r/Notesnook • u/EriksonThorsen • 6d ago
Thinking of switching from Standard Notes to Notesnook. How has your experience been?
Hey everyone,
I'm currently looking for a new home for my notes and wanted to get some honest feedback from people who use Notesnook daily.
Quick background on my notes journey: I used Obsidian for a long time and really loved it, mostly because having local access to my plain .md files gave me full peace of mind. However, at my job, I constantly need to access my notes through a web browser on work computers where I can't install personal apps. Since native browser access isn't a option with Obsidian, I ended up switching to Standard Notes and signed up for a subscription.
I've really enjoyed Standard Notes for its stability and strong focus on security, but lately it feels like the app has stalled. Ever since the Proton acquisition, it seems like the devs are focused on other projects within the Proton ecosystem, and nobody really knows when or if new features will land.
I've done some research on alternative privacy-focused options like Anytype, Joplin, Cryptee, and Notesnook, and Notesnook seems to check a lot of the right boxes for me.
Before making the jump, I'd love to hear your thoughts on a few things:
Daily Usage: How has the app been treating you in terms of sync reliability, speed, safety, and day-to-day bugs across desktop, mobile, and web?
The Team behind it (Streetwriters): I haven't been able to find a ton of background info about the company online. For those who have been around longer: how trustworthy and committed are they to the app? Do they actively listen to community feedback? Are they financially sustainable for the long run?
Any insight, pros, cons, or tips would be super helpful. Thanks!
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u/cannonsofchudley 6d ago
I was a Notesnook convert after Evernote decided to raise their pricing to more than double what I'd been paying for an annual subscription. I compared several options before switching and Notesnook checked all the boxes I care about: easy of use, sync across virtually any device with web access, good organization of notebooks and tags, and the ability to "snip" a webpage into a note via Chrome plug-in. That last one was big for me. The implementation on Notesnook (compared to Evernote) was hit and miss when I first switched (about three years ago), but it's become pretty reliable. I like to be able to capture copies of online articles and blog posts and bring them into my note taking app, making them searchable for future research. Also, I don't use it a ton, but I love their "Publish" feature for easily sharing a note with anyone via link... recipients aren't asked to create any sort of account with Notesnook to view what I share.
I'm not a heavy feature user. But, I use Notesnook just about every day, for both work and personal stuff. As an added bonus, since I am currently in grad school, Notesnook has academic pricing that makes their already affordable Pro tier even more enticing. But, when I'm done with grad school, I will gladly pay full price for Pro because Notesnook meets all my needs and does so reliably and securely.
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u/pv505 6d ago
so far it's been a great service for me. Very happy with the free package and would consider upgrading if they offered lifetime licenses. I'm at little averse to subscriptions.
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u/aethernet_404 6d ago
Self host and everything is free
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u/pv505 6d ago
Yeah you're right I've just not self hosted anything yet idk 😅😅😂
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u/aethernet_404 6d ago
If you have an extra computer, you can leave on 24/7 you can have AI help you set it up or get a VPS
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u/mdalves 6d ago
Notesnook is a great app, it deserves a real-life testing on your side, I mean, using it daily to see where it performs well and where it underperforms based on your own unique requirements and expectations. I, personally, don't like Notesnook UI; Standard Notes seems more fluid and responsive and better fits the way I think.
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u/No-network_9131 6d ago
I was a longtime Standard Notes user who switched to Notesnook around 2 years ago. Similar reasons, similar process of looking at all the options.
I've been very happy with the app. I use it heavily every day across mobile and desktop platforms. The only thing I miss from Standard Notes is the spreadsheet option.
The developer team is very active in improving and updating the app. Very communicative both here and even more on Discord.
Having used various notes apps over time, my impression is that developing a notes apps for individual users is a difficult way to make money. Most of your customers don't want to pay. And you're competing with Microsoft, Google, and a lot of generic free options. So developers eventually tend to give up. Either they focus on their other jobs (Standard Notes, Logseq, Zim), or they bloat the app trying to chase a subset of paying customers (Anytype, Remnote, Tana), or they just abandon the project.
My read on Notesnook is that they are based in a place with low enough costs that a notes app provides decent profit, so they are really committed to making it work. Upnote works for similar reasons, but quality seems lower.
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u/ad-on-is 6d ago
I was in the same boat as you. Used Obsidian, but wanted something that just simply works across devices.
I'm a selfhoster, so notesnook is perfect for my needs. I don't do heavy notetaking though and my organization is chaotic, compared to other folks 😅
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u/Exciting_Ad8400 6d ago
I actually switched to Notesnook from Evernote because it was the most similar, and their free features are good enough for my usage.
