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submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Looking for an app for note-taking with the following features:

  • No ads ever
  • No nudges to upgrade, subscribe, unlock premium features, or any bullshit like that.
  • No recurring fee (ok paying up-front for the app)
  • Clean, simple interface

That's it. I don't need multimedia, multi-device syncing, cloud storage. I just need a place to write down ideas and grocery lists.

Recommendations?

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[-] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Obsidian

  • text files stored in markdown on your device
  • no premium service to unlock features. You can buy sync and publishing if you want to, but there are no nags to purchase them.
  • you can roll your own sync solution you wanted to. Its just text files. Same goes with publishing.
  • community plugins if you want to extend it
  • desktop clients and ios clients
  • free forever

https://obsidian.md/

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Love obsidian. For something as simple as what OP is asking for though I just use Google Keep

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[-] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There is Google Keep.

But if you want to degoogle, well I'm reading the thread. I've heard of Joplin (spelling?).

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I like quillpad from f-droid as my Google keep alternative. Pretty identical to keep aside from the online syncing.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I see quillpad has Nextcloud syncing. This is a good start. And I think it's possible to sync using Syncthing too.

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[-] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago
[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Not open-source though sadly 😔

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Not open source but the data portability is on a level nothing else matches!

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

But all your notes are just md files. It's straightforward that way

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I absolutely second this, if you aren't worried about built-in syncing (I use Syncthing to solve this, also cool piece of software), and if you really like the idea of Markdown/text-only notes with image/file attachments, there is absolutely no better tool. Plus, if you think you can get value out of the note linking feature, you can make some incredibly detailed knowledge bases. Really powerful tool when you need it to be, dead simple note-taking by default, it's a damn good app

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This definitely, also cross platform. So what more do you want...

[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Markor. It's as simple as it gets, but can scale up if you decide to later

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Markor.

Then I also add my notes / docs folder to syncthing, and have it on every device.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Notepad++ if you just need to type something up.

Trilium Notes, Logseq, or Obsidian.md if you're looking for something more advanced.

Self-host something like bookstack, docuwiki, mediawiki, or wikijs for something more.... permanent? I wouldn't really use these to jot something down real quick but I do put a lot of finalized? notes in a wikijs docker image I host.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

SimpleNote

This is what I use across all my devices

https://simplenote.com/

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I used to use Keep Notes by Google. Did the job pretty well but obviously there should be better FOSS & privacy-respecting apps: NoNonesense Notes!

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

If you liked Google Keep, you might want to check out Quillpad

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[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I use signal mesagaing app. They have a note to self feature thats awesome.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Not sure how I never found out about this feature before but this is awesome, thanks for sharing it!

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Obsidian.md. It runs on markdown files, so even if you decide you don't like Obsidian, you've still got all the files. It's super easy to sync with SyncThing or probably Google Drive or whatever. It's free, and the are a ton of plugins for it. Peri sure there's a Lemmy community for it around, too.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.notes.pro/

This and others by simple are exactly that.

Notes. Gallery.Dialer. keyboard. Clock.

No ads. Absolutely zero unnecessary permissions. No telemetry or sneaky internet connections.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I've been using Notally for a while and I think it checks all your boxes.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Very much agreed.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Quillnote + Signal's "note to self"

You can find Quillnote in both Droid and Google's Play Store.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Quillpad is like an open source Google Keep and you can use Nextcloud to sync it all.

Ideally, I'd want a way to import my Google Keep lists into it then I could bin Keep for good.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Do I need Nextcloud to synchronize? I like the interface but I don't really want to use Nextcloud.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

At the moment, it is Nextcloud but I believe the plan is to give more options.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah quillpad is great!

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

.txt file + syncthing

For true rebels: pen and paper

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Obsidian is kewl cloud sync aint free though.

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Notion has been pretty great so far; I recently moved there from Evernote. Only downside (for me) is that it's based on electron.

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I found Obsidian good, and Markor the best, on Android.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

One option is Notally on F-droid and on the Google Play Store. It's FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) and it has all of the features you mentioned. I use it as my everyday note taking app and I have zero complaints so far.

There's Safe Notes on F-Droid as well, which is pretty much identical to Notally feature-wise, but your notes are encrypted (locally).

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I've always used ColorNote. It does have several advanced features but they're all optional. It's been updated for 5 years now and basically hasn't changed. Still free, no ads, easy to use. A rare exception on the Play Store. Whole app only 4Mb.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago
[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Element for Matrix. I know weird, but that's how I like it

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Do you send messages to yourself? Is this a thing you can do? I never tried. That would be pretty cool. edit: um... yeah. create an empty room with just yourself in it. Now I feel silly.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Something like that. I created a new space with just me, with encrypted rooms for each topic. Random Thoughts, Books, Movies I Like, etc

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I think you've inspired me. I'm gonna try this.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I used to do this a long time ago when I was still on Facebook. I'd write notes with visibility set to myself only.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I use OneNote usually, easy formating and works well on PC and mobile. Notion is cool too, but has a lot more features than a simple note taking app.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Google keep works fine for me.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

ColorNote

It meets every item on your list.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

ColourNote has been the best one I've found.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm a big fan of a small app called UpNote. It's clean and simple with a few power features you can use if you really dig into it. It largely has the same baseline set of features as Obsidian, but it supports syncing across devices out of the box and has a one-time purchase of a lifetime membership.

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this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
95 points (97.0% liked)

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