Looking for a note-taking app, preferably that I could use straight from a browser. I’m currently using Standard Notes. Not sure if that one is any good, but E2EE and open-source which at least checks those boxes. I don’t store anything too sensitive and I don’t need a whole bunch of features, though I suppose I’d use them if they were available.

I’m honestly not too picky but maybe discussion here could help someone else out who may be looking for the same thing with higher expectations? I’ll switch over to a better option if there’s something considerably better.

Thanks in advance

  • wrath-sedan
    17•2 years ago

    I kind of love note taking apps so I can rundown a few:

    • Logseq (FOSS, can technically run in a browser but it’s very limited and literally called “demo”)
    • Obsidian (not FOSS but local md first, very mature and a huge community)
    • Joplin (FOSS and probably general go-to for cross-platform open source notes in general but is a bit of a memory hog)
    • StandardNotes (you already described this one)
    • notesnook (very new offering probably most similar to SN but I don’t know)
    • AnyType (also very new and striving for more of a Notion-like experience but I think still needs time to mature)

    I use Logseq most often, although I prefer Joplin on mobile. Obsidian and Logseq are more “personal knowledge management” and may be overkill for simple note-taking, plus I feel they are a little bloated on mobile. Honestly not sure which ones work in a browser, but I agree that’s a feature I’d like more of. All of these though I believe are cross-platform so should be usable on mobile or desktop.

    • @clothes@lemmy.world
      1•2 years ago

      Do you find that the mobile Logseq app takes ages to open, or is my phone just too old? I really want to like Logseq, but it wasn’t snappy enough.

      • wrath-sedan
        2•2 years ago

        I have a fairly old iPhone and I never have much of an issue with speed, so maybe?

        My main issues with Logseq on mobile is that a) there’s no plug-in support which makes my workflow much more difficult and b) I find the UI as just a copy of the desktop UI without many mobile-specific features usable but not super intuitive. If I need to jot down a quick note or TODO on the go I don’t think it’s best. I keep the app mainly to reference longer notes on the go.

    • codOP
      1•2 years ago

      I just started using Joplin and I’m quite liking it so far. Opening the task manager on my pc and I can definitely see it likes to use up memory, but hopefully that won’t be much of an issue. It takes a few moments to synchronize but that’s alright. It has more features than the free version of Standard Notes, but SN feels a bit smoother if that makes sense. Still not sure which I prefer quite yet but we’ll see

      • wrath-sedan
        3•2 years ago

        Hope you find something that works! I do enjoy that Joplin is not paywalled in anyway, and is still super robust, private, and local first. I personally hop around between several note taking apps based on my needs so finding apps that are local md first is high priority for me so that if I move to another app all of my notes can move with me.

        Joplin stores notes in a database rather than directly as Markdown, but they can easily be exported as Markdown which I guess is the next best thing.

  • sag
    14•2 years ago

    I personally use Notesnook. It’s E2E, Open Soure and Cross Platform.

  • @Father_Redbeard@lemmy.ml
    5•2 years ago

    Notesnook for sure. I really disliked Joplin. Particularly the Android app. Just really poorly designed.

    Acreom promise but it’s new enough they don’t have E2EE or even local only on mobile. Both are on the road map. Dev seems engaged and cool though.

    Edit: I didn’t see the open source req, acreom isn’t. But it’s still a cool app. And I’d they can get local only on mobile, then you can sync however you want as it’s just flat Markdown, similar to Obsidian.

  • @Euphoma@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1•2 years ago

    If you have the time to learn emacs, its really good for note taking. I don’t think any app other than Vim could compete in taking notes in my math class.

    • @zonsopkomst@lemmy.ml
      1•2 years ago

      I’ve attempted to use emacs with orgmode, but have no programming background. I wanted to go for a vanilla emacs experience that I can add modules to, but have hit a wall. My dream is to replace Vscodium which I use for markdown notes with syncthing and also to manage my NixOS git config files (magit?). It’s probably just time and research, but I wish I could simplify the process a bit. I always seem to destroy the documents I’m attempting to work in and get lost in the emac buffers. Just ranting to see if anyone has any tips or suggestions.

