Note Taking · Reviewed 23 Oct 2026

Standard Notes

End-to-end encrypted notes app with cross-platform sync and privacy features.

free tier · standardnotes.com ↗

Paid against free › Note Taking › Standard Notes

Standard Notes at a glance

Overview

01

Summary

The useful answer before the supporting detail.

Standard Notes is an end-to-end encrypted note-taking app that protects notes and files with audited encryption S25. It is used by individuals and professionals who need privacy and control over their data, solving the problem of unauthorized access and data breaches S25. The app offers free unlimited notes and device sync, with paid plans adding features like rich text, spreadsheets, and encrypted file storage S25 S44.

02

Product identity and positioning

Name, category, positioning, audience, and first-party claims.

  • Identity: Standard Notes, an end-to-end encrypted notes app S25.
  • Core purpose: Protects notes and files from unauthorized access and data loss S25.
  • Intended users: Privacy-conscious individuals and professionals S25.
  • Product scope: A cross-platform notes app with web, desktop, and mobile clients S10 S166.
  • Positioning: A secure, all-in-one space for notes and documents S6.
  • Claimed distinction: Audited, industry-leading end-to-end encryption S25.
03

Use cases and audiences

Who the product serves and the jobs it is designed to handle.

AudiencePractical use case
Privacy-conscious individualsKeep personal notes and journals private with end-to-end encryption S59.
JournalersCreate daily notebooks to track health, fitness, and work activity S59.
WritersWrite long documents with linked notes and structures S59.
Users needing offline accessAccess notes without internet, ensuring data availability S25.

Features

09

Features and capabilities

Core functions and evidence-backed product capabilities.

CapabilityWhat it does
End-to-end encryptionEncrypts data with a key only the user knows S59.
Cross-platform syncSyncs notes across unlimited devices S25.
Note typesSupports plain text, rich text, markdown, checklists, code snippets, and spreadsheets S44.
OrganizationOrganize notes with tags and nested tags S59.
Offline accessAccess notes and files without an internet connection S25.
Data exportExport data in encrypted or plaintext format S44.
Two-factor authenticationUse as a 2FA authenticator for other services S44.
Daily encrypted backupsAutomated encrypted email backups S44.
10

Integrations and ecosystem

Connected products, exports, APIs, and workflow compatibility.

Integration or interfaceTypeWhat it enables
Web ClipperExtensionClip web content into notes S59.
DockerSelf-hostingRun the Standard Notes web app on your own server S61.
Two-factor authenticationSecurityUse Standard Notes as a 2FA authenticator for other services S44.
Data exportData portabilityExport data in encrypted or plaintext format S44.

Pricing

11

Pricing and plans

Published plans, free access, trials, credits, and pricing limitations.

Plan or offerVerified price and billingIncludedLimits
Standard$0 S44End-to-end encrypted plain-text notes, unlimited device sync S44Tags, offline, encrypted backups S44
Productivity$90 per year S44Unlimited notes and note types, Super notes, folders, Web Clipper, 1-year history S44Not established
Professional$120 per year S44Unlimited notes, 100 GB encrypted files, share with up to 5 accounts S44Not established

Competition

12

Competitive landscape

Domains competing for the same organic search demand.

Sampled competitors

CompetitorFirst-page appearancesSampled queriesAverage positionQueries observed
apps.apple.com223notes, regular notes
reddit.com213regular notes
play.google.com215.5notes
app.standardnotes.com111notes
keep.google.com113notes
memonotepad.com115notes
facebook.com116notes
trustpilot.com116regular notes
youtube.com117regular notes
support.apple.com118notes