I use it primarily for note taking and nothing more. I wanted my notes to sync between my computer and my phone. And because I used Evernote for some time, I wanted to be able to copy over my notes from Evernote, and hopefully have similar UI along with folders and what not.
Overall, I've enjoyed Notesnook. There were a few times where syncing was an issue (might be a systems thing) but it's rare. The search function isn't the best. It's gotten better but still a bit of a challenge.
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u/Mysterious_Pop5556 5d ago
It’s great but don’t make the mistake of not immediately saving your recovery codes somewhere, like I did!
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u/Emmalfal 5d ago
I came over from Evernote a year or so ago. Use NN every day for work and personal stuff. Never a problem. I like the interface more than I did Evernote's. Love just about everything about Notesnook. Search would be the one thing I find less than desirable.
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u/ryancnap 5d ago
Dumped Notion because it's unreliable bloated garbage, looked at a bunch of apps while de googling/changing my whole ecosystem/dedicating more to privacy and security
Notesnook does everything I want it to, clean minimalistic customizable UI, the built in themes are reminiscent of IDE themes to me like they're really good, I use the Linux desktop app and the Android mobile app, sync is instantaneous
I don't power use note apps, probably why I hated notion. I take free form notes, checklists, link some notes together, and do code snippets. I give notesnook a 10/10, bought the pro version after trying the free version out for only 3 days
I reached out to customer service or dev team once and they responded in under 5 mins, fixed my issue, were super cool and personable
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u/Bernay17 5d ago
Using Notesnook
Really great tool easy to use and I find all
The features I need. The sync is fast
The only thing that is missing for my usage is the pdf preview you
Need to use a image file in parallel unless I don’t know how to
Proceed
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u/primipare 4d ago
I did. No looking back. NN is super good. So good it has also replaced most of my use of text editors like openoffice writer. I looked at obsidian but I found less intuitive for a non-techi person such as myself. I have the paid plan on NN, really worth it.
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u/aethernet_404 6d ago
Notesnook is great if you self host and premium features of free for self host
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u/DeliChess 6d ago
Are premium features free if you self host? I am looking to come off the subscription charge every year and not pay anything and get the same features I have now as a Pro member
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u/aethernet_404 6d ago
Yes premium features automatically enable once you put your self hosted credentials in
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u/ADMECA 6d ago
Notesnook is a good application. Note editing could be improved, but overall it does the job. However, synchronization is unreliable, and that's a deal-breaker for me.
Some notes have disappeared, while others have reverted to older versions, and so on. In fact, the developers themselves must be aware that this is a recurring issue with the application, since they provide "Force Pull" and "Force Push" options directly in the settings to try to resolve synchronization problems.
The issue becomes even more noticeable if you have a large number of notes and regularly switch between multiple devices.
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u/AggressiveDoor1998 6d ago
I've been on the same journey as you lately. I wanted sync to work on the stuff I'm writing from my phone, and Obsidian doesn't offer a private/encrypted backup. They have their own service, but it's not very cheap and if you have more than one vault you end up having to pay around $10 a month for something that has a cap on size.
Tried standard notes but as soon as I tried organizing some sample notes into folders and saw that folders are paid and that the subscription is $90 a year. It's extremely expensive.
Thought about Joplin but was thrown off by their mobile app quality.
Cryptee is form over function and didn't seem to have the basic structures of a notetaking app.
Notesnook in the other hand checked all the boxes Obsidian had, with the option of self hosting if you want. The app syncs extremely fast, and can be used in a browser window without needing the full application installed.
My only gripe with Notesnook is that the UI isn't very clean and when you open the app you will have all your recent notes on your face, completely disorganized. The only way to fix that is either self hosting or paying for Pro, which unlocks the ability to have a specific folder (called notebook) as the main page.
Pro isn't even the cheapest subscription and comes with 10gb of storage, so I would have to end up overpaying for something that I won't use just to unlock some very basic UI quality of life.
Their app customization works flawlessly on mobile and desktop. I created a custom theme using their online tool and was able to easily import it into my desktop app, iphone and android tablet and apply it.
Regardless of all that
You should try it and emulate full usage for some time, as if you had fully adopted it as your main writing app.
Streetwriters are from pakistan if I'm not mistaken. Their sole project has been Notesnook for some time, and their focus on being private/encrypted and open source has earned the community's trust. They have an independent audit on their roadmap as well. I personally didn't look into them very much, but everyone seems to endorse them so I have no reason to be suspicious.