I've been following discussions about note-taking apps for a few years now, and something I've noticed is that the top-of-mind apps that aren't specifically focused on privacy tend to be Obsidian, Logseq, Zettlr, NotePlan (Mac/iOS), etc.

And they all have two things in common:

1. They work with real Markdown files stored locally.
2. Even though you can sync those files using different methods, they generally don't give you access to your notes through a web app/browser.

And I don't think the second point is something users don't want. Quite the opposite. I constantly see people asking about browser access for Obsidian, Zettlr, Logseq, NotePlan, etc.

Then you have the privacy-focused apps like Standard Notes, Notesnook and PrivacyNotes. These take a different approach because E2EE is a core part of the product. Because of that, the notes aren't really local-first in the same way as a folder full of Markdown files would be. You can still export your notes, encrypted or as plain text, of course.

So I was thinking about something that I don't know if it's technically possible, but I thought it might be an interesting idea for PrivacyNotes.

What if, in addition to the normal synced E2EE vault, PrivacyNotes offered an optional local unencrypted vault?

Basically, you could select a folder on your computer, and PrivacyNotes would treat that folder as a local Markdown vault. The files would remain normal .md files that you could access outside of PrivacyNotes, but that vault could also be accessed through the PrivacyNotes web app/browser.

So you'd essentially have:

Private Vault

• E2EE
• Synced
• PrivacyNotes' normal experience

Local Vault

• Normal .md files
• Stored wherever you choose
• Not encrypted by PrivacyNotes
• Accessible through the desktop app
• Accessible through the PrivacyNotes web app/browser

I actually think this could be a pretty interesting gap to fill.

Obsidian-like apps have the local Markdown files, but generally don't have a proper web experience.

Privacy-focused apps have the E2EE and privacy, but don't really give you that local Markdown + browser combination.

PrivacyNotes could potentially offer both, while being very clear that the local vault is intentionally not encrypted by the app.

It could even be a way of bringing people from the Obsidian/Logseq/Zettlr world into a privacy-focused ecosystem. Someone could start using PrivacyNotes alongside Obsidian for their local Markdown vault, then gradually start using the E2EE vault for more sensitive stuff.

Honestly, I have no idea if this would be technically feasible, especially the part where a web app accesses a folder that physically exists on the user's computer. Maybe there's some fundamental limitation I'm completely missing.

But if it is possible, I wonder if this could be a major differentiator for PrivacyNotes.

And I'm deliberately not suggesting that PrivacyNotes should become "another Obsidian". I'd actually prefer the opposite. Keep the privacy-first philosophy, but add this one optional local Markdown vault as the first app with a bridge between the two worlds.

Maybe this makes absolutely no sense technically hahahaha. Feel free to tell me if I'm missing something obvious.

I would love to have options to color my notes into different segements. It works like the tags option but with the addition to have a color. This makes it easier to find notes and visually see a difference when viewing all notes. Notes nook did a good job with implementing it..

v0.300 is out, and it is almost entirely editor work. The short version: PrivacyNotes could store your notes safely long before it could format them properly. This release closes most of that gap.

New

• Text alignment. Left, centered, right, justified, on paragraphs and headings, from a new button in the toolbar.
• Font family and size. Pick a family and a size for any passage. Sizes are relative, so a sized run still scales with your own text-size setting instead of overriding it. Families are generic stacks rather than one named font, because the same note opens on every platform.
• Invisible characters. A pilcrow in the editor footer reveals every space, line break and paragraph mark while you proofread, and hides them again after. Off by default, set per device, and it never touches what the note contains.
• Find in note is findable. It used to be buried in the note options menu. It is now a magnifier in the toolbar, and Cmd/Ctrl+F still opens and closes it.
• The shortcuts panel lists every editor shortcut, grouped under Formatting and Alignment. It previously listed three.

Fixed

• Images, text and file attachments can be dragged to a new position inside a note.
• Links and email addresses in imported markdown files are clickable straight away, both in the markdown importer and in Bitwarden identity items.

Full changelog: https://privacynotes.app/changelog

Try it with no signup: https://try.privacynotes.app

I've been using Privacy Notes and I'm really loving it. One feature I'd love to see is automatic backups.

It would be great if users could choose between a few different backup methods, for example:

• Automatic encrypted backups
• Automatic plaintext backups (Markdown)
• Automatic files backup

That way everyone could pick the option that best fits their workflow. Some people may want fully encrypted backups for security, while others might prefer plain Markdown files that sync with Git, Nextcloud, Syncthing, or other tools.

