With data breaches and privacy violations becoming more frequent, ensuring the security of your personal notes and sensitive information has never been more important. Most note-taking apps skip end-to-end encryption (E2EE) and cannot store data locally. If you’ve been looking for an ideal place to keep your private thoughts and sensitive information safe, you’ve come to the right place.
There are many note-taking apps out there, but not all of them have our best interests at heart. In this post, we will discuss the best tools that have robust security features and strive to keep your data out of the wrong hands.
5 logarithmic sequence
Logseq is a modern productivity tool, but with the fundamentals of privacy and cross-platform availability firmly in place. There are native apps on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and even Linux. It is an open source solution and comes with a powerful free plan for personal use.
Logseq offers backlinks and knowledge graphs, markdown support for increased compatibility with other software solutions, PDF annotations, whiteboarding (in beta), task management, and more. You can choose to store your data locally to reduce the risk of unauthorized access.
Similar to Obsidian, Logseq also has a collection of themes and plugins to help you level up your setup in no time. The software is completely free to download and use, and the company plans to launch paid plans soon with perks like real-time collaboration, Logseq sync, and more.
4 Any type
Source: Anytype
Anytype is a local-first productivity tool with on-device encryption. If you want to replace an all-in-one tool like Notion, Anytype is the ideal privacy-focused alternative for your workflow. Besides note-taking, it can be used for all kinds of organization, including project management, family planning, creating documents, group calendars, daily diaries, habit trackers, and more.
A great feature of Anytype is its visual appeal. With its block-based editor, built-in widgets, templates, knowledge graph, and native mobile app, it feels much better than Notion’s web-based (and slow) approach. It also works seamlessly offline, ensuring you can access your notes even without an internet connection.
Overall, Anytype offers an attractive option for users who prioritize privacy, data ownership, and a flexible knowledge management system. Pricing starts at $99 per year.
3 standard notes
Standard Notes prioritizes user privacy and security with E2EE (ChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption), independent audits, privacy-focused analytics installed, and more. Founded in 2016, Standard Notes has many features, including a rich text editor, 2FA, multiple theme options, nested folders, password protection, a web clipper, and more.
You can also use Standard Notes as a 2FA authenticator app for other devices. Like other modern tools, it supports the slash (/) command for formatting text, custom domains for publishing notes, offline access to files, and even basic spreadsheet functionality.
Proton, known for its privacy-focused productivity solutions, recently acquired Standard Notes. However, the free plan is quite limited. Productivity plans start at $90 per year.
2 Joplin
If Logseq and Anytype are too complex, try Joplin. It’s an open source note-taking app with a familiar interface that isn’t confusing at first glance. Joplin has a side menu with notebooks and tags, plus a standard toolbar at the top to format your notes like a pro.
Joplin doesn’t have a ton of features, but it works as a standard note-taking tool. Joplin also supports E2EE, which you can manually enable on the desktop version (recommended by the company) to sync notes on other devices. Speaking of which, you can use Joplin Cloud or third-party apps like Dropbox and OneDrive to store and sync your data.
Other great features include reminders, Markdown support, tags to organize your notes, formulas, useful web extensions, and the ability to create your own scripts and plugins (a slim collection at the moment) using the Extensions API. There are functions such as Basic plans start at $2.70 per month.
1 Obsidian
It will surprise no one that Obsidian has risen to the top of the list of top private apps. Markdown-based productivity applications eliminate the sign-up process. Just download the app, create a new vault, and start adding notes. You do not need to provide your email address to the company.
Obsidian follows an offline-first approach, allowing you to save your notes locally, on your cloud storage of choice, or on the company’s servers. The latter comes with end-to-end encryption and version history. However, this is part of the paid Sync add-on, which costs $5 per month or $48 per year.
Other notable features include the ability to link related notes, a rich theme store to customize every aspect of the app, a robust plugin store to extend Obsidian’s functionality, and the ability to link relationships between notes. There’s a detailed chart view to explore, tag support, and more. more. All these features are available in the free version. These useful add-ons make Obsidian the ideal personal knowledge management tool.
your data, your control
Whether you want to jot down personal reflections, brainstorm business ideas, or store sensitive information, the apps mentioned above provide a safe place for your thoughts. Let’s briefly summarize.
Logseq and Anytype are comprehensive tools that offer more than just note-taking capabilities, Standard Notes and Joplin are great for covering basic needs, but Obsidian is great for organizing different types of information. It serves as an excellent personal knowledge management (PKM) tool. If you’re leaning towards the latter, check out our dedicated post to learn more Obsidian tips and tricks.
