Standard Notes
End-to-end encrypted notes, simple by design.
About
Standard Notes is a privacy-first note-taking app founded in 2017 and acquired by Proton in April 2024, where it continues to operate independently. Its defining choice is encryption by default: every note, tag, and piece of data is encrypted on your device (XChaCha20) before it ever reaches a server, so the service operates on a zero-knowledge basis. The free plan is genuinely usable — unlimited text notes, unlimited device sync, offline access, and passcode-protected notes across desktop and mobile.
Paid plans unlock the rest: the Unlimited plan (around $120/year) adds advanced editors (rich text, Markdown, code, spreadsheets), themes, and automated backups. The apps are AGPL-3.0 open source with roughly 6,700 GitHub stars, and you can self-host the sync server. Proton has committed to keeping it open source with free and premium pricing unchanged. Tradeoffs: the free tier is limited to plain-text editing, there is no note-linking or graph view, and the editor selection on paid plans is narrower than general-purpose competitors.
What it can do
- End-to-end encrypted notes by default (XChaCha20, zero-knowledge)
- Free plan: unlimited text notes, unlimited device sync, offline access
- Advanced editors on paid plans: rich text, Markdown, code, spreadsheets, tasks
- Themes and custom styling (paid)
- Automated encrypted backups (paid)
- Passcode and biometric protection for individual notes
- Tag-based organization with full-text search
- Self-hostable sync server (open source)
- AGPL-3.0 apps for web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android
Setup
Sign up free at standardnotes.com or install the desktop/mobile apps (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, web). Notes sync encrypted across unlimited devices out of the box. Upgrade to the Unlimited plan in-app to unlock advanced editors and themes, or self-host the open-source sync server with Docker.
Prerequisites
Any modern browser or the desktop/mobile app; an account for sync (free).
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (metrics tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: ~6.7k GitHub stars with commits pushed October 15, 2026; AGPL-3.0; TechRadar and Proton confirm the April 2024 acquisition with commitments to keep it open source and pricing unchanged; independent reviews confirm E2EE-by-default (XChaCha20), a usable free tier with unlimited device sync, and the ~$120/yr Unlimited plan. Strengths: encryption-first architecture, Proton backing improves longevity, self-hostable. Docked for: (1) free tier limited to plain-text editing — most features need the paid plan; (2) no note linking or graph capabilities; (3) smaller community and editor ecosystem than Joplin or Obsidian. License: AGPL-3.0.
★ 6,667 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 7.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 8.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 10.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · ~6.7k GitHub stars (Oct 16, 2026 snapshot); AGPL-3.0; acquired by Proton Apr 2024, stays independent/open source
- · E2EE by default (XChaCha20); free plan: unlimited text notes + unlimited device sync; Unlimited ~$120/yr for advanced editors/themes/backups
- · Free tier plain-text only; no note linking or graph; smaller editor ecosystem than Joplin/Obsidian
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.