Looking for an app for note-taking with the following features:

  • No ads ever
  • No nudges to upgrade, subscribe, unlock premium features, or any bullshit like that.
  • No recurring fee (ok paying up-front for the app)
  • Clean, simple interface

That's it. I don't need multimedia, multi-device syncing, cloud storage. I just need a place to write down ideas and grocery lists.

Recommendations?

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[–] 26 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

Obsidian

  • text files stored in markdown on your device
  • no premium service to unlock features. You can buy sync and publishing if you want to, but there are no nags to purchase them.
  • you can roll your own sync solution you wanted to. Its just text files. Same goes with publishing.
  • community plugins if you want to extend it
  • desktop clients and ios clients
  • free forever

https://obsidian.md/

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  • [–] 23 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (2 children)

    There is Google Keep.

    But if you want to degoogle, well I'm reading the thread. I've heard of Joplin (spelling?).

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I like quillpad from f-droid as my Google keep alternative. Pretty identical to keep aside from the online syncing.

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    [–] 19 points 3 years ago (3 children)
  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    I absolutely second this, if you aren't worried about built-in syncing (I use Syncthing to solve this, also cool piece of software), and if you really like the idea of Markdown/text-only notes with image/file attachments, there is absolutely no better tool. Plus, if you think you can get value out of the note linking feature, you can make some incredibly detailed knowledge bases. Really powerful tool when you need it to be, dead simple note-taking by default, it's a damn good app

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    [–] 14 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Markor. It's as simple as it gets, but can scale up if you decide to later

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    [–] 11 points 3 years ago

    Markor.

    Then I also add my notes / docs folder to syncthing, and have it on every device.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    SimpleNote

    This is what I use across all my devices

    https://simplenote.com/

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago

    Notepad++ if you just need to type something up.

    Trilium Notes, Logseq, or Obsidian.md if you're looking for something more advanced.

    Self-host something like bookstack, docuwiki, mediawiki, or wikijs for something more.... permanent? I wouldn't really use these to jot something down real quick but I do put a lot of finalized? notes in a wikijs docker image I host.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I use signal mesagaing app. They have a note to self feature thats awesome.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I used to use Keep Notes by Google. Did the job pretty well but obviously there should be better FOSS & privacy-respecting apps: NoNonesense Notes!

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago

    Obsidian.md. It runs on markdown files, so even if you decide you don't like Obsidian, you've still got all the files. It's super easy to sync with SyncThing or probably Google Drive or whatever. It's free, and the are a ton of plugins for it. Peri sure there's a Lemmy community for it around, too.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago

    https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.notes.pro/

    This and others by simple are exactly that.

    Notes. Gallery.Dialer. keyboard. Clock.

    No ads. Absolutely zero unnecessary permissions. No telemetry or sneaky internet connections.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I've been using Notally for a while and I think it checks all your boxes.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago

    .txt file + syncthing

    For true rebels: pen and paper

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Quillpad is like an open source Google Keep and you can use Nextcloud to sync it all.

    Ideally, I'd want a way to import my Google Keep lists into it then I could bin Keep for good.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago

    Quillnote + Signal's "note to self"

    You can find Quillnote in both Droid and Google's Play Store.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Obsidian is kewl cloud sync aint free though.

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    [–] 4 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    Notion has been pretty great so far; I recently moved there from Evernote. Only downside (for me) is that it's based on electron.

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    [+] 4 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago*

    One option is Notally on F-droid and on the Google Play Store. It's FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) and it has all of the features you mentioned. I use it as my everyday note taking app and I have zero complaints so far.

    There's Safe Notes on F-Droid as well, which is pretty much identical to Notally feature-wise, but your notes are encrypted (locally).

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Element for Matrix. I know weird, but that's how I like it

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago* (2 children)

    Do you send messages to yourself? Is this a thing you can do? I never tried. That would be pretty cool. edit: um... yeah. create an empty room with just yourself in it. Now I feel silly.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    I found Obsidian good, and Markor the best, on Android.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago*

    ColorNote

    It meets every item on your list.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    Google keep works fine for me.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    I've always used ColorNote. It does have several advanced features but they're all optional. It's been updated for 5 years now and basically hasn't changed. Still free, no ads, easy to use. A rare exception on the Play Store. Whole app only 4Mb.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago
    [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    I use OneNote usually, easy formating and works well on PC and mobile. Notion is cool too, but has a lot more features than a simple note taking app.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    ColourNote has been the best one I've found.

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    [–] 1 point 3 years ago
    [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    Carnet on f droid.

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