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Simplenote is no longer in active development

forums.simplenote.com

41–50 of 58 posts

Re: Simplenote is no longer in active development

#41

I can recommend Standard Notes as an alternative. https://standardnotes.com/ Works well on all paltforms, desktop and mobile. The sync works also great. It also backs up to text files on your computer, so that you can back up your files with your regular backup process and you can also easily move away if you would like to one day.

Standard Notes is in the same position as Simplenote was 10 years ago. Automattic acquired Simplenote but never really did anything with it. Standard Notes was acquired by Proton last year and development has slowed to bug fixes only. I would be wary to migrate to Standard Notes.

Re: Simplenote is no longer in active development

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The illustrations on the home page are some of the most hideous slop I've ever seen. Terrible first impression, and it really doesn't inspire trust in the quality of security of the service. Eventually companies will learn. But for now, eww.

Wow, I thought you were exaggerating / being the usual AI hater, so I opened the page expecting a some product screenshots with a few too many em dashes or something like that, fully intending to tell you to calm down. But dammmn it's bad! You weren't exaggerating at all!

Its almost enjoyably bad - I especially appreciate how it gets worse as you scroll.

Do images of that low quality honestly help sell something? I'd have thought stock footage or simple icons would be more effective.

Re: Simplenote is no longer in active development

#45

I'm working on a open source markdown editor inspired by nvALT. Would love feedback! https://hashy.ink

why no linux version ?

Ya I made it with swift using ST Text View. Would love a Linux version as I just bought a Linux to use on the side. So we will see heh

Re: Simplenote is no longer in active development

#46
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obsidian is great and highly performant, even though it's using Electron. Electron is a huge advantage, faster development and the option to customise it easily with plugins.

It's not highly performant, its startup time is a multiple of that of native apps. Nothing is easy about plugins, APIs you expose/maintain define that, not Electron, and those can be good/bad in any system. Electron gives easier access to UI styling, but then again, real "easily" comes from the structure/stability of your UI, otherwise your plugins would break all the time. Also, same as with APIs - e.g, Joplin is El…

Startup time in Obsidian could be better (we're working on it!), but performance is more than startup time. It's making interactions fast throughout the entire app. Obsidian is only three developers but we spend a lot of time shaving off milliseconds everywhere we can. Keystrokes, scrolling, querying, navigating large vaults, opening and parsing large Markdown files, etc.

In 2025 we made reduced startup time on mobile under 0.5s (used to be several seconds), made search nearly instantaneous and released Bases to make complex queries equally fast (much faster than Dataview and other pre-existing solutions).

I wrote a bunch more on this topic here:

https://x.com/kepano/status/2004008730720194759

Re: Simplenote is no longer in active development

#47
post #46
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not highly performant, its startup time is a multiple of that of native apps. Nothing is easy about plugins, APIs you expose/maintain define that, not Electron, and those can be good/bad in any system. Electron gives easier access to UI styling, but then again, real "easily" comes from the structure/stability of your UI, otherwise your plugins would break all the time. Also, same as with APIs - e.g, Joplin is El…

Startup time in Obsidian could be better (we're working on it!), but performance is more than startup time. It's making interactions fast throughout the entire app. Obsidian is only three developers but we spend a lot of time shaving off milliseconds everywhere we can. Keystrokes, scrolling, querying, navigating large vaults, opening and parsing large Markdown files, etc. In 2025 we made reduced startup time on mobil…

Thank you for this work! I had tried Obsidian every year or so and the performance switching/opening notes drove me crazy in the past. I like it to feel instant and I'm more sensitive to UI performance than others. Just tried again, and it passes the threshold for me!

Re: Simplenote is no longer in active development

#48
post #32

I‘m pretty happy with a self hosted Joplin. Markdown, cross platform and good support for todo lists.

Joplin is quite good; I still keep it around for longer form writing. For everyday note taking I switched to logseq about a year ago. They're in a weird phase technically (in tye midst of a huge rewrite id the persistence layer) but it’s the first PKM app I’ve used that I’ve really gelled with.

Re: Simplenote is no longer in active development

#49
post #12

What a coincidence, was just looking for a replacement of Simplenote! With hundreds of note taking apps coming and going, is there any single performant cross-platform non-Electron app with great conflict resolution for simple notes? Just to be more useful than an overpowered code editor + a file cloud? Checked just 2 of these conditions here (native Windows and macOS and some iOS startup benchmarks) and there is lit…

I use Ticktick for my Markdown notes and todos. I can add tasks from my lockscreen. I have a single view of notes and tasks. Costs me 5 biriyanis per year, yes its localized pricing. Been meaning to switch to an open source app out of principle, one which can handle rich notes too.

I should measure my expenses in biriyanis more.

Re: Simplenote is no longer in active development

#50
post #6

I still lament the loss of nvALT. The GOAT.

I used to love nvALT. Want to check out https://hashy.ink . It's an open source markdown editor inspired by nvALT. Still rough around the edges, but it's coming together.

Lost me in the first sentence with the AI chat.
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