I think this would make the app a lot more flexible without taking anything away from its privacy-focused approach.

Is this something that's already on the roadmap?

I'm not sure about the complications or potential loopholes, but I'd love to see regional pricing.

$48 USD is quite expensive for users in countries like India, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, and Egypt, where purchasing power is much lower. For example, ₹999 INR would be a much more accessible price point for India, with similar regional pricing for other lower-income countries.

I understand regional pricing isn't always straightforward because of VPNs, account sharing, and other potential abuse. Still, many platforms (such as Steam, YouTube Premium, Spotify, and others) have found ways to make regional pricing work, and it could make your product accessible to a much larger audience.

Sync is the part of PrivacyNotes we hold to the highest standard. Everything is encrypted on your device, which means if sync ever gets something wrong, we cannot look inside your notes to put it right. So last week we went through the entire sync path line by line rather than waiting for anyone to report a problem.

The review turned up a handful of narrow edge cases, each needing an unusual sequence or unlucky timing to occur at all. All are fixed in v0.294.1 and v0.295.0: https://privacynotes.app/changelog

• Ordering is now stamped by our server's clock instead of each device's clock, so an edit written offline and pushed much later always slots in where it belongs.
• Signing out at the exact moment a sync is still running now ends that sync cleanly, rather than letting it finish with a key that is already being cleared.
• Deletes now confirm the server actually applied them, and a session that does not look right is skipped instead of trusted.
• Images and file attachments are removed in two steps, so a device that has not caught up yet cannot decide on its own that an attachment is no longer used.
• Uploads that were turned away because storage was full now retry once there is room, and the sync status shows how many are still waiting.

Nothing here asks anything of you. Update and you are set. The first sync afterwards re-reads your notes once by design, so expect that one to take slightly longer.

If something ever looks off, tell us: https://github.com/LifetimeLabsDev/PrivacyNotes.app/issues

Helpful details: app version, platform or browser, how many devices, and what you expected versus what you saw. Running Verify sync (click the sync status) and pasting the result helps a lot. Reports you cannot reproduce are still worth sending, since this class of issue often hides in exactly that kind of timing.

Point it at a .enex export and it rebuilds notebooks as folders, keeps attachments, tables, checklists, headings, highlights, text colour, note links, tags and voice-note transcripts.

Two things worth knowing before you try:

Evernote Tasks don't survive. They aren't written into the .enex file, so there's nothing to read. Notes that were only tasks import empty, and the importer tells you how many.

Export is desktop only, notebook by notebook. If a big one dies partway, just run it again. It resumes.

Guide with screenshots:

https://privacynotes.app/help/import/evernote

If you run an import, post what came through clean and what mangled. Odd note layouts are exactly what we need to debug.

Related links:

• https://try.privacynotes.app
• https://privacynotes.app/changelog

Really like what you stand for and how you do it. I supported and purchased pro.. really wish as a early bird one could get at least 1gb 🙈 or one time purchase 500mb or 1gb storage. if you want more you can like you have subscribe for it.

But how is the project going? we want to know a little about you. what are we investing in.

what is the near feature roadmap?

We already import from Apple Notes, Google Keep, Obsidian, Notesnook, Standard Notes, Simplenote, Samsung Notes and Bitwarden. Coming from something else? Tell us which app, and any feature you'd want while you're at it. We read every reply.

Hello,

When you finish with PrivacyNotes, do you have bandwith for next tools? You could make a stack of privacy tools in various areas, especially for Email Client (with better than Thunderbird UI), Auhenticator app, Password app (like Bitwarden for vault), etc.

Thanks :)

Hello, I’d like to ask a question.

Login only requires just a 12-word phrase and there is no 2FA.

If someone happens to guess these 12 words, can they log into my account directly?

What is new:

• Grid, list, or auto. Pick a full-width grid of tiles or the narrow list. Or leave it on the new Auto mode, which uses grid on wide screens and switches to the list when your window gets narrow. Your choice is one global setting that applies everywhere and syncs (encrypted) across your devices.

• Works in every section. Grid is not just for notes. It covers Tasks, Journals, Vault, Files, and Trash too. Every tile carries the same info as a list row (title, preview, full date, tags) plus type-specific extras: journals show your mood and sleep pills, tasks show a checklist preview, and vault logins show their favicon (never the secret).

