Free accounts come with a good set of features already, even in the long run if you are fine with plain text notes.
Official website standardnotes.com
Our take
Audited and AGPL-licensed, which is exactly the combination this category should reward, and it’s the safer pick for anyone who wants verifiable end-to-end encrypted notes. The honest catch is that the free tier is deliberately plain text only; the features people actually want, like rich text and file attachments, sit behind a subscription. Choose it when long-term trust and a US-based, audited codebase matter more than a fancy editor, and accept you’ll likely pay to make it pleasant to use daily.
GitHub at a glance
standardnotes/app
Stars
6,516
+ 19 this week
Last commit
12d ago
healthy
License
AGPL-3.0
Latest release
@standardnotes/desktop@3.201.21
4mo ago
Stars, last 10d
Listed in
Standard Notes alternatives
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Notesnook Developers decided recently to open-source their application. Comes with a generous free version, rich text editor and import functionality from: Files (txt, html, and .md…
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Joplin Synchronize notes across devices, publish and collaboration are for paid subscriptions only.
Logseq Not encrypted , but the server will never store or analyze your private notes. Your data are plain text files.
Turtl Free accounts come with storage of up to 50MB of note data and collaborate with 3 people each space.
Standard Notes license, in plain English
AGPL-3.0 Strong copyleft · network
Free to use, even commercially. Changes must be published under the same license, and running a modified version as a network service counts as distributing it.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Patent use
- Private use
Requires
- Disclose source
- Network use is distribution
- Same license
- State changes
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: The network clause is the point. Anyone who runs a modified version as a hosted service has to publish those changes, so the code handling your data stays inspectable. This is why privacy-first projects reach for AGPL.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.