Notesnook

What Notesnook does

Notesnook is a note-taking app built around end-to-end encryption, positioned by its developers as a private alternative to Evernote. Notes live in notebooks and can carry tags and colors. The rich text editor handles task lists, tables, links between notes and Markdown shortcuts, and notes can get reminders, including recurring ones. Every change is kept in a version history.

Apps exist for the web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, and they work fully offline. A web clipper saves pages into your notes, and a single note can be published as a public web page, which Notesnook calls a Monograph.

Security and encryption

Everything is encrypted on your device before it is synced: note content and attachments use XChaCha20-Poly1305, with keys derived from your password using Argon2, through the libsodium library. The developers describe this as a zero-knowledge design, meaning their servers store data they cannot read, and they publish a tool called Vericrypt so users can check the encryption themselves. An app lock adds a second barrier on shared devices.

Sync needs an account tied to an email address. As with any zero-knowledge service, the password is what protects your data, so keep it safe.

Moving from other apps

Notesnook has one of the broader importer lists in this category. Its help center lists imports from Evernote, Google Keep, Obsidian, Joplin, Simplenote, Markdown and HTML files, among others, and notes can be exported at any time.

Self-hosting Notesnook

The client apps live in a GPL-3.0 monorepo, and the sync server is a separate AGPL-3.0 project written in .NET. Its official Docker Compose file runs several services (sync, identity, real-time events, Monographs and themes) together with MongoDB and MinIO for attachments. The apps can then be pointed at your own server.

The sync server README is clear that self-hosting is possible but not yet officially supported, and fuller documentation is promised for later. Until then, the compose file is the main reference.

Hosted version

By default the apps sync through the developers’ service, run by Streetwriters. The free plan includes unlimited encrypted notes on unlimited devices, with caps on notebooks, tags, reminders, note versions and storage. Paid plans lift those caps, and a trial is offered.

Limitations

There are no team workspaces or real-time collaboration, so Notesnook is not a shared wiki. The free plan’s caps on notebooks and tags may push heavy organizers to a paid plan. Self-hosting is unsupported for now and heavier than the app itself suggests, with MongoDB, MinIO and several service containers. Because all content is encrypted, the server cannot help recover notes if you lose your password.

Who it suits

Notesnook suits people who want an Evernote-style notebook app where encryption is always on, with native apps everywhere and an easy way to bring notes over from Evernote, Google Keep or Obsidian. If you would rather keep notes as plain files or sync through your own storage, Joplin is the closer match; Standard Notes is the other encrypted option to compare.