Standard Notes
End-to-end encrypted note-taking app for your most sensitive ideas
About Standard Notes
Standard Notes is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted note-taking app that syncs unlimited devices across web, desktop, and mobile. Every note is encrypted with XChaCha20-Poly1305 before it leaves your device, so not even the company can read your data. Acquired by Proton in 2024, it continues to operate as a standalone product focused on privacy, longevity, and distraction-free writing.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- True end-to-end encryption (XChaCha20-Poly1305) — provider cannot read your notes
- Fully open source with independently audited clients and server
- Free plan includes unlimited device sync and offline access
- Backed by Proton since 2024, adding long-term stability to a privacy-first product
- Generous refund policy (14–90 days) and a 30% student discount
- Built to last: daily encrypted backups and plaintext export prevent lock-in
Cons
- Free plan is limited to plain-text notes — markdown and rich text require a paid plan
- No real-time collaboration or shared notebooks due to the encryption model
- Paid plans are billed annually only and cost more than many mainstream note apps
- Fewer integrations and organizational features than Notion or Evernote
Key Features
End-to-End Encryption
All notes, tags, and files are encrypted on-device with XChaCha20-Poly1305 — the server never sees plaintext
Unlimited Device Sync
Free sync across web, desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux), and mobile (iOS, Android) with offline access
Super Note Type
Rich text, markdown, checklists, tables, and code snippets in a single powerful block-based editor (paid)
Encrypted File Storage
Professional plan includes 100GB of encrypted cloud storage for photos, videos, and documents with no per-file size limit
Built-in 2FA Authenticator
Use Standard Notes as your TOTP authenticator for other services, stored encrypted alongside your notes (paid)
Note Revision History
Restore earlier versions of any note — up to 1 year on Productivity and unlimited on Professional
Password-Protected Notes
Lock individual notes with a password and protect the account with 2FA and hardware security keys
Daily Notebooks and Web Clipper
Journaling-focused daily notebooks plus a browser clipper that saves web pages as encrypted notes (paid)
Encrypted Backups
Automatic daily encrypted email backups and full data export in encrypted or plaintext format on every plan
Open Source
Client and server code are publicly auditable on GitHub, with independent security audits
Pricing
- End-to-end encryption
- Unlimited device sync on web, desktop, and mobile
- Plain text notes with offline access
- Tags, password-protected notes, two-factor authentication
- Daily encrypted email backups and full data export
- Everything in Standard
- Super note type: markdown, rich text, checklists, code snippets
- Spreadsheets with advanced formulas
- Daily Notebooks for journaling
- 2FA authenticator, folders, Web Clipper
- 1-year note revision history
- 14-day full refund period and dedicated support
- Everything in Productivity
- 100GB encrypted cloud storage with no file size limit
- Subscription sharing with up to 5 accounts
- Offline file access and local file backups
- Unlimited note revision history
- Hardware security key support
- 90-day full refund period
Best For
Private journaling
Daily Notebooks plus end-to-end encryption make it a safe home for personal journals, with automatic daily encrypted backups.
Sensitive professional notes
Journalists, lawyers, and healthcare professionals can keep client and source notes that no cloud provider — including Standard Notes itself — can read.
Encrypted document vault
The Professional plan's 100GB encrypted storage doubles as a private vault for scans, IDs, photos, and financial documents.
Secure 2FA management
Use the built-in authenticator to store TOTP codes encrypted and synced across devices instead of a separate 2FA app.
Long-term knowledge archive
Open-source clients, plaintext export, and a 'built to last' philosophy suit users who want notes readable decades from now.
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