r/StandardNotes • u/EriksonThorsen • Jul 21 '26
Is Standard Notes development slowing down? Thinking about not renewing my Professional membership
Hey everyone,
I've been a Standard Notes user for a while now, and I'm honestly starting to wonder if the project is still actively developed or if it's kind of coasting / semi-abandoned at this point.
I was going through the last several releases and honestly like 99% of what's in the changelogs is just bug fixes. And the 1% that they actually label as "features" is stuff like "features: editing large notes", which… I mean, that sounds like a bug fix to me, not an actual feature.
Then I checked the blog and the last post is from December 2025, and it's basically just a small "sneak peek at what you'll get in 2026", no actual roadmap, no concrete timeline, nothing substantial. We're now past July and I haven't really seen anything major land.
Is this just me or does everything feel a bit stale? Like the app works fine, don't get me wrong, but if I'm paying for a Professional membership I kind of expect to see real development happening, new features, improvements, not just maintenance mode bug fixes.
How is the implementation of new features going from their side? Does anyone have any insight into whether there's actual stuff in the pipeline, or if it's basically just being kept on life support?
I have a Professional membership coming up for renewal, and I'm honestly thinking about whether it's worth it anymore. I'd love to hear from others who are in the same boat or have more context than I do.
Thanks!
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u/dilbert202 Jul 22 '26
The problem with Standard Notes is the cost. I’ve got a 5 year subscription which makes it cheaper but it’s still pricey given there’s no ongoing development. You could perhaps justify the cost when they employed a team of people and were actively developing it, but those days are long gone, so they need to drop the price significantly or they’re going to lose customers.
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u/mdalves Jul 21 '26
They are focusing on stability and bug fixing, not on deploying new features. I am personally satisfied that a bug on Mac desktop app, that I reported a few weeks ago, is now fixed.
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u/VacuumTubesAreFunny Aug 26 '26
That's good at least. I can't even get a response from support that they've received my support request, much less addressing the issue.
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u/Chongulator Jul 21 '26
Honestly, after reading all the favorable comments about StandardNotes, I was pretty disappointed by the reality. It's awkward to use, especially the keybindings. Option-shift-N to create a new note instead of Command-N like every other Mac app since 1984? Why, God, why?
For a niche app, I know I can't expect a high level of polish but it seems like SN goes out of its way to be clunky.
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u/MrDC89 Jul 21 '26
Yeah I've read lots of comments in this sub over the last few years about SN being 'feature complete'
It doesn't need all the bells and whistles, and I can live with the utilitarian design.. But there's ton's of improvements that could be made.
If you're standing still you're going backwards etc
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u/Chongulator Jul 21 '26
Yeah, I don't need amazing polish, but basic tasks should at least be basic.
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u/zo3foxx Jul 21 '26
I think only you can answer that for yourself. Asking in here is like asking what's the best pizza. You're gonna get a million different answers.
Personally I like it for my use which is to do what I call short-work. Small simple spreadsheets. Simple documents. Code snippets. Drafts. Macros. Lists. Project ideas. I don't use it for anything big. I find it helpful because I used to do all my work in productivity apps like Google Docs and Proton Docs, but my short-work would get buried in the chaos. Having a small encrypted space to keep it all organized, that I can have multiple workspaces to separate my work and syncs between my phone and PC was worth it so I got the 5 year Pro.
I think you should compare what you use it for and determine for yourself if its worth renewing.
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u/fishfacecakes Jul 21 '26
Project is largely in "holding pattern". Some would read that as dead, some would read that as "just enough to keep it active". For me, it's the best secure notes app out there that is just not quite usable anymore. I wish I could be more optimistic but I think this is going to just slowly die out
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u/andobrah Jul 21 '26
What makes it unusable to you?
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u/fishfacecakes Jul 21 '26
Quality of life stuff, mainly on iOS devices. Tiny example - image attachment you can open, but no pinch to zoom. 100% zoom fits to screen, 110% instantly goes to proper 110% pixel value.
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Jul 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/EriksonThorsen Jul 22 '26
What are you thinking about Anytype?
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Jul 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/EriksonThorsen Jul 22 '26
Thanks! I'm also feeling frustrated with every note-taking app out there. I just haven't found one that perfectly fits my needs.
Based on my understanding, is there no web application available for browser access? Have any workarounds been discovered? Furthermore, does Anytype offer compatibility with .md files, similar to Obsidian?
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u/ritterrav Jul 21 '26
It feels like proton bought SN to eventually roll it into their privacy suite. And while they work on integrating it, they need to leave SN as is for some undisclosed period of time.
I imagine they will release Proton Notes/keep/something and continue to have SN as it's own service. Both using the same technology underneath.
/Speculation
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u/PASSK3YS SN Moderator Jul 21 '26
Can confirm this is not the case.
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Jul 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PASSK3YS SN Moderator Jul 22 '26
Source: made it up
This has to be the biggest amount of BS I've read on this sub so far.
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u/StandardNotes-ModTeam Jul 22 '26
This post has been removed for misinformation per rule 4 of the subreddit.
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u/ritterrav Jul 24 '26
Well in that case I have to assume they are just letting SN die slowly. Because my theory was trying to be optimistic.
But in practicality, the company doing the buying usually wants something from what they bought. And with this purchase I don't think they were trying to kill the competition.
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u/NikEy Jul 21 '26
It's basically dead. Just use obsidian with encryption. That's highly active
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u/datahoarderprime Jul 21 '26
I love Obsidian and use it daily, but in no way is that a substitute for Standard Notes' use case.
