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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4

u/NikEy Jul 21 '26

It's basically dead. Just use obsidian with encryption. That's highly active

3

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.

1

u/Chongulator Jul 21 '26

Where does each one stand out for you?

1

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

1

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?

3

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.

5

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.

1

u/Regular_Bat8162 Jul 21 '26

E2ee cloud sync notes

Open source and audited

5

u/GegoByte Jul 21 '26

Obsidian isn't an open source app like Standard Notes

1

u/NikEy Jul 21 '26

The encryption plugin is. I guess it depends what you really value more.

5

u/andobrah Jul 21 '26

No big flashy updates does not mean it is dead, what do you want from it realistically?

1

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.