and supports end-to-end encryption for its paid cloud sync service, so your notes are locked away from any prying eyes.

It may be worth noting that Joplin does not encrypt your notes locally, which may or may not be a big deal depending on your threat model. If you’re wondering: a threat model is a way of figuring out how to find the right degree of privacy for yourself without sacrificing too much convenience (or sanity). Joplin potentially has the biggest community on this list if its GitHub page is anything to go by, which means that it has strong support and its many sponsors and contributors almost guarantee that Joplin will be around for quite a long time.

Notes At Home

Local Phone/Tablet Note App

One way to ensure great privacy is by using an offline note-taking app, and there are a lot to choose from. Being offline mitigates any real privacy concerns because you don’t need to worry about others snooping in on what you’re writing, as long as your phone is locked with a password, pin, or your biometrics. Everything is kept on the device, and you’re able to access your notes even if you don’t have a network connection, or without having to pay for another subscription. Of course, if your phone is stolen or breaks, you risk the possibility of losing your notes forever. You also won’t be able to view and edit your notes from different devices, which is part of what makes cloud-based note services so appealing.

One app that I like for this purpose is Markor, which is open-source and uses Markdown extensively, although this may be too much for many people. But it pairs well with desktop-based QOwnNotes, and especially well with Syncthing, which is software that allows you to sync files and folders across a number of devices at the same time, but does require a bit of technical-knowhow to get working properly.

Obsidian (and others)

Obsidian is part of a class of software known as “personal knowledge management”, or “PKM” for short. The idea behind this is to allow you to build your own, personal Wikipedia, or a “second brain”. Although it takes a while to get used to, it eventually becomes a powerful means of retaining information, and over the years Obsidian has amassed a large community of followers, as well as a comprehensive plugin ecosystem. One potential downside to Obsidian is that its source code is closed - but it’s still widely considered private and trustworthy. There are a lot of things about Obsidian that I like, but I think it’s the fact that it’s designed from the ground up to work locally on your device that makes it so appealing to me. There are two ways of syncing your Obsidian vaults/notes: paying for the official Obsidian Sync service (recommended for most), or using Syncthing.

Obsidian is probably the most popular PKM software around, but it’s not the only one. Notion, Logseq, Anytype, and Appflowy are similar to Obsidian in many ways, but each of these offers something fairly unique, and it’s up to you to take the time and find the one that works well for you.

Office Suites

Another way of capturing notes is by using an office suite of some kind. Most people are familiar with Microsoft Office, but there are other, privacy-focussed options to choose from, but it’s something that I will cover in a future post.

There You Have It

New note-taking apps and services are hitting the ground all the time, and if none of the listed items here quite fit the bill for you, keep an eye out for new and exciting offerings. But for most people that simply want to keep their notes their own, these should be more than enough. Enjoy your private notes!