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A fully open-source and end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote

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Re: A fully open-source and end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote

#21

Post by atemerev »

627467 wrote: post #5

I get that Evernote seems stagnant (or even dead by many accounts) and it certainly is lacking in critical features such as e2ee, but all these (paid) alternatives are only covering a small fraction of Evernote functionally: mostly text notes. No OCR, no easy meeting notes, no templates... Luckily, where I am I've access to (really!) low cost EN subscription (maybe I've got grandfathered into it? Right now it works o…

Yes, I use Evernote as a searchable scanned documents database (I don’t need plain text notes, and I have thousands of scans lying around from the last 12 years). Every bill, receipt, signed contract, insurance claim etc. gets scanned and goes to Evernote, with tags for quick access. I pay full $80/year for it.

I would really love to switch to something else, but there is no alternative. There is no other document database with built-in OCR. I tried for years to find it, but apparently there is nothing else.

Managing plain-text notes is the easiest part. I could do it with Orgmode if I wanted to. But I don’t know how I could manage my scanned documents, if not in Evernote.

Re: A fully open-source and end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote

#22

Post by mark_story »

exfil wrote: post #8

When I see 'pricing' on top of page and sign on requiring email & password, it's better to close tab.

Why? We all have to pay for shelter and food. This looks like what could become a fantastic business and product. I applaud their commitments to privacy and open-source at such an early stage. I am looking forward to hearing about Notesnook more in the future.

Re: A fully open-source and end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote

#23

Post by samkon »

650REDHAIR wrote: post #16
hosh wrote: post #11

Encryption is nice, but what I really want is local-first, multi-device, and a very short time between when I launch the app and when I start being able to type. When I want to capture an idea or want to spend my limited time journalling, I want it fast. Hyperlinking and adding photos are nice. Evernote has been focusing on collaborative features I don’t care about. Startup time to when I can start typing have been g…

Apple Notes is my go to. Plenty of great new features, but the core is still snappy and easy to use.

Have you found a good way to export a backup, instead of only cloud sync? Too to lose content by deleting by accident and then syncing.

Re: A fully open-source and end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote

#25

Post by 1MachineElf »

mikeodds wrote: post #17
hosh wrote: post #11

Encryption is nice, but what I really want is local-first, multi-device, and a very short time between when I launch the app and when I start being able to type. When I want to capture an idea or want to spend my limited time journalling, I want it fast. Hyperlinking and adding photos are nice. Evernote has been focusing on collaborative features I don’t care about. Startup time to when I can start typing have been g…

Standard notes fits those criteria and as a bonus is encrypted

Because @hosh is looking for something to quickly take notes, I must caution against Standard Notes due to it's lack of Android sharing integration. A user cannot simply share from an app into SN. The problem has existed for several years and requests to have this feature restored have been consistently ignored. The only option for Android users is to copy text, switch to the app, and paste it in - this requires more effort than most other competing note apps.

Re: A fully open-source and end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote

#26

Post by emaro »

mdeepwell wrote: post #13
hosh wrote: post #11

Encryption is nice, but what I really want is local-first, multi-device, and a very short time between when I launch the app and when I start being able to type. When I want to capture an idea or want to spend my limited time journalling, I want it fast. Hyperlinking and adding photos are nice. Evernote has been focusing on collaborative features I don’t care about. Startup time to when I can start typing have been g…

Joplin is significantly better than Evernote for being quick to start typing. Sync runs in the background without preventing you from editing which is why I moved over. Has a decent ability to import notes from Evernote to Joplin as well.

The thing that bothered me with joplin is that you can only import/export plain md files and not just use it to work with already existing folders and files (at least when I used it the last time).

Re: A fully open-source and end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote

#27

Post by gopiandcode »

Wow! GPL-licensed, Free as in Freedom, encrypted note taking! This is great. I think I'll probably end up self hosting this just on principle, but I signed up for a year just to show support! The fact that the Notesnook community is on discord is a little annoying, but other than that, I have no qualms with this, can't wait to try it out.

Re: A fully open-source and end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote

#28

Post by neilv »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #4

I have moved on to a plaintext lifestyle that isn't tied to any tooling. If I have to protect/encrypt the content, I will look at doing that at the container -- such as a Vault. Tools such as Obsidian[1] are a good option for me, as I can use it as that -- a tool and not worry about the content being tied to any platform - open or otherwise. For your Vault protection, tools such as the Cryptomator[2] works well. I re…

Similar here. For personal use, I don't bother with the extra hassle of wiki software, but just maintain Markdown files in my `~/wiki/` directory.

For example, my notes about Stable Fusion are in `~/wiki/stable-fusion.md`.

Since I have my Emacs Markdown mode tweaked to be semi-WYSIWYG, the only downside is that links between pages is a little messier than if I used wiki software. (I might tweak Emacs a bit more, to have link text in square brackets navigate to the right filename.)

Someday, these files might end up in wiki software, but I'm in no hurry, and I'm capturing and accessing the info now.

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