PrivacyNotes
Obsidian.md
Standard Notes
Apple Notes
Simplenote
Google Keep
Notion
Google Keep Notes
BrightLog
Daylio
Day One
Journey
Diario
REFLECTLY
Rosebud App
Grid Diary
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:
Built for privacy, not surveillance:
Pricing that respects you:
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.
BrightLog is a mood journal, a private diary and a CBT toolkit in one calm app โ 82 emotions, not five faces. Journaling for mental health, minus the homework.
Today's mood, in one tap Tap how the day went โ Awesome, Good, Not sure, Bad, Terrible โ and get on with your evening. Add a note, photo or voice memo. No pressure, no streak-guilt. Three home screen widgets: mood, streak, today's tasks.
A journal that holds the moment Write freely, or speak and watch your words land. Attach photos, videos, voice notes and files. Add a follow-up later, when perspective shifts. Search instantly; see the month in the calendar.
Question the thought (CBT) A proper seven-column thought record, the model therapists use: what happened, what you thought, the evidence for and against, how it looks now. Learn to spot the 16 unhelpful thinking styles.
Also in the app A Gratitude Pot for the moments worth keeping. A habit tracker built on nine evidence-based ideas, or your own. A meditation timer โ 5 to 30 minutes, eleven soundtracks or silence, sixteen prompts for breath, body scan and grounding. Offline.
Insights, and walking in prepared An optional sign-in summarises your month and year in your language: what kept coming up, what shifted, one thing to try next. Five views, including Mood โ a whole year as a grid of colour. Build a six-part summary from any date range as a PDF for your appointment: your therapist gets the pattern, not just the worst day. The Experts tab finds psychologists near you, ranked by distance, never by who paid.
Privacy, plainly No account, and no BrightLog server: your entries live on your device and we never see what you write. Backups go only to your own Google Drive or iCloud, if you turn them on. AI insights are optional and only ever send the text you ask BrightLog to analyse โ never your photos, voice notes or files.
Free, in 20 languages, on phones, iPhones, tablets and iPads.
PrivacyNotes BrightLogPrivacyNotes'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.
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.
PrivacyNotes's answer
Three reasons:
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.
PrivacyNotes's answer
React, TypeScript, Vite and Tailwind CSS.
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.
This app checks every box for me. Clean interface, no learning curve, local-first encryption, and secure sync across all of my devices.
The biggest surprise is how many apps it replaced. Instead of juggling separate apps for notes, habits, mood, activities, and important dates, everything lives in one place now. It's made staying organized a lot simpler.
Paying once and knowing I won't lose access to my workflow because I canceled yet another subscription is incredibly refreshing. That peace of mind is worth a lot to me.
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.
Obsidian.md - A second brain, for you, forever. Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files.
Daylio - Daylio enables you to keep a private diary without having to type a single line.
Standard Notes - A safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work
Day One - A simple journal application for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. AboutTo learn more about Day One, see these two excellent reviews . PublishPublish is not available in Day One 2.
Apple Notes - Apple Notes functions as a service for making short text notes.
Journey - A diary that keeps your private memories forever.