Website intelligence — Collected evidence

Customers, testimonials, and first-party review claims

Page typeEvidenceSource
customersPricinghttps://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersFeatureshttps://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersHelphttps://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersDownload for freehttps://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersGo to web app0https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customers← Decryptedhttps://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersEncrypted, Ephemeral Customer Servicehttps://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersApril 1, 2020https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersThe Silver Lining in Facebook's Privacy Nightmarehttps://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersPrivacy advocates and journalists have known for years that the tech behemoth Facebook, Inc. threatens our privacy. The company owns three of the most popular social media platforms – Facebook.com, Instagram, and Whatsapp. Each of them are free to use, but Facebook, Inc. posted $55 billion in advertising revenue in 2018. Their advertising revenue was 98.5% of their total revenue for that year and the percentage is expected to increase to 99% in 2020.https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersIn order to make so much money from selling advertisements, Facebook tracks its billions of users both on and off Facebook.com with artificial intelligence to determine "how they _will_ behave, what they _will_ buy, and what they _will_ think." Then, Facebook uses these predictions to serve the users advertisements. Even though they claim that they do not sell your data, they used it to generate $22.1 billion of profit in 2018 alone.https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersDespite all of these concerns, there is one feature that Facebook has offered since June 2015 to improve its users' privacy and security: support for Pretty Good Privacy encrypted email communications. This security feature is one that the vast majority of companies still lack even if they make millions in profits.https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersWhat is Pretty Good Privacy Encrypted Email?https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersPretty Good Privacy, or PGP, is an end-to-end encryption system that ensures that emails can't be read or tampered with by third-parties while they're in transit from the senders to the recipients.https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersFor Facebook, this means third-parties won't be able to see your password reset information and any notifications for comments, posts, and chats that you're following. Facebook knows about almost everything you do on its platforms, but the encryption prevents anyone who intercepts your email from knowing as well.https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersCompanies usually do not offer encrypted support for customer service and notifications because it is costly and difficult to implement, and many users don't know how to use it anyway, so it's simply not a priority.https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersEncrypted, Ephemeral Customer Service at Standard Noteshttps://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersWe’re proud to offer you end-to-end encrypted, ephemeral customer service at [\[email protected\]](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#b6c5c2d7d8d2d7c4d2d8d9c2d3c5f6c6c4d9c2d9d8dbd7dfda98d5d9db).https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersTo use this service, you’ll need to sign up for a free account at ProtonMail.com. You can also use the browser extension Mailvelope with your current email provider to send us end-to-end encrypted emails, but you’ll need ProtonMail to make them ephemeral.https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service
customersPrivate Customer Service Improves the User Experiencehttps://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service

Independent review sources discovered

No links to supported independent review platforms were discovered on the collected pages.

14

AI visibility

Measured ChatGPT and Google AI mentions with cited sources.

AI-assistant referral traffic

  • Estimated current generative-AI referral share: 0.9%
MonthSource
—All AI assistants

Website intelligence — Collected evidence

Site-stated AI capabilities

Page typeEvidenceSource
customersIn order to make so much money from selling advertisements, Facebook tracks its billions of users both on and off Facebook.com with artificial intelligence to determine "how they _will_ behave, what they _will_ buy, and what they _will_ think." Then, Facebook uses these predictions to serve the users advertisements. Even though they claim that they do not sell your data, they used it to generate $22.1 billion of profit in 2018 alone.https://standardnotes.com/blog/encrypted-ephemeral-customer-service

These are first-party product claims, not independent measurements of AI-search visibility.

15

Marketing opportunities

Actions calculated directly from the collected evidence.

OpportunityRecommended actionEvidence
Competitor gap2 first-page appearances across notes, regular notes

Website intelligence — Collected evidence

Website evidence gaps

  • reviews: no usable public page was collected; verify whether the site publishes this evidence.
  • identity: no usable public page was collected; verify whether the site publishes this evidence.
  • technical: no usable public page was collected; verify whether the site publishes this evidence.

Trust and proof

16

Customers, proof, and reviews

Published proof, customer signals, and review evidence.

Independent reviews

PlatformPageHow it was foundNote
Christiano Anderson BlogMigrating from Standard Notes to Obsidian / Christiano AndersonGrounded web searchhas been my trusted companion for many years. It offers a clean, distraction-free environment for ... and important information. With its strong emphasis on security and simplicity, it provides a safe vault for personal notes across multiple devices
Secured NotesBest Standard Notes Alternatives in 2026: 6 PicksGrounded web searchin 2026 are Notesnook (closest match, always end-to-end encrypted, richer free plan), Joplin (bring your own sync), Obsidian (linked Markdown, not encrypted locally), Bear (best writing experience), Apple Notes (free, end-to-end encrypted with Advanced

Customer proof

No named customers, testimonials, or customer case studies were found.

