That’s a shame, though I do see that it is difficult to make any money from what it is. I’m glad they didn’t sell it to someone big for all the user’s data, though it is still early

If you're looking for alternatives that you control, there are several self-hosted note-taking apps worth considering:

- Joplin Server: supports Markdown, end-to-end encryption, and syncs across devices. The server component runs in Docker and acts as a sync target for the Joplin clients (desktop, mobile, CLI).

- Memos: lightweight, open source, designed for quick notes and personal memos. Single Docker container, SQLite by default. Closest to Simplenote in philosophy — simple and fast.

- Standard Notes: encrypted by default, has first-party apps for every platform. You can self-host the sync server, though the hosted version has a free tier too.

- Obsidian + self-hosted sync (via CouchDB or Livesync plugin): if you want local-first Markdown files with optional sync. More powerful than Simplenote but steeper learning curve.

For something closest to Simplenote's simplicity, Memos is probably the best fit. It's just a place to quickly jot things down without the overhead of Notion or Obsidian's feature set.

I still lament the loss of nvALT. The GOAT.

From Simplenote to Simplynot. I liked it, it was like a popular app on Gnome or KDE, but available on mobile devices. It was well designed and privacy respecting. However, the walled gardens are hostile to such apps.

I can recommend Standard Notes as an alternative. https://standardnotes.com/

Works well on all paltforms, desktop and mobile. The sync works also great. It also backs up to text files on your computer, so that you can back up your files with your regular backup process and you can also easily move away if you would like to one day.

What a coincidence, was just looking for a replacement of Simplenote!

With hundreds of note taking apps coming and going, is there any single performant cross-platform non-Electron app with great conflict resolution for simple notes? Just to be more useful than an overpowered code editor + a file cloud?

Checked just 2 of these conditions here (native Windows and macOS and some iOS startup benchmarks) and there is literally not a single app!!! (to be fair, not every app is likely tested, but even without those it's 6 apps)

https://noteapps.info/features?group=performance

It's been my go-to since 2009! That's longer than I had thought. It just did what it said on the sticker and has always been unobtrusive and respectful of the user when adding a few features every now and then. Thankful to have been able to use it for so long and without it getting enshitified like almost everything else.

Just use plain text files. Anything backed by a service is going to hurt over a long enough time frame. And it seems that time frame gets shorter every year.

I still use email drafts for a lot of notes. Looking at my email draft folder the oldest one I have is from 2002 and I can still access it just fine, even on mobile.

I'm working on a open source markdown editor inspired by nvALT. Would love feedback! https://hashy.ink

Isn't Simplenote partially (or maybe entirely?) opensource? Would've been nice if they'd linking to the repos if so, and perhaps put out a call for new maintainers rather than just archiving.