There are plenty of free note-taking apps out there, but you'll often find a trade-off between privacy and convenience. Cloud syncing often comes at the cost of security or with limited devices on a free plan.

But what I like about Standard Notes is that it places security features at the forefront, while not limiting your note syncing based on whether you have a paid plan or not. In a sphere of complex apps with complex layers, it's straightforward, but also secure.

Standard Notes is incredibly simple to get started with

This makes it beginner-friendly

I sometimes find that privacy-focused tools can be a bit more difficult to get started with, often because they're aimed at people with tech knowledge. But Standard Notes is incredibly simple to start using.

You can can immediately get started with the web app — you don't even need an account. However, you won't be able to sync your notes to other devices without having an account.

There's also no setup required to start taking notes — as soon as you open the web app, a new note is created with the current date. The whole process is incredibly intuitive. I often find note-taking apps overly complex or difficult to get started with, but setting up notes in Standard Notes felt seamless.

If you don't set up an account on the web app, your changes to these notes will also be saved locally. However, it's important to keep in mind that if you use the web app for notes and don't create an account, clearing your browser data for the site will also remove your notes.

The service also has desktop and mobile apps available, making it convenient for new users regardless of their favorite medium for taking notes. If you want to get a look at what kind of features the paid plans include, the company also has a demo site available that you can explore.

If you prefer to use the service without an account, I recommend downloading the desktop or mobile app. This way, your files are at least stored in your app's data. I'd also recommend regularly downloading backups of your notes and storing them somewhere so that you can access them in case something happens to your device.

A focus on providing essential free features

Encryption, syncing, and simple notes

One of the big things that sets Standard Notes apart is its focus on privacy. Even on the free plan, your notes are protected with end-to-end encryption.

At the same time, it also doesn't limit the number of devices you can sync your notes to — a tactic often used to push users to free plans.

Often I find that if you want a private note-taking app, you either have to self-host it or pay for it. But Standard Notes provides simplicity, convenience, and security for free, which is a rare thing to find these days. You can even lock individual notes behind a password.

This doesn't mean that there aren't differences between the free and paid plans however, but none of these are related to encryption. The free plan also doesn't lock you out of important exporting or backup features.

With the free plan, you get unlimited device syncing on web, the desktop app, and the mobile app for plain text notes. You can also access your notes offline and organize them using tags. Password protection is available for individual notes and you get daily encrypted email backups.

So what do the paid plans unlock? For the Productivity plan, you get access to Markdown and rich text notes rather than just plain text notes. You can also create checklists, code snippets, and spreadsheets. You can use a web clipper to save websites as notes, organize notes into folders, and use Standard Notes as a 2FA authenticator. Your note revision history will also be saved for one year.

For the Professional plan, you get 100GB cloud storage for file uploads (including photos, videos, and documents), which can be accessed offline. You can also share this subscription with five accounts.

There are also some additional features on the paid plans, but most of these feel like additional perks rather than core features for a note-taking app.

While I prefer using a rich text editor, which is why I self-hosted Jotty Page, I appreciate what Standard Notes offers. If I had to suggest a simple note-taking app that offers an alternative to Google Keep for someone who doesn't want to mess around with self-hosting, Standard Notes would be it.

Even self-hosting it is relatively simple

Standard Notes really does aim to make things easier

Speaking of self-hosting though, Standard Notes actually has a feature on its desktop app that allows you to create a server on your computer that you can access from your home network. I've never seen an app make it this easy for someone to host their server on their own machine.

If you want to access your server from outside your home network, the app also includes instructions on how to set up Tailscale to do this. You can also deploy it using Docker if you prefer to run the service in a container.

It's a breath of fresh air to see an app offer so many options for users. While I would've liked the ability to create checklists and folders, I think that the most important features are there for casual note takers. After all, my notes in Google Keep are essentially just digital sticky notes.

Try out Standard Notes for yourself

If you're looking for a simple note-taking solution and want to use a service that prioritizes privacy while still being extremely convenient to use, I recommend trying out Standard Notes.

There's power in something that just works. And I think that the simple setup and clean interface of Standard Notes, while providing end-to-end encryption, is something that makes it stand out.