Simplenote
The simplest way to keep notes.
- Free • Open Source
- Note-taking Tool
- Todo List Manager
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Kindle Fire
What is Simplenote?
Made by the company behind 
WordPress, Simplenote enables users to take notes, lists, and ideas. These notes are stored on the cloud and are accessible across multiple devices.
Simplenote's both client and server components are free and open-source. However, the service component of Simplenote requires free registration and accepting the terms of service.
Simplenote Screenshots
Simplenote Features
Simplenote information
Supported Languages
- English
- Arabic
- Dutch
- French
- German
- Greek
- Hebrew
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Persian
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Chinese
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Turkish
- Welsh
Apple AppStore
- Updated
- 4.79 avg rating
Comments and Reviews
Tags
- Note-taking
- Todo List Manager
- web-app
- Productivity Tool
- Version Control
Lists containing Simplenote
Progress & Management • Linux Apps for Writers • Windows 10 selections • Top tools for a Technical WriterRecent user activities on Simplenote
- idenkritikliked Simplenoteid
wildthinks Standard Notes is an alternative to Simplenote
wildUpvoted a comment on Joplin as an alternative to SimplenoteJoplin would be perfect for me if it'd had a web version. But it is still amazing!
The one true sync everywhere solution. Desktop clients are built on Electron and are a bit on the heavy side on filesize and memory usage, but there's many alternative clients, such as AlephNote (Windows), nvAlt (MacOS) etc Updated at a slow pace, but the supported by the company behind WordPress and hopefully safe for many years to come.
I see that there is a bit of misunderstanding about Simplenote and its licensing model. The Simplenote client is indeed free and open-source, under the terms of GPL v2. (See simplenote-electron on GitHub) It connects to server components that are also free and open-source. But Simplenote is more a service than an app; in the end, you entrust other people with your data in exchange for achieving mobility. That means you must study the terms of service.
All things considered, I like Simplenote.
Not only is the service not fully open source (it was listed as open source here before - now corrected to "free" (as in beer, not birds)), the privacy policy is every bit as alarming as for any other service that "for free" stores your information on its servers in unencrypted format in US juridiction, including that they may sell it. From the privacy policy (10th January 2017):
Careful what you put into Simplenote, therefore. And follow the default advice for cloud services: put on other people's servers (services) only things you wouldn't mind becoming public/published.
For a much more private, open source alternative, try Turtl. It might not be mature/stable enough yet though, so check back every now and again to see if it will serve your needs. Otherwise, Laverna is also a good online note-taking app with security built in. It's also open source and supports markdown, unlike Simplenote.
[Edited by JohnFastman, March 10]
The fact that it's free and open source is reason enough to use it.
The browser version takes forever to load. Could take the phone open and close it twice before the browser loaded once
When you accumulate about 200 notes it starts to get very slow and not save. At least that was my experience in 2018. Today I use Standard Notes as an alternative that doesn't crash and on top of that it has a version history.
If you only need basic text and to do's it is great, however I am looking for something where I can add pictures