Notesnook vs Standard Notes

Same encryption as Standard Notes. A far more generous free plan, and a fifth of the price.

Both apps encrypt everything with XChaCha20-Poly1305, and both publish their code. What differs is what you get without paying: a real editor with notebooks and 100 versions of every note, instead of plain text and tags. Their full editing experience is $90 a year. Ours is $19.99.

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OUR CASE

Where Notesnook is better

A real editor, free.

Rich text, tables and notebooks without paying.
Standard Notes free: plain text and tags.
Folders and the Super editor start at $90 a year.

Your writing history, free.

100 versions of every note, free. Unlimited on Pro.
Standard Notes free: the current session only.

The same encryption, a fifth of the price.

Both use XChaCha20-Poly1305 with Argon2.
No security argument between us — a price one.
$19.99 a year against $90 for the same editing.

Privacy and security

	Notesnook	Standard Notes
End-to-end encrypted by default
Encryption used	XChaCha20-Poly1305 + Argon2	XChaCha20-Poly1305 + Argon2
Independent third-party security audit		4 audits (2017–2022)
Open source clients
Self-hostable sync server
App lock (passcode / biometrics)
Password-protect individual notes
Hardware security key support

The editor, on the free plan

	Notesnook	Standard Notes
Rich text — bold, headings, lists, tables
Markdown shortcuts, task lists, callouts, outlines
Note version history on the free plan	100 versions	Current session only
Spreadsheets with formulas
Built-in authenticator for your other accounts

Organising notes

	Notesnook	Standard Notes
Notebooks / folders on the free plan	50 notebooks
Tags on the free plan	50 tags	Unlimited
Unlimited notes
Unlimited device sync on the free plan

Files, offline and platforms

	Notesnook	Standard Notes
File attachments on the free plan	50MB/mo, 10MB per file
Full offline mode on the free plan
Linux desktop app
Full data export

Price, USD per year

	Notesnook	Standard Notes
Free plan	$0	$0
The full editor	$19.99 (Essential)	$90 (Productivity)
Top consumer plan	$89.99 (Believer)	$120 (Professional)
Free trial	14 days

Standard Notes is a trademark of Standard Notes Ltd. This comparison was written from their published pricing, feature and help pages on 2026-07-30 and is not endorsed by them. Found something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.

THE OTHER SIDE

In fairness to Standard Notes

Where Standard Notes is stronger, in our own words. If one of these decides it for you, we would rather you read it here than find out later.

Standard Notes has been audited. We haven't.

Four third-party security audits — Cure53 in 2019 and 2022, Trail of Bits in 2020, Shackle Labs in 2017 — with the reports published. We've had none, and it's the fairest criticism anyone makes of us. What you can check about Notesnook today: every client is open source, the sync server is open source and self-hostable, and the encryption is XChaCha20-Poly1305 with Argon2 — the same construction they use.

Their free plan locks the app. Ours needs Pro for that.

Passcode, Face ID and fingerprint locking, plus offline access, all free in Standard Notes. With us, app lock is Pro and full offline mode starts at Essential. If locking the app matters most and you want it for nothing, they give you that and we don't.

They ship things we simply don't have.

Spreadsheets with formulas, a built-in authenticator for your other accounts, hardware security key support. All real, all missing here. If you need any of them, this is a short comparison.

Questions & answers

Is Notesnook's encryption weaker because it hasn't been audited?

An audit is evidence about implementation, not about the algorithm. Both apps use XChaCha20-Poly1305 with Argon2. Standard Notes can show you four independent reviews of their implementation and we can't — that's a real gap. What we can show you is all of it: every client and the sync server are open source, so the code doing the encrypting is there to read and to run yourself.

What do I lose moving from Standard Notes?

Spreadsheets, the built-in authenticator, hardware key support, the published audit reports, and free app lock and offline access — both are paid features here. If any of those decide it, stay where you are.

What do I gain?

A real editor and notebooks without paying, 100 versions of every note on the free plan, and a much cheaper paid plan: $19.99 a year against $90 for the equivalent.

Can I bring my notes over?

Yes. Export from Standard Notes — full export is on their free plan — then import into Notesnook. Make the account first.

Is there a trial?

14 days on every plan, cancel any time. Standard Notes doesn't run trials at all; they refund instead, within 14 days, or 90 on Professional.