Catchlight vs Standard Notes

The short version.

Do you need an account?

This is the real fork in the road. Standard Notes is built around an account: you sign up with an email and password, and your encryption key is derived from that password so your notes can sync across all your devices. It is well-designed and the company cannot read your notes. But the account is the thing that holds it together.

Catchlight has no account at all. No email, no password, no sign-up of any kind. On first launch you create a 12-word Privacy Phrase, and that is your key. It is generated on your phone and never leaves it. There is nothing to log into, because there is nothing to log into.

No account isn't a missing feature. It's the whole idea.

Where does your data actually live?

Both apps are end-to-end encrypted, and with both, the company genuinely cannot read your notes. The difference is structural. Standard Notes syncs your encrypted notes through its own servers (now operated by Proton, a serious and well-regarded privacy company). Your data is safe there, but it is there.

Catchlight runs no cloud of its own. Your Takes live on your device. If you want them on more than one device, you point Catchlight at a folder you already own, in iCloud Drive or Dropbox, and it syncs the encrypted files into that folder. We never see them, because there is no Catchlight server for them to pass through. If Considus disappeared tomorrow, your Takes would not even notice.

Notes, or notes plus tasks plus reminders?

Standard Notes is, at heart, a notes app, and a good one, with a checklist editor among its tools. But a note, a task and a time-based reminder are still separate ideas.

Catchlight has one kind of thing: a Take. Start writing and it's a note. Add a date and it's a reminder that notifies you. Add a checkbox and it's a task. All three at once if it needs to be. You never decide upfront what you're making, and you never juggle a notes app, a tasks app and a reminders app for one thought.

What does it cost, and what's gated?

Standard Notes has a free tier for plain-text notes, which is a genuine plus if you want privacy at no cost. The features that make it powerful, rich text, file attachments, themes, version history, sit on paid plans. (Standard Notes has revised its tiers more than once, so check their current plans for exact numbers.)

Catchlight has no free tier and no feature tiers. There is one price, around £14.99 a year, and it includes everything. A real free trial comes first (30 days if you join the waitlist before launch, otherwise 14). And if you ever stop paying, you are never locked out: your Takes stay readable and exportable. We would rather be plain about the trade. No ads, no investors, no selling your data (we don't even have it); the only thing funding the app is the people who use it.

Where Standard Notes is the better choice.

We would rather you chose well than chose us. Standard Notes is the better pick if you need your notes on Android, Windows or Linux as well as Apple devices, today: Catchlight is iPhone-first at launch, with other platforms planned to follow. It is also the better pick if a permanently free tier is a hard requirement, or if you want a mature app with years of track record and Proton behind it.

Where Catchlight is the better choice.

Catchlight is the better pick if you want no account and no server in the picture at all, if you would rather your data sync through a folder you own than anyone's cloud, if you are on iPhone and want a single calm place where a note, a task and a reminder are the same thing, and if you would rather pay one flat price than reason about tiers. It is built for people who think clearly and want their tools to stay out of the way.

Common questions.

• Is Catchlight or Standard Notes more private?

  Both are end-to-end encrypted and neither company can read your notes. The difference is architecture: Standard Notes syncs through an account on its own (Proton-operated) servers; Catchlight has no account and no server at all, your data is encrypted on your device with a Privacy Phrase only you hold, and optional sync uses a folder you own.

• Does Standard Notes require an account?

  Yes, an email and password, with your key derived from that password, to sync across devices. Catchlight requires no account, no email and no sign-up.

• Can Standard Notes do tasks and reminders like Catchlight?

  Standard Notes is a notes app with a checklist editor, but notes, tasks and time reminders aren't one unified item with notifications. In Catchlight, one Take can be all three at once.

See how Catchlight compares.