Forever ✱ Notes in Notesnook

jolo

Good afternoon! F✱N fanboy reporting for duty.

Just wanted to highlight a notes app I’m seriously considering migrating to: Notesnook. It’s a free/freemium, open-source, end-to-end encrypted notes app that’s surprisingly robust, and privacy-friendly.

I’ve been diving deeper into internet privacy lately and trying to move away from Big Tech where I can—apps, hardware, and software. Honestly, the one thing keeping me tied to macOS has been Apple Notes, especially because of how well it works with the F✱N framework. I've been struggling to find a suitable replacement.

But Notesnook is the first app outside the Apple ecosystem that actually feels like a viable replacement. Here's what stands out so far:

Familiar note-linking and tagging workflows
You can see when a note is "linked" or "referenced in"
Legit back-linking (like a web browser going back or forward in your note visit history). This is my biggest gripe that the "back" button in Apple Notes goes to the Notes list, NOT the last note you were in. I've been using Apple Notes for YEARS and I still can't get this engrained into my noggin…
Free tier is good EXCEPT that you can only have five tags… I teach at a uni so I can take advantage of the $10/year education pricing, but everyone else can subscribe for 4.49/month or 49.99/year.
Self-hosting is possible
Focus Mode makes a note fill the whole window like double-clicking in Apple Notes
Full note history
Pin, favorite notes, set reminders
Trash and Archive are separate
Set notes to read-only
Table of contents
You can "publish" a note (kind of like a Notion web page, view an example here: https://monogr.ph/686d67cef959910395cb8248), handy for a couple of my use cases

Downsides so far:

I’m not sure if Shortcuts are supported. I use F✱N as PKM and don't use the ✱Journal aspect. I think shortcuts should be possible since you can link to notes, but I’ll keep testing and report back if anyone’s curious.
When you change a note’s title, you have to manually update links. Apple Notes handles this automatically—small thing, but still a thing.
I don’t use Smart Folders in Apple Notes, so I’m not sure if Notesnook has a similar feature. Happy to check it out if anyone here depends on them.
Clicking note links on mobile is a little clunky: you have to tap the link and then tap the link again to confirm that you're wanting to go to the link, not edit it. It's fine, just not as smooth as on Apple Notes mobile. The desktop app is not this way. I've reached out on their GitHub to see if they can make this a toggled option or something.
And…erhm…the big one that the free tier lets you have five tags. FIVE TAGS. I don't understand this limitation. I want to like Standard Notes, but they have such a limited free tier YET they don't have a tag limit AFAIK. I'm a little irked, sorry haha.

Notesnook is the first cross-platform, privacy-first app that checks enough of my boxes to actually make me consider switching. Still early days, but I’ll be testing it more in the coming weeks and possibly making the move for good.

Let me know if you’re curious about anything specific, I'm happy to dig in more. ✌️

tr4jan

jolo

Big time effort to illuminate the app like this, a thousand thanks.

In my case, Apple Notes certainly doesn't fulfil all the convenience criteria, but I can get over that because I haven't looked at third-party apps and their added value at all and my needs put the synergies of the Apple ecosystem first. I had the hassle of countless independent softwares many years ago with Windows and Android and have felt free since entering the Apple ecosystem.

I fully understand your arguments for the interest in this App (nevertheless).

The as you say "Big One" with the limitation of tags is a serious question? It's imho obvious that free versions with such limitations should lead to paid versions.

Sidenote: Props for the good taste in Design (Hario).. 😉

jolo

tr4jan Thanks for the reply! I like how you worded "the synergies of the Apple ecosystem"—that's so real. It amazes me how, in my ten years in the Walled Garden, I've repeatedly found apps that function "better" than (and often that I even prefer over) Apple's first-party apps, but the synergy, once you get used to it, is just difficult to overcome. Handwriting on iPad, Quick Notes, sharing and collaboration, and an element of je ne sais quoi...there's a lot of both tangibles and intangibles going for Apple Notes. Plus it's free and has been receiving a lot of development attention from Apple lately. I have this weird dream of using a de-Googled Android phone and a Linux laptop, but the synergy within the walls has been too compelling. Anyway…

And yeah…the big one is the tags limitation. I may shell out the $10 to give it a full shot and to support development of one of what seems like one of the better FOSS note-taking applications out there. Or I may play with distilling my workflow to five tags (probably not worth the brain power).

P.S. Thanks—I think I initially started taking digital notes to organize coffee recipes and log what bags I like…then the F✱N framework enabled better organization and expanded my use of Apple Notes to most of my note-taking. Big V60 fan, though lately I've been experimenting with my AeroPress.

jolo

Clicking note links on mobile is a little clunky

Here's a screen recording of what this looks like (I can't edit the original post now): https://imgur.com/a/c47t1T1.

UPDATE: When you set a note as "read-only", the behavior is not like this. Links to other notes behave like Apple Notes—one-click and you're there: https://imgur.com/a/sn6YzZG

tr4jan

Cheers, “Walled Garden” sounds neat but a mite too closed for me. I perceive this as not made of concrete, not a gabion, but a light-coloured, wide-meshed more respectable fence in Art Nouveau Style, that can easily be climbed over. I wouldn't say "free" to Apple apps at the prices they are asking for the devices. 😂

Trying to reduce tags to 5 is pointless. You have tags and then many or not. I deliberately don't use any, because they (just) add a layer for me that I then have to manage again. Well, first of all, have fun with the software search journey now and share it with us here.

P.S. Aeropress over V60? Philosophy. No comment. 😂

jolo

tr4jan Touche, very valid points… I do like Art Nouveau… And good comment about it being easy to climb over the fence—it's not nearly as difficult.

No tags is interesting. I do sometimes wonder why I'm tagging something if it's referenced in a Hub, so it's something I'm considering. The two tags that serve primary function are for a #poem or #song.

V60 over AeroPress, always and without question…I just need to restock filters 😂