      • @Euphoma@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2•2 years ago

        I created my emacs config by going through the awesome-emacs github page and adding any packages that looked useful. If you can’t find your buffers, you should do m-x ibuffer and then hit s m to sort buffers by mode, and then you can see all the buffers that are open. Centaur tabs mode is also nice because it adds tabs.

        Adding packages using use-package makes it easier to remember what stuff you added and makes your config more portable. I just got used to emacs by using it with the default keybinds and a minimal amount of packages to understand how it works.

        Alternatively if you know how to use vim, theres an apparently pretty good org mode package for it.

        • @zonsopkomst@lemmy.ml
          1•2 years ago

          Nice, thanks. I will defintely check out the awesome-emacs github. How do you search for functions and keybindings within emacs? I’ve heard it documents everything under the sun, but can’t recall where I read that.

          I had used use-package which I agree is easier, but I think there is an issue either with my OS or more likely me, organizing the config.el in NixOS using org-mode to create sections as it works in the normal config files, but does not work in the org-mode style files with #+BEGIN_SRC #+END_SRC sections.

          • @Euphoma@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1•2 years ago

            I’m on NixOS also but I’m not using org-mode for my config, so idk how to help with that. If you do c-h ? you can see all of the help commands, like c-h m for your current keybinds, c-h v for variables, etc. It says just the key you have to do after doing c-h. Also if you use the which-key package, there’s a minibuffer that shows ways to complete a command after doing something like c-x in a list of what command happens after you do each possible key after it. Oh yeah I’m using vertico mode which shows all the functions when I hit m-x and is kinda like autocompletion in an ide except for m-x.

            • @zonsopkomst@lemmy.ml
              1•2 years ago

              Thanks again- this is really useful. Navigation and getting the muscle memory is the hardest thing for me right now. I think I will use these commands and try to practice a little each day until I become more comfortable using emacs full time.

            • @zonsopkomst@lemmy.ml
              1•2 years ago

              Just wanted to post a quick thank you as this info has really helped me get to a usable / learning state with emacs! Will keep playing and practicing until it becomes second nature.

      • @Euphoma@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2•2 years ago

        Well yeah, but I’m using it in emacs org mode, which is nicer to write than straight up LaTeX. I used to use markdown on vim (which can embed LaTeX if you use pandoc to convert to pdf) but org mode is better.

        God mode keybinds and yasnippets makes it comfortable to type.

        • @taiidan@slrpnk.net
          1•2 years ago

          Good to know! I’m still at the vim+markdown+LaTeX for equations mode, but other than for math stuff I can’t be bothered for LaTeX. I wish collaborators would be open to LaTeX rather than Google Docs or the highway.

  • @dn3j4n4@lemmy.world
    1•2 years ago

    I am searching for the note taking app with the same criteria and right now i am using Cryptee (browser based, no app) and trying to like Joplin. Sometimes Cryptee is slow at startup, but has web app, encrypted, is simple to use and has 2fa. Joplin is fast, supports cloud storage of your choice, but has awful sync issue. When you have some notes uploaded and synced and decide to reinstall the app in your phone and sync it again, your notes will be lost.

  • Danileonis
    1•2 years ago

    I recently started to directly use KeePassDX even for notes (since I sync it with syncthing) and I must say it’s very good.

  • @hakunawazo@lemmy.world
    1•2 years ago

    Maybe https://dillinger.io/ as a self-hosted raspberrypi docker instance? And instead of saving to public cloud services just export the markdown file as local pdf.

    On mobile I can’t just find pdf export button like on desktop.

  • @Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
    1•2 years ago

    SiYuan (GPL) is probably the most advanced. You can get it off github. I haven’t found anything that compares in terms of notes based features. Appflowy and Affine also are open source and have good note taking capabilities.