Updated August 2026
    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    6.6k

    Standard Notes: Maintenance, Licence and Alternatives

    Simple and private notes app. Protect your privacy while getting more done. That's Standard Notes.

    TL;DR • Standard Notes • as of August 2026

    Standard Notes is an open-source note-taking & editors project, with 6.6k GitHub stars and a health score of 81/100. It committed 228 times in the last twelve months across 12 of those months, and its status is actively maintained. Licence: GPL-3.0. It has real momentum, so treat it as a live competitor rather than a stale repository.

    6.6k
    GitHub stars
    81/100
    Health score
    228
    Commits (12 mo)
    12/12
    Active months

    Maintenance health

    Status Actively maintained — Committed within the last 45 days.
    Last commit 2026-08-11
    Days since last commit 6
    Commits, last 3 months 37
    Commits, last 12 months 228
    Months with activity 12 of 12
    Last release 2026-07-20
    Archived No
    Licence GPL-3.0
    Category Note-taking & Editors

    Health score combines commit recency, twelve-month commit volume, months with activity, release recency and archive state. Metadata refreshed August 2026.

    What the licence lets you do

    GPL-3.0

    Copyleft (GPL, AGPL, MPL): derivative work must stay open. AGPL also covers software offered over a network, which blocks most closed SaaS wrappers.

    This matters most when you plan to sell a hosted version. A permissive licence means anyone — including a competitor with more capital — can do the same, so your defensibility has to come from distribution, support or data, not from the code.

    What Standard Notes means for your idea

    Standard Notes is shipping code consistently, so a buyer comparing your product will find a maintained free option. Price and position against the total cost of self-hosting it, not against the paid incumbent's list price.

    Winnable, but differentiation is not optional. Pick one underserved segment and be visibly better for it rather than competing feature-for-feature with a free tool.

    Standard Notes: common questions

    Is Standard Notes still maintained in 2026?

    Actively maintained. Standard Notes recorded 228 commits over the last twelve months, with activity in 12 of those months and 37 commits in the last quarter. Last commit: 2026-08-11. Last release: 2026-07-20. Committed within the last 45 days.

    Can I use Standard Notes commercially?

    Standard Notes is published under GPL-3.0. Copyleft (GPL, AGPL, MPL): derivative work must stay open. AGPL also covers software offered over a network, which blocks most closed SaaS wrappers.

    How crowded is the Note-taking & Editors category?

    20 open-source implementations, 14 of them actively maintained, led by Memos at 62k stars. Saturation score 49/100 — Contested. Several maintained alternatives exist, but no one owns the category.

    Standard Notes alternatives in Note-taking & Editors

    Joplin

    Alternative to Evernote, Onenote, Roam Research, Note-taking/ Knowledge management, Note-taking / Personal Knowledge Management

    56k

    Note taking application with markdown editor and encryption support for mobile and desktop platforms. Runs client-side and syncs through a self hosted Nextcloud instance or similar (alternative to Eve

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    MIT

    TriliumNext Notes

    Note-taking & Editors

    37k

    Cross-platform hierarchical note taking application with focus on building large personal knowledge bases (fork of Trilium Notes).

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    AGPL-3.0

    Overleaf

    Note-taking & Editors

    18k

    Web-based collaborative LaTeX editor.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    AGPL-3.0

    Docs

    Note-taking & Editors

    17k

    Collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    MIT

    Blinko

    Note-taking & Editors

    11k

    A personal note tool with AI features.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    AGPL-3.0

    Competing with free? Check the market first.

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