Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Calm VS PrivacyNotes

Compare Calm VS PrivacyNotes and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Calm logo Calm

Calm.com can help you reduce stress and increase calm.

PrivacyNotes logo PrivacyNotes

Zero-knowledge encrypted notes, tasks, journals, files, and passwords in one app. Your keys never leave your device. One-time price, no subscription. Hosted in Switzerland.
Visit Website
  • Calm Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-27
  • PrivacyNotes Journal
    Journal //
    2026-06-25
  • PrivacyNotes Settings
    Settings //
    2026-06-25
  • PrivacyNotes Website
    Website //
    2026-06-25

PrivacyNotes is a zero-knowledge encrypted workspace that brings your notes, tasks, journals, files, and passwords into one app, so you stop juggling four separate subscriptions.

Everything is encrypted on your device with XChaCha20-Poly1305 before it ever syncs. Your keys are derived from a recovery phrase that never touches our servers, so we cannot read your content, your filenames, or anything else. This is real zero-knowledge, not a marketing label.

Five pillars, one encrypted app:

  • Notes - a live markdown editor with note-to-note links, tags, and fast full-text search
  • Tasks - native checklists and task management next to your notes
  • Journals - daily entries with built-in mood, sleep, and medication tracking
  • Files - an encrypted vault for images, audio, and attachments
  • Vault - lock sensitive notes and logins behind a PIN or biometrics

Built for privacy, not surveillance:

  • No ads, no trackers, no analytics, ever
  • Sign in anonymously with a recovery phrase or with Google. No email or personal details required.
  • Open core: the encryption layer and database schema are published for independent review
  • Burn notes: self-destructing shares the server cannot read

Pricing that respects you:

  • Free covers every pillar with two-device sync and offline use
  • Pro is a one-time free, not a subscription, adding unlimited devices, note history, and more storage
  • Optional storage add-ons when you need them

Works on web, macOS, and soon iOS, Android, Windows and Linux with a responsive mobile layout. Import from Apple Notes, Standard Notes, Google Keep, Obsidian, and markdown in a few clicks.

Calm

Website
calm.com
Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-
Startup details
Country
United States

PrivacyNotes

$ Details
freemium $48.0 / One-off (Early adopter price)
Platforms
MacOS Web Firefox Google Chrome Edge Safari
Release Date
2026 June
Startup details
Country
Switzerland
Employees
1 - 9

Calm features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Calm offers a clean, easy-to-navigate interface that makes it accessible for users of all ages and technical abilities.
  • Wide Range of Content
    Calm provides a broad variety of meditation types, sleep stories, and relaxation music, catering to various preferences and needs.
  • High-Quality Audio
    The app's audio quality is excellent, enhancing the overall user experience and effectiveness of its meditative and sleep-inducing content.
  • Expert-Led Sessions
    Meditations and lessons are led by experienced mindfulness instructors, offering professional quality guidance.
  • Regular Updates
    Calm frequently adds new content, keeping the experience fresh and engaging for long-time users.

Possible disadvantages of Calm

  • Subscription Cost
    Calm requires a subscription for full access, which might be expensive for some users compared to other meditation and relaxation apps.
  • Limited Free Content
    The free version of the app offers limited access to its features, restricting the user's experience until they subscribe to the premium service.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Some users have reported occasional compatibility problems with certain devices or operating systems.
  • Data Usage
    Streaming high-quality audio content can consume a significant amount of data, which might be a concern for users with limited data plans.
  • Distracting Notifications
    Some users find the in-app notifications and suggestions for premium content distracting, disrupting the meditative experience.

PrivacyNotes features and specs

  • Privacy-focused
    PrivacyNotes is designed with privacy as a core principle, aiming to keep your notes secure and away from third-party access, which appeals to users concerned about data confidentiality.
  • Encryption
    The service typically emphasizes encryption to protect note content, meaning your data is scrambled and less vulnerable to unauthorized reading if intercepted or stored.
  • Ephemeral notes
    Many privacy note services offer self-destructing or temporary notes that automatically delete after being read or after a set time, reducing the digital footprint left behind.
  • Simple and lightweight
    Such tools often provide a clean, minimal interface focused on quick note creation and sharing without unnecessary features, making it easy to use.
  • No account required
    Privacy-oriented note apps frequently allow you to create and share notes without registration, lowering the barrier to entry and reducing personal data collection.

