Wow! I signed up to use Notesnook this week. Notesnook is a privacy-first note-taking application. I wanted something to complement my other privacy-based tools.
This application is really what Evernote wished it could be. It’s brilliant.
I used Evernote for 11 years and was even pleased with the Home dashboard when that was introduced a few years ago. And the guys at Bending Spoons are working hard to make Evernote a great product (less so with Tasks or Calendar IMHO – it’s a note-taking app). However, the inability of me to use this at work (blocked), and the frankly crazy pricing overhaul has caused me to look elsewhere. I guess there’s fairly elastic demand with existing Evernote die-hards so they’ll make their money…. but not from me. I should perhaps be using OneNote at work (we’re a Microsoft shop) but there’s just a je ne sais quoi bit of friction going on there. It just doesn’t feel right to how my brain is wired.
With Notesnook, all notes are E2EE (end-to-end encrypted), and there’s a range of security and privacy features that can be tweaked to keep those Big Brothers eyes from a-snooping.
Notesnook is sensibly priced, in fact I can claim a considerable discount as a (mature, somewhat decrepit) student – a tenner a year. I basically get all the features you’d expect to see in Evernote (notebook-based) but with block-style functionality a la Notion, and bi-direction linking a la Obsidian.
I’m absolutely loving it. I don’t think it will replace Obsidian as my PKM but all my personal note-taking requirements are covered.
In the image above you’ll notice a very Notion-like block-based creation tool. I also love the Callout facility as well just to emphasis quotes or other useful bits of information in your note. It also has (under the Notebooks tab) an Evernote-esque layout (something I’m really used to) but whereas Evernote has “stacks” of notebooks, they can instead by layered in Notesnook. Suits me better.
I did consider Standard Notes with its security/privacy features, but the inability to use Markdown and “super note” functionality without forking out $90 for the year sort of put me off. Still cheaper than Evernote, mind.
I’d definitely encourage digital note-takers to give Notesnook a look. As an organisation they seem well positioned to have an excellent future (the roadmap looks particularly encouraging – encrypted workspaces sounds great) and even if you’re not a student, the annual fee is sensibly priced at around £50 for the year to get all the pro features. For great functionality and privacy in a note-taking application.
For now, I’ll continue to play and see what my final use case will be.
Here’s some links to the other mentioned apps: