Private notes you actually own, not notes you rent from the cloud.

A private notes app encrypts your notes before they touch a disk or a server, and leaves the key that opens them with you instead of with the company. NotePrivate works that way: your master key is sealed by your own password, that password never leaves your machine, and the app still opens your notes with the network switched off. It runs on macOS and Windows, the planned price is $59 per year, and it is not on sale yet, so every button on this page joins the NotePrivate waitlist.

Run these four tests on NotePrivate and on anything else you are weighing up. They are the whole difference, and each one is easy to check before you commit your notes. The NotePrivate secure note taking app comparison runs the same tests on Standard Notes, Notesnook, Joplin, Apple Notes, Obsidian and Evernote, with prices and the places where NotePrivate loses.

• Who holds the key. If support can reset your password and still show you your notes, the vendor can read them. NotePrivate cannot reset yours, and that limit is the point.
• Where the encrypted copy sits. Encrypted in transit is not encrypted at rest. NotePrivate writes an encrypted vault to your own disk, so a stolen laptop yields ciphertext.
• Whether it opens offline. An app that needs a server to show you a note has already sent something somewhere. Pull the network cable and NotePrivate keeps working.
• How you get out. Privacy you cannot leave is a cage. NotePrivate exports the whole vault, or every note as a plain Markdown file, on demand.

Encrypted at rest, on your machine

A unique key protects your vault and every attachment, and that key is sealed behind your password so it never leaves your Mac in the clear. iCloud is only ever an encrypted backup, never the source of truth.

• Per-note password protection for your most sensitive notes. The notes app with password page splits that second lock from the vault password, your OS login, and disk encryption.
• Auto-lock, lock on sleep, and Touch ID sign in on Mac
• Rotate your master key any time after a scare

Nothing is ever locked in, or lost

Your data leaves with you. Export the whole encrypted vault, or every note as Markdown, whenever you want. And the little safety nets are all there so a wrong click never costs you.

• Sync between your devices through your own cloud folder, still encrypted
• Undo destructive actions and roll back with version history
• Conflict-safe encrypted backup and restore

Apple Notes locks some notes, not the app

Apple Notes can lock individual notes, and it is worth switching on before you go shopping for anything else. On iPhone or iPad, open Settings, tap Apps, tap Notes, then Password, and pick Use Device Passcode or Create Password. On a Mac, open Notes, choose Notes then Settings, and pick Use Login Password or Use Custom Password next to Locked notes. Then open a note, click or tap the More button, and choose Lock Note.

Apple's own support page lists what that lock refuses to cover: a note with tags, a note holding a PDF, audio, or video, a note with a Keynote, Pages, or Numbers document in it, notes synced over IMAP from Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail, and any note you share with someone else. Locking is also opt in, note by note, so the two hundred notes you never got around to locking stay in the clear. NotePrivate inverts that default and encrypts the whole vault, with per-note passwords as a second layer on the handful that need one. The Apple Notes alternative page from NotePrivate walks the migration.

Windows has no Notepad lock, and BitLocker is not one

Windows ships nothing that matches even the Apple Notes lock in its small note apps. Notepad and Sticky Notes have no note password and no encryption, so a private note typed there is a plain file on the drive. OneNote is the exception worth knowing: it can password protect a section, and Microsoft warns that not even its own support can open that section again if you lose the password.

BitLocker helps less than most people assume. Full disk encryption protects the drive while the PC is off or stolen, and once you sign in the disk is decrypted and every note file is readable by anything running as you. NotePrivate keeps its vault encrypted on disk while Windows is running, and auto-lock plus lock on sleep close it again when you step away. The NotePrivate encrypted notes app for Windows page covers the Windows setup step by step.

Send one private note without handing over the vault

Most people searching for private notes want two different things: a place to keep notes nobody else can read, and a way to pass one note to somebody without emailing it in the clear. NotePrivate does both, and the second one works without asking the other person to install anything.

Turn a single note into a link and NotePrivate encrypts it, then puts the decryption key in the fragment of the URL, the part after the hash sign. Browsers never send that fragment to the server, so noteprivate.com serves the viewer page and still cannot read the note. Decryption happens in the recipient's browser.

Two honest limits. The link expires, and you can revoke it early, but until then anyone holding it can read that note, so treat the link exactly as carefully as the note. And a shared note is one note: the rest of your NotePrivate vault stays sealed behind your password.