Independent mentions

  • Standard Notes / Hacker News — I am a paid subscriber but I am not happy with this at all. The mobile phone app is a pretty buggy, when I start typing in 1 place the cursor jumps to another. Copy/paste has also given me problems. ... I do like that it encrypts locally on disk like it does in the cloud. Several other apps I've looked at has said at rest encryption isn't worth it, I guess arguing that users could use veracrypt or some other solution. ... If I had to write a one sentence summary of Standard Notes it would be "An
  • How does this compare to https://standardnotes.org? / Hacker News — Standard Notes is an amazing app and it was actually our first inspiration in creating a privacy-focused note-taking app. ... Security & encryption wise, both apps use the same encryption algorithms, afaik. However, Standard Notes is expensive ($9/m) whereas Notesnook is only $4.49/mo. Notesnook's organization is more flexible; it has tags, colors, notebooks & topics. In comparison, Standard Notes only offers colors and tags. ... Notesnook's mobile app experience is almost the same as the web ve
  • I would recommend https://standardnotes.org/ after trying all other (OneNote, Bo... / Hacker News — I was a Standard Notes user, including a premium plan, but recently switched to Joplin and I've been very happy with it. I like Standard Notes' no-nonsense business model, with the downside that the free version is heavily feature-crippled (not even a Markdown
  • Standard Notes is a note taking app that provides end-to-end encryption: https:/... — Standard Notes is a note taking app that provides end-to-end encryption: https://standardnotes.com/ ... It’s the best cross platform one I could find a few months ago. Its conflict resolution isn’t great. Looking for a replacement that handles
  • Most reliable privacy-conscious notes app? - ~tech - Tildes — I'm a fan of Standard Notes and have been using it for around five years. While it was a bit rough around the edges when I first started with it, it's gradually gotten better and better. ... though - I was curious why you prefer to use it in the browser?

External links were grounded in one live web search. Search snippets are leads, not independently scraped page content; rejected links remain available in Review evidence.

17

Company, security, and trust

Ownership, policies, security signals, and public trust evidence.

SignalFindingSource
Company and ownershipNot published on the collected pages.—
Contact and supportNot published on the collected pages.—
Legal and privacy14-day 100% refund periodsource
Security and complianceStandard Notes is a free, secure note-taking app with powerful end-to-end encryption, unparalleled privacy features, and seamless cross-platform syncing on unlimited devices.source
Uptime and status pageNot published on the collected pages.—
Domain registered2018-12-01—
Domain expires2028-12-01—

Not found on the collected pages: company and ownership, contact and support, uptime and status page. This only means Scout did not find it on the pages it read; it says nothing about the company itself.

18

Documentation and product updates

Help resources, product guidance, and visible changes over time.

Resource or updateTypeWhat is availableDate or freshness
What is Electron? — Knowledge Base / Standard NotesHelp centerElectron is an open source software framework that software developers can use to create desktop apps that work across Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. Background: Each operating system can only run apps written in certain programming language... (source)Not dated
An update on early pricing and roadmap — Decrypted / Standard NotesRoadmapPublic product roadmap. (source)Not dated
Introducing our new Android, iOS, and Desktop apps. — Decrypted / Standard NotesProduct updateProduct update is publicly available. (source)Not dated

Not found in the collected public sources: changelog or release notes, status page.

Technical

19

Technical and delivery signals

Delivery model, platforms, API, data ownership, reliability claims and release activity.

SignalFindingSource
Delivery model (cloud, self-hosted, desktop, browser extension)Available as cloud service and self-hostable via Docker S61.S61
Platforms and appsDesktop apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, and mobile apps for iOS and Android S10 S166.S10 S166
API and extensibility (API, SDK, webhooks, MCP, plugins)Not published on the collected pages.—
Data ownership and exportFull data export in encrypted or plaintext format S44.S44
Performance and reliability claimsNot published on the collected pages.—
Release activityNot published on the collected pages.—
20

Measured infrastructure

Domain, certificate, and hosting signals, measured directly.

SignalFinding
Domain registered2018-12-01 — Amazon Registrar, Inc.
Domain expires2028-12-01
First archived2016-03-06 — web archive
TLS certificateLet's Encrypt, valid, expires 2027-01-20
Security headersHSTS, CSP, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy
Headers not servedX-Frame-Options
Server headercloudflare
Mail handled bymail.protonmail.ch, mailsec.protonmail.ch
Nameserversagustin.ns.cloudflare.com, paris.ns.cloudflare.com
21

Technical site audit

A bounded multi-page crawl with page-level issues and URLs.