Analysis of Calm

Overall verdict

  • Calm is generally regarded as a beneficial tool for individuals looking to incorporate mindfulness and relaxation practices into their daily routine. Its wide array of resources and personalized content make it a standout choice among meditation and wellness apps.

Why this product is good

  • Calm is considered a good application due to its comprehensive range of features aimed at improving mental well-being. These features include guided meditations, sleep stories narrated by well-known voices, soothing music, and breathing exercises. The app is praised for its user-friendly interface and its ability to cater to both beginners and experienced users in meditation and relaxation techniques.

Recommended for

  • Individuals seeking stress relief and relaxation
  • People interested in learning meditation techniques
  • Those struggling with sleep issues
  • Users looking for mental well-being and focus improvement
  • Anyone wanting to include mindfulness practices in their routine

Analysis of PrivacyNotes

Overall verdict

  • I don't have verified, specific information about PrivacyNotes (privacynotes.app) to make a reliable assessment of its quality, security practices, or features. I cannot confirm details about its encryption methods, privacy policy, company background, or user reviews.

Why this product is good

  • Unable to verify claims about encryption or zero-knowledge architecture without independent confirmation
  • No access to current user reviews, ratings, or reputation data for this specific service
  • Cannot confirm company legitimacy, ownership, or track record
  • Unable to verify uptime, reliability, or actual security audit results
  • No information available on pricing structure or terms of service specifics

Recommended for

  • Before using, research independently via security audit reports if available
  • Check for third-party security reviews or penetration testing results
  • Verify the company's privacy policy and data handling practices directly on their site
  • Look for user reviews on independent platforms rather than relying on marketing claims
  • Consider established, well-audited alternatives if handling highly sensitive information

Calm videos

Calm App Review 2020: A Psychologist's Honest Opinion

More videos:

  • Review - Meditation Apps: Headspace vs Calm!
  • Review - I Drank MAGNESIUM Before Bed for a Month | CALM MAGNESIUM HONEST REVIEW

PrivacyNotes videos

No PrivacyNotes videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Calm and PrivacyNotes)
Health And Fitness
100 100%
0% 0
Personal Notes
0 0%
100% 100
Meditation
100 100%
0% 0
Task Management
0 0%
100% 100

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Calm and PrivacyNotes.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

PrivacyNotes's answer:

Honestly? We have no idea, and that is the entire point. Signup is anonymous (a recovery phrase or Google, no email or personal details), the app ships zero analytics and zero trackers, and zero-knowledge encryption means we cannot see who you are or what you store. We could not name a single customer if we tried. A privacy product that tracked its users closely enough to brag about them would be missing the plot.

What makes your product unique?

PrivacyNotes's answer:

PrivacyNotes is the only zero-knowledge encrypted workspace that keeps notes, tasks, journals, files, and a password vault behind one set of on-device keys. Most privacy apps do one of those well and rent it to you monthly. We do all five, encrypt everything with XChaCha20-Poly1305 before it leaves your device, and charge once instead of forever. The encryption core is open core, published so the claims can be verified rather than trusted.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

PrivacyNotes's answer:

Three reasons:

  • One app, not four subscriptions. Standard Notes, Day One, and Lunatask each rent you a slice (notes, journaling, tasks). PrivacyNotes covers all of them plus files and a vault, for a fair one-time fee.
  • Real zero-knowledge. Your keys come from a recovery phrase that never touches our servers, so we cannot read your notes, your filenames, or your metadata. Some encrypted apps leave note or task metadata in the clear; we do not.
  • Verifiable, not just trusted. The crypto and schema are open core and published for review, and there is no ad, tracker, or analytics anywhere in the app.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

PrivacyNotes's answer:

Privacy-conscious individuals and independent professionals who handle information they would not want a vendor reading: lawyers, journalists, healthcare and mental-health practitioners, developers, security specialists, researchers, and founders. It also fits anyone who simply wants one private home for their notes, tasks, journaling, and wellness tracking instead of spreading them across surveillance-funded apps.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

PrivacyNotes's answer:

React, TypeScript, Vite and Tailwind CSS.

What's the story behind your product?

PrivacyNotes's answer:

PrivacyNotes started from a simple frustration: staying organized meant scattering your life across half a dozen apps, most of which could read everything you typed and billed you monthly for the privilege. We wanted one place for notes, tasks, journals, files, and passwords, encrypted so thoroughly that the people running the servers could not read a word of it, and paid for once rather than forever. So we built the encryption first, made the keys live only on your device, and published the crypto as open core so the promise could be checked, not just believed. Everything else grew from one rule: your data is yours, and no one else's to mine.

