A GNU Emacs major mode for keeping notes, managing to-do lists, planning projects, and authoring documents in plain text. Files are stored locally on Windows, Mac, and Linux; no account or cloud dependency required.
Reviewed by Marcus Holmberg
Org-mode
orgmode.org 1 rating so far*
Rate Org-mode: No account needed
Threat level
Hardened
A hardened pick. Worth the effort once you have chosen to shrink your footprint on purpose. Enough for most people. Threat levels
Our take
Org-mode is the power-user ceiling in this category: your notes are plain text files you own entirely, you can encrypt individual entries or whole files with GPG, version-control everything with git, and never touch a server you do not control. The honest catch is that it requires Emacs, which has a steep learning curve, and the full feature set is not available outside of Emacs despite third-party tools for mobile and other editors. For technically inclined users who want maximum note sovereignty, nothing else comes close.
Website at a glance
orgmode.org
D score 30
Weak website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested 12d ago
Inspect this site yourself
Measures the security configuration of the tool's own website, not the privacy of the product itself. A strong tool can still score low here.
Org-mode alternatives
PrivacyNotes Zero-knowledge notes, tasks, files, passwords and journal secured by a single 12-word recovery phrase, with no email or password required. The crypto core and database schema are published for audit. No subscription model.
Standard Notes Free accounts come with a good set of features already, even in the long run if you are fine with plain text notes.
Notesnook Developers decided recently to open-source their application. Comes with a generous free version, rich text editor and import functionality from: Files (txt, html, and .md…
Joplin Synchronize notes across devices, publish and collaboration are for paid subscriptions only.
Anytype A local-first, end-to-end encrypted knowledge base and note-taking app with peer-to-peer sync, built as a privacy-respecting alternative to Notion.
Cryptee Free accounts come with 100MB storage. Your documents are encrypted before they leave your device, so Cryptee can't see your documents. Use the code "privacytools" at the…
* Average ratings will show on this page once the threshold of 5 ratings is reached.