Scout — Bounded technical crawl

  • Pages crawled: 15 of 15 maximum
  • Technical health: 96/100
  • Critical issues: 0
  • Warnings: 7
  • Notices: 10

Issues

SeverityIssueValueAffected URL
noticeMeta description length should be reviewed199https://standardnotes.com/
noticeMeta description length should be reviewed312https://standardnotes.com/plans
noticeMeta description length should be reviewed209https://standardnotes.com/features
noticeMeta description length should be reviewed284https://standardnotes.com/privacy
noticeMeta description length should be reviewed391https://standardnotes.com/help/2/has-standard-notes-completed-a-third-party-security-audit
warningPage should have one primary H120https://standardnotes.com/blog
noticeImages are missing alt text2https://standardnotes.com/blog
warningTitle length should be reviewed68https://standardnotes.com/usecase/writers
noticeMeta description length should be reviewed301https://standardnotes.com/usecase/writers
warningTitle length should be reviewed80https://standardnotes.com/usecase/legal
noticeMeta description length should be reviewed273https://standardnotes.com/usecase/legal
warningTitle length should be reviewed72https://standardnotes.com/usecase/journalism
noticeMeta description length should be reviewed239https://standardnotes.com/usecase/journalism
warningTitle length should be reviewed66https://standardnotes.com/why-encrypted
noticeImages are missing alt text1https://standardnotes.com/why-encrypted
warningTitle length should be reviewed96https://standardnotes.com/principles
warningTitle length should be reviewed85https://standardnotes.com/evernote-alternative

Crawled pages

StatusTitleH1sWordsResponseURL
200Standard Notes \End-To-End Encrypted Notes App1563248 ms
200Plans \Standard Notes11164239 ms
200Features \Standard Notes11370277 ms
200Help \Standard Notes11892188 ms
200Stand For Privacy \Standard Notes End-To-End Encrypted Notes App1565255 ms
200Has Standard Notes completed a third-party security audit?1499225 mshttps://standardnotes.com/help/2/has-standard-notes-completed-a-third-party-security-audit
200Is the Standard Notes source code public?1435210 mshttps://standardnotes.com/help/46/is-the-standard-notes-source-code-public
200Built to Last \Standard Notes End-To-End Encrypted Notes App1460201 ms
200Decrypted \Standard Notes201362165 ms
200Security For Writers \Standard Notes End-To-End Encrypted Notes App1438160 ms
200Security For Legal Professionals \Standard Notes End-To-End Encrypted Notes App1540239 ms
200Security For Journalists \Standard Notes End-To-End Encrypted Notes App1661174 ms
200Write Fearlessly \Standard Notes \End-To-End Encrypted Notes App1611
200Our Principles \Standard Notes \End-To-End Encrypted Notes App, End-To-End Encrypted Notes App1858
200What makes Standard Notes a great Evernote alternative End-To-End Encrypted Notes App1716146 mshttps://standardnotes.com/evernote-alternative

This is a bounded Scout crawl. Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse scores are not claimed unless a dedicated performance audit is connected.

22

Search Console and Analytics

First-party search and behavioral data connection state.

Modeled acquisition channels

ChannelEstimated share
direct48.0%
search43.6%
search organic43.6%
search paid0.0%
social0.4%
social organic0.4%
social paid0.0%
referrals6.0%
paid referrals0.1%
mail1.0%
gen ai0.9%
affiliate0.0%
other0.0%

First-party connections

IntegrationStatusData available after connection
Google Search ConsoleNot connectedClicks, impressions, CTR, average position, queries, pages, countries, and devices
Google AnalyticsNot connectedOrganic sessions, engagement, landing pages, conversions, geography, and devices

No first-party Search Console or Analytics numbers are shown until the site owner authorizes the corresponding Google account. Scout traffic model values above are modeled estimates, not private analytics totals.

Limits and method

23

Limitations and open questions

Known constraints and missing evidence from the collected pages.

The collected pages do not mention specific limitations or gaps. Evidence gaps include lack of detailed pricing for add-ons, no customer testimonials, and no independent review data. Open questions remain about API availability and specific security certifications.

24

Sources, method, and limitations

Evidence inventory, collection method, provider use, and constraints.

This report is based on 15 collected pages from standardnotes.com, including the homepage, features, plans, help articles, and blog posts. Static and rendered page collection were used. External proof search was performed but did not yield verified customer reviews or ratings. Limitations include potential outdated blog information and lack of third-party verification.

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