Standard Notes

Standard Notes is easier to judge if you look at architecture, not only screenshots. The server is intentionally dumb: it stores encrypted items and does not need to understand note contents. The client on your Mac encrypts, decrypts, and searches locally. That is why private search works without shipping plaintext to a vendor ranker, and why very large vaults lean on local CPU. Under Proton since 2024, the app kept separate plans through August 2026. That independence is documented in Proton and Standard Notes posts: do not assume Unlimited includes Professional. Budget $0, $90, or $120 on its own line item. Desktop 3.201.x builds in July 2026 show the Mac arm64 channel is alive. Listed blogging can publish from a private note to the public web when you choose, which is a sharp boundary: encrypted until publish. Extensions run sandboxed so a third-party editor is not free to exfiltrate the vault. Those constraints explain why the plugin world is smaller than Obsidian’s and why some users prefer that trade. For Mac users coming from Apple Notes, expect less system integration and more deliberate security prompts. Touch ID unlock helps daily friction; it does not replace remembering the master password. For Obsidian migrants, accept that you are trading plugin surface for hosted E2EE simplicity. Hybrid setups exist (export, parallel vaults) but the clean choice is usually one primary system for sensitive text. Student discounts (30%) matter if you are on Productivity for Super notes during a thesis year. Professional’s five-seat sharing is the family or tiny-team plan, not a full company knowledge base. If you need realtime multiplayer editing, look elsewhere; if you need encrypted sync your threat model can explain, stay here. Refund policy is friendlier on Professional (90 days) than Productivity (14 days), which matches the higher file-storage commitment. Students should apply the 30% discount at purchase rather than assuming it auto-applies. Hardware security keys on Professional are worth enabling if you already use them for email and password managers; they close the account-takeover path that pure password 2FA apps leave open on a compromised phone. When comparing total cost of ownership with Obsidian Sync, remember Obsidian’s core app is free and Sync is optional, while Standard Notes Free already includes E2EE sync for plain text. The $90 Productivity plan is really a Super-editor and history purchase. That framing keeps people from feeling ‘forced’ into paid tiers for basic encrypted notes.