Replace notesnook/standard notes for $0

I hate subscriptions. Here’s how to get rid of this one.

First, here’s why I don’t like these tools:

They do too much for what I need: A true note-taking platform should not be some all-encompassing workspace. I don’t need an encrypted Google suite essentially which is where many of these tools are veering towards. Their UI’s are also cluttered - and don’t even think about adding plugins or bye-bye any speed you thought you had. If you’re a writer then perhaps there’s some utility in having all these options, but if you’re a general builder, any plaintext-markdown system is more than enough for a generic notebook and while yes these tools can export to these formats, they don’t natively operate or run as “markdown/org first” environments imo.

A threat that is realistically never coming: I’ve used the Google suite of products since grade school, the amount of times anything useful has ever been used against me or taken against me? None - the only time I noticed something is when I stored some copyrighted works and I swear they were deleted. That was my mistake - I should have used an encrypted cloud like a Tresorit. But if you are a boring person with a boring life taking boring notes with unremarkable achievements that even geniuses in your field gladly share openly on their blogs - do not let some degree of self importance tell you that you need these tools or that you are “protecting yourself” or “your ideas are too valuable” lol. You’re not that important bro. The idea that YOU need the latest and greatest in cryptography like argon2 to protect your cooking recipes or essay on Schopenhauer is a bit much. To drive this point home - if you use even a single social media app including YouTube - they have a much stronger profile just from that than from anything you stick on these private platforms. Most people are operating two steps forward and one step backward when they do stuff like this.

This is not to say you shouldn’t do anything and make it ultra easy for your data to be harvested (and this is my justification for encryption, I don’t consent to harvesting if there’s something I can do about it) but even sticking a simple passphrase on a zip folder is more than enough of a deterrent for any actual snoops that aren’t just automated crawlers.

It’s faster for me to work via terminal: This all began because I got a little too comfortable with using Vim, and I began taking notes in markdown format and working with files and folders, these tools fundamentally just aren’t built that way or for that purpose. If your workflow is based more around your filesystem and terminal - these tools are actually slow as heck to go back and forth between.

Choice Architecture: Even if the tools are free or affordable, the nature of limitations that each tier of the cloud versions have feel constricting or as if I’m being veered towards eventually being a subscriber one day the deeper my notes get enmeshed with their ecosystem. Even if the company has the best of intentions and these companies do seem very consumer friendly. I just don’t even want a single pricing page or worry about “I’m bumping up to my limit” to ever cross my mind. I want my entire flow to feel universal and agnostic and not tied to any particular ecosystem. (This is my finickyness I fully recognize that, I can rationalize things in weird ways lol)

If this sounds like you, you’re reading the right post.

The core steps are simple:

• zip/compress it: This is done to reduce file size and grouping files in a folder so you only have to encrypt ONE zip/tar file ultimately.
• encrypt it
• send up to cloud
• vice versa/in reverse to pull it down: Pull down from cloud, decrypt, unzip/decompress

This sounds like a lot of extra steps but in practice , you get pretty fast at it and its really fast when you set up bash/terminal aliases.

pre-reqs:

1. tar/zip/compression or archiving tool installed, check: tar --version , gzip --version , install if u don’t (easy to find on google how)
2. GPG installed, if not: sudo apt update && sudo apt install gnupg or get from the website
3. SSH set up (if u use github) - Github Guide
4. A private Git repo: Create a new private repository on GitHub, GitLab, etc. to store your encrypted backup.

git setup

mkdir ~/notes-backup
cd ~/notes-backup
git init
git remote add origin git@github.com:YOUR_USER/YOUR_PRIVATE_REPO.git

Workflow

to encrypt and push to cloud

# 1. Create a compressed archive of your notes folder
# The -C flag archives the *contents* of ~/Notes instead of the folder itself
tar -czvf notes.tar.gz -C ~/Notes .

# 2. Encrypt the archive using a simple password (symmetric cipher)
# It will prompt for a passphrase.
gpg -c notes.tar.gz

# 3. CRITICAL: Delete the unencrypted archive
rm notes.tar.gz

# 4. Push the *encrypted* file to your remote repo
git add notes.tar.gz.gpg
git commit -m "Notes backup $(date)"
git push origin main

to decrypt and pull

# 1. Pull the latest encrypted file from your repo
git pull origin main

# 2. Decrypt the file
# This prompts for your passphrase and creates the notes.tar.gz file
gpg -o notes.tar.gz -d notes.tar.gz.gpg

# 3. Extract the archive into your notes folder
# This will OVERWRITE any existing files in ~/Notes with the backup versions
tar -xzvf notes.tar.gz -C ~/Notes

# 4. Clean up the unencrypted tarball
rm notes.tar.gz

for aliases (add to .bashrc)

# Alias to back up, encrypt, and push
alias notes_backup='(cd ~/notes-backup && tar -czvf notes.tar.gz -C ~/Notes . 
&& gpg -c notes.tar.gz && rm notes.tar.gz && git add notes.tar.gz.gpg 
&& git commit -m "Notes backup $(date)" && git push origin main && echo "✅ Notes backed up and encrypted.")'

# Alias to pull, decrypt, and restore
alias notes_restore='(cd ~/notes-backup && git pull origin main &&
gpg -o notes.tar.gz -d notes.tar.gz.gpg && tar -xzvf notes.tar.gz -C ~/Notes && 
rm notes.tar.gz && echo "✅ Notes restored.")'

Now, your entire workflow is just typing notes_backup or notes_restore.

If you’re on mac it should be very similar since mac also uses unix. Windows? - don’t know, don’t care. I’m sure GPG is universal enough that windows has its own version:

• GPG4Win,
• Simple Guide

but that’s on you to figure out as penance for still using the bloated spyware known as windows in 2025 :p

The Drawbacks and Trade-Offs

Of course, what is the drawback here? This DIY method involves extra steps that you may not want to do. You have to manually handle tasks like encrypting, decrypting, and key management. A cipher option (just setting a password and nothing else if u hate the thought of managing keys) is also available, but it’s still a manual step to do.

For me, however, moving away from the overkill that the privacy note-taking market has become and spending $0 is well worth the trade off, in practice - once you get comfortable, these steps add an extra 10 seconds at the very most (if you don’t set an alias in your terminal in which case it takes like 2 seconds)

I do have a post dropping next week so stay tuned for that!