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Calm and PrivacyNotes

Calm Reviews

The 7 Best Meditation Apps of 2024
What's keeping you up at night? Anxious thoughts? Lack of focus? A stressed-out psyche? Calmโ€™s guided meditations will have you sleeping soundly and feeling more relaxed almost instantly. When we tried Calm, we were immediately impressed with the breadth of content availableโ€”everything from soothing soundscapes to narrated meditations to sleep stories. Since we have always...
10 Best Headspace Alternatives
With over 4.5 million subscribers, Calm is a meditation and mindfulness app that specializes in sleep meditations and sleep stories for adults and children. Some of these stories are narrated by popular celebrities, like Matthew McConaughey and LeBron James. Calm also features a collection of background music for sleep.
Eight Meditation Apps That Are Cheaper (and Better) Than Headspace and Calm
Ten Percent Happier is not a cheaper alternative to Headspace or Calm, exactlyโ€”the annual membership is $99โ€”but itโ€™s certainly better than both of those options when it comes to targeted meditation training. The app curates a selection of diverse teachers, that help you practice mindfulness. There are more than 500 guided meditations in the app.
Source: lifehacker.com
12 best mindfulness apps to help you keep calm during a crisis
We loved Calm when we tested it previously, particularly its guided Daily Calm sessions, which helped us unwind and refocus our attention. But the app has bolstered its already-great offering this year, with the addition of a new daily meditation series called the Daily Trip. Narrated by Canadian author and meditation teacher Jeff Warren, the Daily Trip offers a more...
The Best Meditation Apps of 2020
This award-winning app has calming exercises, breathing techniques to help you relax, and even a Calm Kids section with meditations for kids between 3 and 17. The Sleep Stories section features a great mix of voice talent โ€” you may recognize actors Matthew McConaughey or Jerome Flynn โ€” to lull you to sleep. For a mindful experience you can access right from your Apple Watch,...

PrivacyNotes Reviews

  1. FossFox
    Feature rich

    The best thing about this: No subscription model, it's a one-time fee for a lifetime license. But you can start for free with the generous freemium model. I only needed to upgrade to pro because I wanted to use the app on my phone, laptop and desktop. Highly recommended! Btw, it's a perfect markdown editor as well, not sure why they don't emphasize this more.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Calm seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 8 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Calm mentions (8)

  • Alternatives to scrolling Reddit?
    Meditation. try the calm app or calm.com for sleep stories or sleep body scans. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Redeeming Benefit via App Store?
    If I purchase the Calm membership through the app store, will the rebate still post? I saw in the details it specified "calm.com." Does anyone know for sure? Source: over 3 years ago
  • [NeedAdvice] 1 Thinking too much is destroying my life. How can I shut down thinking and start living outside of my head?
    I found Waking Up to require more effort than calm.com (or headspace). The latter apps tend to focus on simple things: e.g. Focus on your breathing whereas Waking Up is actually much more about challenging your beliefs of what it even means to exist. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Some Free Dumps for you Guys + Selling Calm.com 1 Year Family Account
    Also for now I am selling Calm.com 1 Year Family Account for $7. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Yoga as an exjw
    I don't do full yoga but trying out calm.com and just some mind clearing meditation daily is great for unclenching the upper stomach muscles around the diaphragm that you don't realize clench from day-to-day stress. I remember wanting to try it when I was younger because I've always had an issue with holding onto anger and frustration but was told the whole "emptying your mind lets Satan in" business. Source: over 4 years ago
View more

PrivacyNotes mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of PrivacyNotes yet. Tracking of PrivacyNotes recommendations started around Jun 2026.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Calm and PrivacyNotes, you can also consider the following products

Headspace - Meditation made simple. Brilliant things happen in calm minds.

Standard Notes - A safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

Medito - 100% Free Meditation App that will improve your Mental wellbeing with the help of Guided Meditations, Breathing Exercises, Mindfulness Practices, Relaxing Sounds, and more.

Apple Notes - Apple Notes functions as a service for making short text notes.

Brain.fm - Music designed for the brain to enhance focus, relaxation, meditation, naps and sleep within 10 - 15 minutes of use.

Simplenote - The simplest way to keep notes. Light, clean, and free. Simplenote is now available for iOS, Android, Mac, and the web.