Proton has announced that it has completed the acquisition of the encrypted note-taking app, Standard Notes. The company says that the privacy-focused

Proton has been expanding its portfolio steadily overtime, evolving from an email service. It has a VPN service called ProtonVPN, a cloud storage service in the form of Proton Drive, and Proton Calendar which as the name indicates can be used for organizing your schedule. Proton launched its own password manager service, Proton Pass, last year. All of these services have a free tier with limited features and storage space, which is pretty cool, and if you like them, you may want to take a look at the premium subscriptions.

Proton acquires Standard Notes

Proton's acquisition of Standard Notes isn't surprising, after all, privacy-focused tools have been the company's forte. Some users had even been requesting for a Proton Notes app, I guess their wish has now been granted. The company acquired the email alias service, SimpleLogin, in 2022, and has continued to support it as a standalone service.

I remember when Proton introduced its cloud storage and calendar, many users were complaining about the apps. They were pointing out that it lacks some features that were available on other services. Another issue that users had was the lack of proper apps for desktop platforms, which the company addressed by releasing the Proton Mail app for Windows, macOS, and Linux (beta). That's not going to be a problem this time around, because Proton does not have to start from scratch.

Standard Notes debuted in 2017, and has over 300,000 users. It has polished apps with lots of features, albeit some of them are locked behind a paywall. The note-taking service also has dedicated apps for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS. And, if you prefer using it from your browser, you can just access the service's web app. You can even self-host it on your own server.

The desktop app can be used offline without an account, and you should set up a passcode lock from the app's Menu > Security to encrypt the data locally on your device. If you want your data to sync across devices, you will need to sign up for a free account, it supports end-to-end encryption, although it is limited to plain text notes and a measly 100MB of note storage.

Standard Notes' apps are open source, the company has been audited by third-parties 4 times, the last one dating to 2022. There is one thing that I don't like about it, the premium subscriptions of Standard Notes are not wallet-friendly, and it's going to stay that way. $90 for a year's plan is rather expensive, wouldn't you agree?

Proton's announcement confirms that the prices are not changing, and that all current subscriptions will be honored. I expect Standard Notes will be bundled into Proton Unlimited, which I think is probably the reason why the company acquired the note-taking app. Proton also says that Standard Notes will remain open source, freely available and fully supported. I mean, they did the same thing after acquiring SimpleLogin, it is available via its own website, so this is a good thing.

There aren't any proper alternatives for Standard Notes, aside from Joplin, which I reviewed 5 years ago.

Which note-taking app do you use?