Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

PrivacyNotes VS Turtl

Compare PrivacyNotes VS Turtl and see what are their differences

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.
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Turtl logo Turtl

The secure, collaborative notebook
  • 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.

  • Turtl Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30

Organize your life! Whether it's bookmarks or passwords, files or shopping lists...Turtl organizes it all and makes it easy to find later. Sync across your devices. Leave nothing behind.

Turtl uses high-end cryptography to protect your data. Whether you're worried about information leaks, competitive advantage, or blanket government surveillance, Turtl works hard to make sure only you, and those you choose, can see your data.

Collaborate and share! Just because Turtl is secure and private doesn't mean you can't share with your teammates or family. Choose who you want to have access to your data without compromising your security.

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

Turtl

$ Details
freemium $3.0 / Monthly
Platforms
-
Release Date
-
Startup details
Country
United States

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.

Turtl features and specs

  • Privacy-focused
    Turtl prioritizes user privacy by offering end-to-end encryption, ensuring that your data remains confidential and secure.
  • Open-source
    Being an open-source application, Turtl allows users to inspect, modify, and contribute to the codebase, fostering a transparent and collaborative environment.
  • Cross-platform support
    Turtl is available on multiple platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, making it accessible from a variety of devices.
  • User-friendly interface
    The application offers an intuitive and clean interface, making it easy for users to organize and manage their notes and tasks.
  • Collaborative features
    Turtl supports sharing and collaboration features, allowing teams to work together efficiently on projects and tasks.

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

Analysis of Turtl

Overall verdict

  • Turtl is a strong contender in the realm of privacy-first productivity tools, with a simple interface and robust security features that make it suitable for users prioritizing data protection.

Why this product is good

  • Turtl is considered a good option for those seeking privacy-focused digital note-taking and organization. It uses strong end-to-end encryption to ensure that all data stored within the application remains private and secure. Its open-source nature also allows for community audits and improvements to the software, ensuring transparency. The app is designed to help users organize notes, bookmarks, files, and more in a structured and user-friendly manner.

Recommended for

  • Individuals or teams that prioritize privacy and data security.
  • Users looking for an open-source and community-supported note-taking application.
  • People who prefer organizing information in an intuitive and visually appealing manner.
  • Those seeking alternatives to mainstream note-taking tools with a focus on encryption and privacy.

PrivacyNotes videos

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Turtl videos

Turtl: A secure app for note-taking, research, and collaboration

More videos:

  • Review - Turtl - Alternativa Open Source ao Evernote โ€ข Instalaรงรฃo e Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PrivacyNotes and Turtl)
Journal
100 100%
0% 0
Note Taking
0 0%
100% 100
Private Journal
100 100%
0% 0
Task Management
0 0%
100% 100

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing PrivacyNotes and Turtl.

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 PrivacyNotes and Turtl

PrivacyNotes Reviews

  1. Everything I Needed in One App

    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.

    ๐Ÿ Competitors: Capacities, Evernote, Notion, Obsidian.md
  2. 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.

Turtl Reviews

Best Evernote Alternatives in 2021 for Serious Note Takers
Turtl is a close all-in-one Evernote competitor, with the biggest difference being that itโ€™s a secure and encrypted open-source application. Turtl works well for any kind of notes or project, including passwords, shopping lists, bookmarks, and more long-form content. It also allows you to gain control of your data by installing your own Turtl server at home or work.
Top 15 Best Evernote Alternatives You Can Use
One of the biggest benefits of Turtl is that all your data is encrypted. It uses high-end cryptography to protect your data. So if you are youโ€™re worried about information leaks, competitive advantage, or surveillance, this is the right app for you. Turtl also supports collaboration, allowing you to easily collaborate with your co-workers on a note or project.
Source: beebom.com
8 Free Note Taking Software For Windows โ€“ Evernote Alternatives
Turtl lets you take notes, bookmark websites, and store documents for sensitive projects. From sharing passwords with your coworkers to tracking research on an article youโ€™re writing, Turtl keeps it all safe from everyone but you and those you share with.
The 7 Best Lightweight OneNote and Evernote Alternatives
Turtl is a secure Evernote alternative. Most of the appโ€™s features mirror those available in Evernote and OneNote. However, privacy is the top priority here. To that end, Turtl is open-source and available to view on the projectโ€™s Github page. All notes are encrypted locally before being uploaded to the syncing server.
5 great privacy-focused Evernote alternatives to keep your notes safe
Turtl is a free cloud service that takes care of your data and allows you to do collaborative work with people across the world. Since it is still in beta, with each update you can expect improvement of not only its security features but also the tools it provides. Turtl is already supported on many platforms like WindowsX64, OSX X64, Linux x64, Linux x32, Android, Android...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Turtl seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 27 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.

PrivacyNotes mentions (0)

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

Turtl mentions (27)

  • Show HN: Anytype โ€“ local-first, P2P knowledge management
    > No note application does this Yes, the app Turtl (https://turtlapp.com) does do this and it's not slow at all really. It only decrypts data upon viewing, and immediately re-encrypts when saving data. So this is actually entirely reasonable and entirely doable. The benefits are that malicious applications can't read data just sitting on the hard drive, which removes an entire class of attacks. An encrypted hd... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Note taking app with collaboration (may be not real time)
    Https://turtlapp.com/ - "Turtl". Open source, allows you to share stuff, client-side encryption, but dont believe its real time. Only issue I could see is that seemingly the only way to access it is to download it. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Alternative to SnippetBox
    Maybe this. It can be Self Hosted. Https://turtlapp.com/. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Lastpass alternatives?
    I use TurtlApp - https://turtlapp.com - although they do not have an iOS version yet. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Granny wouldโ€™ve been marked for the old folks
    If you want a "Second" step if you feel that a parent or partner will attempt to gain access to your database and read your contents, you can utilize an online service called Turtl which allows you to generate encrypted notes that only the logged in user can see. How is this more secure? Well back to your password manager, you can disguise the entry for Turtl in your password manager as something irrelevant (Have... Source: over 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

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.

Evernote - Bring your life's work together in one digital workspace. Evernote is the place to collect inspirational ideas, write meaningful words, and move your important projects forward.

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

Google Keep - Capture notes, share them with others, and access them from your computer, phone or tablet. Free with a Google account.

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

OneNote - Get the OneNote app for free on your tablet, phone, and computer, so you can capture your ideas and to-do lists in one place wherever you are. Or try OneNote with Office for free.