- What a coincidence, was just looking for a replacement of Simplenote!
With hundreds of note taking apps coming and going, is there any single performant cross-platform non-Electron app with great conflict resolution for simple notes? Just to be more useful than an overpowered code editor + a file cloud?
Checked just 2 of these conditions here (native Windows and macOS and some iOS startup benchmarks) and there is literally not a single app!!! (to be fair, not every app is likely tested, but even without those it's 6 apps)
https://noteapps.info/features?group=performance
- I can recommend Standard Notes as an alternative. https://standardnotes.com/
Works well on all paltforms, desktop and mobile. The sync works also great. It also backs up to text files on your computer, so that you can back up your files with your regular backup process and you can also easily move away if you would like to one day.
- GNU Emacs, which has been in active development for over 40 years, has a thriving note taking ecosystem based on Org-mode, a plaintext system for notes, documents, computational notebooks, literate programming, maintaining to-do lists, planning projects, and lots more. Ask your doctor if GNU Emacs is right for you.
Side effects may include: excessive online evangelism, endless configuration tinkering, pain and numbness in the pinkies, and smugness.
- I‘m pretty happy with a self hosted Joplin.
Markdown, cross platform and good support for todo lists.
- I'm working on a open source markdown editor inspired by nvALT. Would love feedback! https://hashy.ink
- Just use plain text files. Anything backed by a service is going to hurt over a long enough time frame. And it seems that time frame gets shorter every year.
I still use email drafts for a lot of notes. Looking at my email draft folder the oldest one I have is from 2002 and I can still access it just fine, even on mobile.
- Isn't Simplenote partially (or maybe entirely?) opensource? Would've been nice if they'd linking to the repos if so, and perhaps put out a call for new maintainers rather than just archiving.
- That's sad! Simplenote is a really useful and quick note taking app that's minimal but not missing anything for this kind of app. It's like notational velocity but done in a clean way, and synchronizing across devices. For me it was really enough for many years.
PS. And there is this surprise when you discover that all notes are versioned.
- Thats sad! For those looking to migrate out, I wrote this backup tool that pulls your note out of simplenote and uploads it to sqlite database. Hope this helps https://github.com/vivekhub/simplenote-backup
- That’s a shame, though I do see that it is difficult to make any money from what it is. I’m glad they didn’t sell it to someone big for all the user’s data, though it is still early
- Wow thanks for posting this, this was how I found out about it being on life support. I've been using it since ages ago and have no complaints. It's lightweight, fast, accessible anywhere, no frills and functional. It's the notepad.exe on web for me.
None of the current line up of alternatives are lightweight enough, it seems.
- It's been my go-to since 2009! That's longer than I had thought. It just did what it said on the sticker and has always been unobtrusive and respectful of the user when adding a few features every now and then. Thankful to have been able to use it for so long and without it getting enshitified like almost everything else.
- I still lament the loss of nvALT. The GOAT.
- From Simplenote to Simplynot. I liked it, it was like a popular app on Gnome or KDE, but available on mobile devices. It was well designed and privacy respecting. However, the walled gardens are hostile to such apps.
by selfhosting_sh
1 subcomments
- [dead]
Hacker News