Show HN: NotesHub: cross-platform, Markdown-based note-taking app

Thank you for your comments, just some context:

- The app is available for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, and the Web.

- The Web version is implemented as a Progressive Web Application that is very responsive, local first, offline first, can be installed, and is entirely free to use.

- Native (hybrid) versions do not require subscription fees and have small one-time payment.

- You can store your notes in Git using any Git provider such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. However, it has the best built-in integration with GitHub. Self-hosted scenarios like Gitea are also supported. In addition to Git, you can store your notes in a file system and iCloud Drive on Apple Devices.

- It has a rich Markdown syntax support with added extensions like Mermaid, ABC music notation, callouts, etc.

In addition to regular Markdown notes, you can create Kanban boards for easy task management (under the hood, it is still stored in Markdown). If that is not enough, you can create whiteboards based on Excalidraw and embed them back into your notes.

Show HN: NotesHub: cross-platform, Markdown-based note-taking app
about.noteshub.app

This might be an unpopular take, but I'm tired of all these Markdown text editors. It almost feels like a cop-out at this point. Ever since text editors started supporting Markdown, we've gotten away from all of these great rich-text editors. Apple Notes is an example of a notetaking application "done right", albeit with fewer features. It's enjoyable to use and offers good UI for attaching files. It certainly is not without its flaws, however. Obsidian gets really close. I bet the devs could go all the way.

I want something WYSIWYG-like, without dealing with the underlying mechanisms... give me rich-text on the front and save the file in Markdown behind the scenes. I hardly care, as long as there is a robust export option built-in.

A) Wow this is just incredibly impressive for a solo dev - well done! The feature list just keeps going and going, by the time I got to kanban boards I was in disbelief. I was incredibly dubious based on the title that any “Show HN” could rival Obsidian, but i think I stand corrected!

I sadly use my own hand-rolled markdown system way too often to really switch, but I’ll definitely have to check this out for an on-the-go replacement for Google Keep.

B) “offline first” is a great feature, but I’m curious why you didn’t go with the terms hear more often, “local first”? Just wanted something more accessible to laypeople?

C) “offline first” seems hard to match up with “progressive web app” — not from any sort of user perspective (sounds ideal, even!), just in terms of technical implementation. Am I correct in assuming that the iOS and android versions are PWAs, and that they still durably store files on device? If so, how hard was that?

D) “all major platforms: iOS/macOS/Android/Windows” made me shed a brief tear. It’s ~~infrastructure~~ Linux Week, time to add a platform!!

Best of luck and thanks for sharing your work. I look forward to meeting you on top of the world one day ;)

The fact that iOS doesn't really have a real filesystem you can use, would be my guess.

Oh I like the web version! I just hooked up the web app to my _public_ blog repo, and started editing the markdown files. Hit save and it automatically performs a git commit on my behalf. Perfect. Next time I'm working on the files locally, all I need is a git pull and I am good to go. I like it.

Although I didnt quite like that it asked for a permission to pretty much _everything_ in Githuhb - public and private repos, deploykeys?!, everything. I wish that were customisable. It was okay for me because I dont keep any non public code in Github, but others might have..