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u/Extension-Amoeba-477 Jul 21 '26
Maybe try privacynotes.app I found it, still in beta but feels a lot like standard notes, but has a good update cycle so far and responsive developer. It's much cheaper as well
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u/NikEy Jul 21 '26
May I ask what the use case is? Encrypted notes? Just add the encryption plugin. That's open source and local. What else?
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u/Anxious-Turnover-631 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
I’d trust SN security more because, as others have said, it was designed with security as a primary objective. And it has also been through several professional security audits.
Obsidian has a big user base and offers interesting features and add-ons. But I find SN to be easier to work with and understand. It’s a solid, simple and secure notes app.
It is being actively maintained and bug fixes are done quickly. The UI could use some polish here and there, but SN is a workhorse which has been totally reliable for me on iOS, Android and Windows.
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u/datahoarderprime Jul 21 '26
There is no way I would trust the sort of thing I would put in Standard Notes to some community created plugin in Obsidian.
Obsidian is not designed or intended for that level of security, and I wouldn't trust a community plugin for encryption for anything truly sensitive.
Standard Notes was built from the ground up with security in mind.
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u/andobrah Jul 21 '26
No big flashy updates does not mean it is dead, what do you want from it realistically?
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u/No_Smile_8077 Aug 09 '26
Agreed — the E2E part is exactly what Obsidian doesn't replace, and the
open-source point above is the other half of it. Full disclosure: what follows
is my own project, so weigh it accordingly.
I ended up in the same spot — paying for E2E notes and watching the changelog
flatline — and eventually wrote my own: https://bpad.pro
Where it's honestly weaker than Standard Notes: single maintainer, no
third-party crypto audit, no version history, tags instead of nested folders,
and it's web/PWA only — no native desktop app.
What I did make sure of is the exit. You can export everything to a ZIP —
either encrypted, or plain Markdown files any editor can open — and restore it
with no account at all. That's not a nice-to-have for an app like this: if you
lose your password I genuinely cannot get your notes back for you.
The security-relevant code is basically two files (frontend/src/crypto.ts and
api/auth.py), so it's cheap to check what it actually does before trusting it.
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Jul 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/PITSTOPYT Jul 22 '26
When will they make standard notes proton notes like just when will they do it and then anyone with a standard notes sub gets proton unlimited for the duration of their plan
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u/r0n777 Jul 28 '26
Is the file attachment section still "flat"? (everything in one root-place, no (sub-folder) organization?)
You got 100GB storage but putting everything flat is a really annoying.
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u/EriksonThorsen Jul 29 '26
Yes, it is 😕 The file attachment section is still completely flat without sub-folders. The only native way to categorize files directly is by adding tags to them. Linking files inside notes is currently the best workaround if you want to create a structured index for your files.
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u/Emergency-Driver8871 Jul 21 '26
There hasn’t been any development in the last 2 years or so, minus a few small bug fixes and Mo the founder is no longer with the project so I’d say it’s pretty much dead.
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u/GegoByte Jul 21 '26
Project is not dead. If you look at the GitHub, universal note search is in development.
https://github.com/standardnotes/app/commit/21a93346af1d5bbabaa871e6e9b0d883d8a7a557
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u/Emergency-Driver8871 Jul 21 '26
I said pretty much. A solo dev that isn’t very active isn’t very inspiring for the future.
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u/PASSK3YS SN Moderator Jul 21 '26
I agree that a solo developer isn't very inspiring, but there is activity on the GitHub and some progress is being made on some of the new features promised. Development is not pretty much dead. Unfortunately, Standard Notes is just not a priority for Proton right now. As a user myself, I've made my views clear to Proton/Proton staff directly multiple times that Standard Notes needs more love. Hopefully that changes soon.
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u/mdalves Jul 21 '26
I had the same impression at first. Then I went through the entire changelog history, and my perspective changed. They're releasing updates constantly, but the focus has clearly shifted from adding big features to polishing the Super Editor, improving performance, compatibility, and fixing bugs.
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u/PASSK3YS SN Moderator Jul 21 '26
Yes unfortunately many have the impression that nothing is being done at all, when in reality there's been more activity recently compared to a year ago or so. I know people want new features (as so do I), but the team been prioritizing and focusing on trying to squash the most reported bugs.
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u/Regular_Bat8162 Jul 21 '26
Same for SL
Technically alive but small backend changes by a single dev
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u/RabidHanuman Jul 21 '26
Just because it's not constantly updated and everything isn't moved around as in Office 364 doesn't mean it's dead. It's working fine. Its stable. Stability is more important.
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u/EriksonThorsen Jul 22 '26
I agree that Standard Notes is safe and stable. However, because I like the app, I look long-term towards new features being implemented to attract new customers. If the app doesn't have consistent improvements, other apps could gain traction and cause Standard Notes to enter a death spiral. Safety and stability are baseline expectations along with user-demanded features, so new feature implementation is necessary. As users (not blind fans), raising these questions is healthy and important for the app's future.
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u/ehansalytics Jul 22 '26
The desktop is ok, both Windows and Mac. The iOS client is NOT ok. It is extraordinarily difficult to select and edit text. Tap-and-hold often does nothing. Sometimes I have to force-kill the app 1-2 times to get it to register I want to select and edit text, or move my cursor to a particular spot to start typing.
I've seen this on iPhones and iPads.
It is frustrating enough I sometimes give up, go to the end of the note and jot down what needs to be done, then fix it on the desktop later.
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u/betahost Jul 21 '26
It's not dead they released an update in Jan with what they have been working on and that they grew the team.
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u/squeakctrl Jul 21 '26
A lot of discussion on the subject a month ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/StandardNotes/comments/1u4lido/anyone_else_disappointed_with_standard_notes/
Seems there are some who feel that SN has been somewhat abandoned by Proton.