Boostnote

This is a burgeoning, open source, markdown-based note taking app that is already highly capable, but is missing some key features related to mobile and various conveniences. I really hope in the next year it will grow into something spectacular.

Hint: If Boostnote's feature set is too bare-bones for you at the moment, consider Inkdrop, which isn't open source but does support end-to-end encrypted sync (including to mobile), better shortcuts in the desktop version, syntax highlighting and gives you the first 60 days for free.

Boostnote's key features:

• Based on markdown
• Uses the local file structure, which you can specify/adjust (on Mac, Windows and Linux)
• Can cross-link notes (nice!)
• Open source and customizable (based on Atom)
• Gorgeous looks and theme-able
• Import/export your notes
• Basic tagging system

What it's missing (it's a young project):

• Built-in shortcut keys. E.g. I would like to be able to press, say, "Ctrl+4" and get a "####", or "Ctrl+L" and get everything put in for inserting a hyperlink.
• The mobile version doesn't let you specify which local folders to use. This is really, really annoying because if it did, users could choose their own cloud service to sync notes. As it stands the developers have promised to implement support for Dropbox, Google Drive and all the other privacy-invading services, which will also mean much more effort to maintain and support all that. There is an issue related to this on GitHub, it's getting lots of votes and I really hope the developers listen. If the mobile version let you choose your own folders to use, Boostnote would suddenly become an absolute killer app.
• Attaching files other than images. I need to attach .pdf files (e.g. receipts) to various notes. You can actually do this, but the link it generates changes the file name and the link generated in the note isn't click-able.
• WYSIWYG editor. Click a button to make text bold, make a link, etc. Many would find this convenient.
• Hierarchical folders and tags
• Search by more than one tag at a time to narrow down search results

This is note-taking software at its best, pure and simple; this from someone who has used oh so many note taking applications. If you are looking for a useful note-taking tool, whether it is for school, research, work, etc, this is that application.

It is very streamlined, cross-platform (love that it runs on Linux, Windows, and Mac), and extremely simple to use, it is highly configurable and while it has a rich feature set, it isn't bloated like other note taking apps.

This application along with Cryptomator is literal note-taking heaven, I have all of my notes in a secure format right in the cloud.

Pos

• Easy to use and beautiful
• Writing in markdown
• Boostnote has better support of syntax highlight than QOwnNotes and VNote
• Syntax highlight available for both editing and rendering including for nested code blocks

Cons

• Boostnote stores notes in cson files (that are named with long unique ID) but can export them to markdown (QOwnNotes and VNote store notes in markdown in an arborescence so notes can be opened with other editors).
• The electron interface is slow
• Not so much customizable: can't disable link auto-smart-formatting or this kind of things
• The position in the file is not kept while changing files (each time your select the file you'll have to browse from the beginning)

• in-note search
• markdown support
• Syntax Highlighting !!!
• diagram support !!! (plantuml, flowchart or Sequence)
• TeX support
• file-system integration for files and pictures!
• clean design

Brilliant design, fast working, but that's all. It's only about programming and for programmers, allows keep organized snippets.

The android app is not as powerful as the native app. (No search!)

It is a very nice and easy to use application. Has a pleasant design, and it allows you to use markdown for your notes. Files can be stored either on the computer or on the cloud.