Note TakingPrivacyProductivityWorkflow 6 min read

My Journey Finding the Perfect Note-Taking App: Why I Finally Settled on Standard Notes

After two years with Obsidian, two months with Notion, six months with AnyType, and countless hours testing other tools, I finally found my note-taking home.

A desk with a notebook and pen Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Here’s the full story of how I navigated the complex world of digital note-taking apps to find simplicity, security, and peace of mind.

The Quest for the Perfect Note-Taking System

We’ve all been there — searching for that perfect tool that will finally organize our digital lives. My journey began with a simple quest: find a note-taking app that balanced functionality, security, and ease of use without becoming a distraction in itself.

What started as a simple search turned into a two-year expedition through the landscape of productivity tools. I tested premium apps, free alternatives, open-source options, and even tried building my own system in VS Code. Each solution solved some problems while creating others, until I finally found what worked for me.

This isn’t about finding the “best” app — it’s about finding the right fit for your specific needs. Let me walk you through my journey to help you navigate your own.

The Obsidian Era: Power and Complexity

For two years, Obsidian was my digital brain. I spent countless hours customizing it with community plugins, creating canvas visualizations, and building an intricate system of interconnected notes.

What I loved about Obsidian:

  • Offline-first approach with local storage
  • Extensive customization through community plugins
  • Canvas feature for visual note-taking
  • Complete control over my data

Obsidian is truly a “god level tool” for note-taking, as I called it in my explorations. The performance was excellent, backups were stored offline in my own folders, and the community plugins were extensive and powerful.

However, this power came at a cost — I found myself spending more time customizing my system than actually taking notes. I was turning my note-taking app into “an automated tasker, scheduler, and AI jackpot,” when all I really needed was a straightforward way to capture thoughts and information.

The Notion Experiment: Collaboration Without Privacy

After Obsidian, I moved to Notion, drawn by its clean interface and free student plan. The templates were impressive, and I could easily customize the interface according to my needs.

But two significant concerns quickly emerged:

  1. Data accessibility: I constantly worried about being unable to access my notes if I lost internet connection or if Notion experienced downtime.
  2. Performance issues: Coming from faster tools, Notion felt laggy by comparison.

Most importantly, I realized that Notion’s strength — collaboration — wasn’t something I needed as an individual note-taker. I was paying the performance cost for features I rarely used.

The AnyType Phase: Object-Based Organization

AnyType was my next stop, and it initially felt like an upgrade. I used it for about six months, appreciating its object-based storage approach.

Creating objects for people, projects, and meetings allowed for powerful connections between my notes. I could tag individuals, assign tasks, and create sets of objects for easy organization.

But with “endless possibilities comes endless confusion,” as I noted during my usage. Without a clear folder structure, I found myself increasingly disoriented in my own notes. The lack of hierarchy meant I couldn’t easily access information in a structured way.

I often found myself opening Obsidian in the background for quick notes — a clear sign that AnyType wasn’t fully meeting my needs.

An open laptop on a desk Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

The Exploration Phase: Testing the Alternatives

After becoming disillusioned with AnyType, I entered a phase of rapid testing. I researched extensively using Medium, Reddit, other forums, AI tools like Google Gemini and Perplexity, and explored multiple alternatives:

  • Capacities: Too feature-rich for my needs
  • Notesnook: Good pricing at 1099 INR yearly, but felt like an “alpha stage app” with scaling issues
  • Docmost: Wiki-like interface that didn’t suit my workflow
  • Trillium Notes: Vertical editor wasn’t intuitive for me
  • SiYuan Notes: Limited seating subscription model, felt like it was going to another obsidian
  • UpNote: Liked the UI, but their privacy policy stated “we own and control your data”
  • OneNote: Briefly considered but avoided due to my preference against Microsoft products
  • AppFlowy: Nice app with AI features but data ownership concerns remained, plus too much bloated for just note taking
  • VS Code with plugins: Functional but not designed as a note-taking tool
  • Google NotebookLM: Considered setting up an enterprise account but privacy concerns prevailed
  • OpenWebUI: Waiting for their note-taking feature to mature
  • Joplin: Good reviews but didn’t fully explore
  • Constella.app Notes: Mind map approach created too much visual complexity

Finding Peace with Standard Notes

After exploring all these options, I finally discovered Standard Notes — what I call “the ProtonMail of note-taking apps” from a security perspective.

The simplicity and straightforward approach immediately clicked with me. Standard Notes offered folder organization (technically tags in a hierarchy), different note types through plugins (text, spreadsheets, diagrams), and most importantly, strong security.

A person writing in a notebook Photo by Jonathan Sebastiao on Unsplash

Why Standard Notes Finally Worked for Me

Several key features made Standard Notes the perfect solution for my needs:

  1. Security and privacy: Notes are locally encrypted, providing peace of mind about data protection.
  2. Reasonable pricing: The five-year plan offered good value, and they even provide discounts if you email them with a genuine reason.
  3. Multiple workspaces: I could invite another email (my work email) and create separate workspaces, keeping personal and work notes completely separate.
  4. Balanced feature set: Not overwhelming with features, but offering everything I actually needed.
  5. Reliable backup options: Ability to send backups to email or sync to folders (encrypted or unencrypted).
  6. File storage: I can store my draw.io diagrams and other files directly in Standard Notes.

The Liberation of Simplification

The most important realization in my journey was that I had been overcomplicating things. With AI everywhere, I started to question what I truly needed from a note-taking app.

I mean with AI everywhere, I don’t think note-taking requires a PhD, right? It needs to be pretty straightforward-what you want to take down, something you would note down on a piece of paper.

I didn’t need rocket science or AI integration-I needed something manageable, accessible, secure, and backed up. Standard Notes provided all this without unnecessary complexity.

Conclusion: Finding Your Note-Taking Home

While I occasionally miss some of Obsidian’s UI customizations, I don’t miss the endless tinkering that came with it. I don’t miss Notion or AnyType at all.

The perfect note-taking app isn’t about having every possible feature — it’s about having the right features for your specific workflow, with security you can trust and simplicity that keeps you focused on the content rather than the tool.

If you’re currently stuck in the productivity app hamster wheel, consider taking a step back and asking yourself what you truly need. Sometimes, as in my case, the answer is simpler than you might expect.

For me, after years of searching, Standard Notes ended up being that perfect balance of functionality, security, and simplicity. Your perfect tool might be different, but I hope sharing my journey helps you find it more quickly than I did.