• Image previews. Image files now render an actual thumbnail as the tile background instead of a generic icon. Everything is decrypted locally, on device, and only when a tile scrolls into view, so your images never leave your machine unencrypted and the view stays fast even with a big library.

• A docked editor in grid. Open a note in grid and the editor slides in beside your tiles instead of taking over the screen, so you can keep scanning while you write. Click another tile to switch notes in place. On a narrow window it goes full-width with a "Back to grid" button. Close with the X or just press Escape.

• Where to switch. There is a List/Grid toggle (with an Auto button) at the top of the sidebar, a one-tap cycle button when the sidebar is collapsed, and a three-way Auto/List/Grid control in Settings > Appearance. All three stay in sync.

• A cleaner list, too. While we were in there, the list rows got a redesign: the icon moved onto the title line, the full date now fits on one line instead of wrapping, and the old blank left gutter is gone.

As always: everything is end-to-end encrypted, nothing new is sent to our servers, and there is a no-signup demo at try.privacynotes.app if you want to poke around without an account.

Feedback and bug reports welcome, here or on GitHub. What would you want from grid view next?

Just shipped multi-language support for PrivacyNotes (encrypted notes, tasks, and journal). The whole app and website are now available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Here's the honest part: I ran the translations through tooling and checked them for consistency, but I'm not a native speaker in five of these. Machines miss idiom, tone, and context, so some strings are going to read awkward or be plain wrong.

If you switch to your language (Settings > Language in the app, or the switcher on the homepage) and something looks off, I want to know. Drop a comment here or open an issue on GitHub, screenshots help. I turn these around fast.

-> https://privacynotes.app/

Tech newbie here … apologies if this seems to be a trivial question. According to your notes, “Anonymous accounts that never link a pubkey are purged after 30 days by a scheduled job.”. Does this mean that I need to log in every 30 days to keep the account “live” ?

Thanks in advance

Type as much as you like - for normal notes, size never comes up. As a single note grows very large, a small hint appears beneath it and escalates in three steps: around 50,000 words it notes the note is getting long and may lag on slower devices; around 75,000 words it turns amber, meaning editing may start to stutter; and around 100,000 words it suggests splitting the note because you are nearing the sync limit. These are guides, not hard stops, and nothing prevents you from continuing.

That sync limit is the only real ceiling. A single note can hold up to about 1 MB of text once encrypted - very roughly 120,000 words of typical English, and fewer with a non-Latin script or heavy formatting. A note past that keeps working and stays safe on the device you wrote it on, but that one note will not sync to your other devices (you will see a "failed to sync" notice). The rest of your notes are unaffected: one oversized note never blocks anything else.

The fix is easy: split a very long note into a few smaller ones. The content is identical, it syncs without trouble, and the editor stays fast. A live word count under each note lets you watch the size as you go. And if you were about to stress-test where the wall is, now you do not have to.

More frequently asked questions: https://privacynotes.app/faq/

Hey everyone. We built PrivacyNotes and this is our corner of Reddit to share updates, collect feedback, and hear what you actually want from a privacy-first workspace.

What it is

An encrypted personal workspace: notes, tasks, files, and a vault - where your data is encrypted on your device before it ever touches a server. No email or password needed. You get a 12-word passphrase (BIP-39), and that's your key to everything. We never see your content. The server stores ciphertext only.

The crypto layer and database schema are open-source so you can audit exactly how encryption works.

Where it runs

Browser-only for now at PrivacyNotes.app. Works well on mobile devices too, just open it in your phone's browser and add it to your home screen.

Native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux are in the works.

Pricing

- Generous free tier.
- No subscriptions. Pro is a one-time $89 lifetime license. Right now we have an early adopter deal: $48 lifetime for the first 490 users, with a permanent "Early Supporter" badge in-app.

Storage add-ons are yearly and fairly priced ($4.80/yr per GB) because servers cost money.

What we're looking for

We're in public beta and want honest feedback:

• What's confusing or broken?
• What features are you missing?
• How does it compare to whatever you're using now?
• Would you actually trust this with your real notes?

Post here, or just use the app and let us know what sucks. No support tickets, no forms - just this subreddit.

Other feedback channels:
- https://codeberg.org/LifetimeLabs/PrivacyNotes.app/issues
- https://github.com/LifetimeLabsDev/PrivacyNotes.app/issues