Looking for an app for note-taking with the following features:

  • No ads ever
  • No nudges to upgrade, subscribe, unlock premium features, or any bullshit like that.
  • No recurring fee (ok paying up-front for the app)
  • Clean, simple interface

That’s it. I don’t need multimedia, multi-device syncing, cloud storage. I just need a place to write down ideas and grocery lists.

Recommendations?

  • Dodecahedron December
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    1 year ago

    Obsidian

    • text files stored in markdown on your device
    • no premium service to unlock features. You can buy sync and publishing if you want to, but there are no nags to purchase them.
    • you can roll your own sync solution you wanted to. Its just text files. Same goes with publishing.
    • community plugins if you want to extend it
    • desktop clients and ios clients
    • free forever

    https://obsidian.md/

    • @maniajack
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      121 year ago

      Love obsidian. For something as simple as what OP is asking for though I just use Google Keep

  • BarqsHasBite
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    1 year ago

    There is Google Keep.

    But if you want to degoogle, well I’m reading the thread. I’ve heard of Joplin (spelling?).

    • @[email protected]
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      61 year ago

      I like quillpad from f-droid as my Google keep alternative. Pretty identical to keep aside from the online syncing.

      • calm.like.a.bomb
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        21 year ago

        I see quillpad has Nextcloud syncing. This is a good start. And I think it’s possible to sync using Syncthing too.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          I really need to go and get syncthing setup. Been meaning to in order to sync Steam Deck saves to my PC.

    • @c24w
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      11 year ago

      Not an app, and I haven’t really used it, but tinylist feels quite Google Keepy. You can add it to your home screen, but it doesn’t seem to work offline.

  • iasad12
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    191 year ago

    Obsidian, Hands down.

    • Lunch
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      51 year ago

      Not open-source though sadly 😔

      • @PhillySaxon
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        61 year ago

        Not open source but the data portability is on a level nothing else matches!

      • @alfredalpaca
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        21 year ago

        But all your notes are just md files. It’s straightforward that way

    • kellenoffdagrid❓️
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      21 year ago

      I absolutely second this, if you aren’t worried about built-in syncing (I use Syncthing to solve this, also cool piece of software), and if you really like the idea of Markdown/text-only notes with image/file attachments, there is absolutely no better tool. Plus, if you think you can get value out of the note linking feature, you can make some incredibly detailed knowledge bases. Really powerful tool when you need it to be, dead simple note-taking by default, it’s a damn good app

  • southsamurai
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    141 year ago

    Markor. It’s as simple as it gets, but can scale up if you decide to later

  • Dessalines
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    111 year ago

    Markor.

    Then I also add my notes / docs folder to syncthing, and have it on every device.

  • @static09
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    91 year ago

    Notepad++ if you just need to type something up.

    Trilium Notes, Logseq, or Obsidian.md if you’re looking for something more advanced.

    Self-host something like bookstack, docuwiki, mediawiki, or wikijs for something more… permanent? I wouldn’t really use these to jot something down real quick but I do put a lot of finalized? notes in a wikijs docker image I host.

  • Discoslugs
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    81 year ago

    I use signal mesagaing app. They have a note to self feature thats awesome.

    • kellenoffdagrid❓️
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      41 year ago

      Not sure how I never found out about this feature before but this is awesome, thanks for sharing it!

      • @varogen
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        11 year ago

        Not bad, but it looks like it doesn’t support collaborative editing which I frequently use on Keep.

  • @[email protected]
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    71 year ago

    Obsidian.md. It runs on markdown files, so even if you decide you don’t like Obsidian, you’ve still got all the files. It’s super easy to sync with SyncThing or probably Google Drive or whatever. It’s free, and the are a ton of plugins for it. Peri sure there’s a Lemmy community for it around, too.

  • @guangming
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    61 year ago

    I’ve been using Notally for a while and I think it checks all your boxes.

  • @[email protected]
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    51 year ago

    Quillnote + Signal’s “note to self”

    You can find Quillnote in both Droid and Google’s Play Store.

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝
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    51 year ago

    Quillpad is like an open source Google Keep and you can use Nextcloud to sync it all.

    Ideally, I’d want a way to import my Google Keep lists into it then I could bin Keep for good.

    • Eager Eagle
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      31 year ago

      Do I need Nextcloud to synchronize? I like the interface but I don’t really want to use Nextcloud.

  • @Ogygus
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    51 year ago

    .txt file + syncthing

    For true rebels: pen and paper