Jotura vs Standard Notes.
Both apps take privacy seriously, and they solve it in opposite ways. Here is an honest comparison, including where Standard Notes wins.
An encrypted vault you sign into, or a folder you can open with anything.
Standard Notes keeps your notes inside its own end-to-end encrypted store, syncs them across macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and the browser, and is open source. Jotura keeps your notes as ordinary .md files in a folder on your disk and encrypts them when they leave your machine for its optional paid sync. Markdown, tables and documents are free in Jotura, and Sync adds sharing with other people and three years of history. Jotura has no iOS app and it is closed source. If either of those decides it for you, Standard Notes is your answer and the rest of this page is detail.
What each app gives you.
Both apps encrypt your notes before anything is uploaded, and most of the table below shows where they part ways after that.
| Feature | Jotura | Standard Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Editing model | Markdown formatted as you type, a source toggle and a real table editor, free | plaintext on the free plan, Markdown and rich text through the Super editor from Productivity, $90 a year |
| Files and documents | free: PDFs, Word files and spreadsheets sit in your vault as searchable Markdown mirrors | file attachments on Professional, $120 a year, with 100GB of storage |
| Version history | 3 years, showing who changed what, included with Sync | a year of revisions on Productivity, unlimited on Professional |
| Tags | inline #tags and frontmatter tags, nested with a slash, and a Tags pane with counts | tags applied to notes in the app |
| Book reader | Android: EPUB, PDF and CBZ, highlights saved as notes | |
| Where your notes live on disk | plain .md files in a normal folder | the app's own encrypted store |
| Platforms | Mac, Windows, Linux, Android | Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, web |
| iPhone and iPad | ||
| Browser access | a web client | |
| Open source | client and server | |
| Self-hosting | the sync server | |
| Encrypted sync | paid: £4 a month or £40 a year, no free trial | included on the free plan |
| Encryption scope | encrypted in transit and on the server, plain on your disk | note contents protected locally too, on every plan |
| Command-line tool | the jotura CLI, bundled with the desktop app | none built in |
Standard Notes plans, platforms and licensing as published by Standard Notes, October 2026.
Where Standard Notes wins.
Stay with Standard Notes when any of these six decides it.
- iPhone and iPad. Standard Notes has apps for both, and Jotura has neither. If you want to open a note on your iPhone while you queue for coffee, Standard Notes is the app to choose, whatever the rest of this page says.
- A web client. A Standard Notes user reaches their notes from a locked-down work machine or a borrowed laptop. Jotura has no browser access at all.
- Open source, client and server. You can read the code for both yourself. Jotura is closed source, so you are trusting a description of what it does, and for some people that settles the question on its own.
- A server you can run yourself. Standard Notes supports self-hosting the sync server, so your encrypted data lives on hardware you control. Jotura Sync runs only on Jotura's servers.
- Encrypted sync at no cost. The free plan gives you end-to-end encrypted sync across unlimited devices. Jotura Sync costs £4 a month or £40 a year with no free trial, so when price is what decides it, Standard Notes wins outright.
- Notes protected on the machine itself. A Standard Notes note is a record in an encrypted database, and that design is what lets the app encrypt everything before it touches the network, on every plan. Jotura leans on your operating system's full-disk encryption at rest, which is the weaker default if you share a machine or lose a laptop.
Where Jotura wins.
What plain files and a fuller free editor give you.
- Markdown and rich editing in the free app. You write in an editor that formats as you type, with a source toggle when you want to see the Markdown. Tables get a proper editor, and callouts, checklists, footnotes and embeds take shape as you type. In Standard Notes, Markdown and rich text start with the Productivity plan.
- Documents and history without a higher plan. Drop a PDF, Word file or spreadsheet into your vault and Jotura builds a searchable Markdown mirror, so it turns up in results alongside your notes, on the free app. Jotura Sync keeps three years of history for every note, showing what changed and who changed it. Standard Notes keeps a year of history on Productivity and saves file attachments for Professional.
- Sharing with the people you pick. Share a folder or a single note, as an editor who can change it or a viewer who can only read it. Edits made at the same moment merge, and the share stays end-to-end encrypted to the people you invited. Both people need Jotura Sync.
- Tags, links, daily notes and tasks. Tag a note inline with #recipe or in its frontmatter, and nest tags with a slash. The desktop Tags pane lists every tag with how many notes carry it. Type [[ to link another note, open today's note from the calendar, and let the Tasks pane gather checkboxes from across the vault.
- A book reader on Android. EPUB, PDF and CBZ books in your vault open in the Android app. Highlight a passage in one of four colours, add a comment, and Jotura saves it in a Markdown note for that book, which you can edit on any device.
- The file is the note. Your vault is an ordinary folder, and each note is a .md file. Open it in a text editor or commit it to version control. Saving a file you did not change writes back the exact same bytes. If you already keep an Obsidian vault, Jotura opens that folder as it is, with no import step.
Common questions.
- Does Standard Notes support Markdown?
- On a paid plan. The free tier gives you plaintext notes and end-to-end encrypted sync across your devices at no cost. Markdown and rich text arrive with the Super editor on Productivity, at $90 a year, along with a year of note history. File attachments and unlimited history need Professional, at $120 a year. In Jotura, Markdown editing, tables and documents are all in the free app. Standard Notes prices move, so check their plans page.
- Are my Jotura notes encrypted on my own disk?
- No. Files on disk are only as private as the disk they sit on. Jotura leans on your operating system's full-disk encryption at rest, and adds its own encryption when files are pushed to sync. Standard Notes protects note contents locally too, which is the stronger default if you share a machine or lose a laptop.
- Can I read my notes in a browser?
- Standard Notes has a web client, so you can. Jotura has no browser access at all, which means a locked-down work machine or a borrowed laptop cannot reach your vault.
- How does the encryption compare?
- Both apps encrypt on your device before anything is uploaded, and neither server can read your note text. The scope differs. Jotura Sync derives a master key from your passphrase using Argon2id, a password hashing function built to be slow and expensive to attack. Every file gets its own key, and file paths become HMAC identifiers, one-way codes that let the server match files without ever seeing a filename or folder name. Recovery uses a BIP39 phrase, and you must keep it, because nobody can reset it for you.
- Can I share a notebook with my partner?
- In Jotura, yes, when both of you have Jotura Sync. Share a folder or a single note, choose editor or viewer, and changes made at the same moment merge. The share stays end-to-end encrypted to the people you invited.
- What should I ask myself to decide?
- Picture the app disappearing tomorrow. Jotura would leave you a folder of Markdown files on your disk, while Standard Notes suits someone who would prefer never to think about files at all. Standard Notes is also the better pick when you need iOS or browser access, want open source you can inspect, want to self-host, or want encrypted sync without a subscription.
Choose Jotura if you want Markdown editing without a higher plan, plain files that outlive the app that wrote them, and notes you can share with the people you pick.
More comparisons on the compare page, includingsix Obsidian alternatives side by side.