
I've been building a Markdown note-taking app for 3 years - craftzdog
https://blog.inkdrop.info/introducing-inkdrop-4-9d0c63de16d2
======
TheGrumpyBrit
It looks good, and I like your pricing model more than the Standard Notes one
(I don't want to drop $149 at once on a web app, but the 75% discount for
doing so makes the monthly price seem way too expensive). Two things that stop
me pulling the trigger:

1\. I need a web app. I want to be able to call up my notes from a computer,
anywhere, without installing anything.

2\. A 60 day trial seems like the wrong way to test a note taking app - it
makes me feel like you're going to hold my data hostage unless I migrate away
within that timescale. A much smaller (5-10MB) quota with no time limit would
allow me to test it properly, and it's already a part of my workflow by the
time I hit the limitations of the free account, so I'm more likely to actually
upgrade.

~~~
craftzdog
The author here.

> A much smaller (5-10MB) quota with no time limit

That's interesting and I basically agree with your opinion. You will be more
comfortable to try it. But I suspect that many free riders will come eat the
server resources. This is not a startup. I would rather like to be small.

~~~
throwmex
> free riders will come eat the server resources

that's not the way to address a user whether paid or "free rider" as you call
them.

~~~
toss1
Actually, "free riders" is an excellent thinking model, and the likely most
useful way to analyze it.

He needs to create a sustainable app/service, and does not have a lot of
external VC resources to burn while doing so. Thus, it must be sustainable in
real time.

Server loads are apparently one of his biggest expenses, so he must optimize
to minimize those resources.

OTOH, allowing people to take substantial 'free rides' to test the product in
their situation is an excellent way to get new paying users, and often an
essential gateway to conversion. I'll hardly sign up for anything without a
real test drive.

So, letting potential customers get some 'free riding' is good, but too much
will sink the ship.

It looks like he has a limited time 60-day demo and also a no server unlimited
time demo. Both seem like good ways to limit the resources given away for
free, while providing enough 'free rides' to entice them to pay for the
journey.

I'm already heading over check it out after just browsing the main page &
comments.

Now, if you are trying to say that mentioning the "free rider" term in public
is somehow insulting to the potential users. I don't think so. He's not
calling them "freeloaders" which has a more derogatory connotation. the "free
rider" term carries a connotation a little bit like I've won a free ride, but
it isn't a permanet free pass. I wouldn't find "hey, you get a free ride for
two months" at all insulting.

~~~
throwmex
What do you think his user conversion will be if he uses "Free rider who eats
resources" verbiage in his pricing page as opposed to "free"

~~~
toss1
HaHa! The "eats resources" would not be the most friendly approach . . .
although framed in the right context, the A/B test might come out different
than we expect!

Overall I agree, if all you are saying is that the "free rider who eats
resources" phrasing isn't the most customer friendly possible usage, all other
things being equal

~~~
throwmex
All I was saying is if he calls trial users "free riders eating resources" on
a tech site which we all understand the verbiage and where this comes from.

How will he treat paying customers ? I smell double standards. That's all I am
saying.

------
stockkid
Running a project for three years alone on the side takes a lot of discipline.
So often we become 'passionate' about some projects and quickly abandon them
once the initial excitement wears off. Congratulations to the author!

Eerily, I have also been building a Markdown note-taking app alone for 2 years
[0]. It is also e2e encrypted, but compared to Inkdrop, needs more work on the
UI. But it works perfectly as a CLI.

\- [0] [https://github.com/dnote/dnote](https://github.com/dnote/dnote)

~~~
cabalamat
> I have also been building a Markdown note-taking app alone for 2 years

So have I:
[https://github.com/cabalamat/catwiki](https://github.com/cabalamat/catwiki)

> quickly abandon them once the initial excitement wears off

I use CatWiki for all my notes so keep tweaking it.

~~~
appletrotter
We're proud of you too.

------
mremco
Hi Tayuka,

Congratulations on the launch! Great to see end-to-end encryption made the
cut. It seems hard to put the burden on users never to lose their login
password though — they lose all their data when they do. Have you looked at
the Tanker SDK? It’s an open-source, cross-platform SDK for end-to-end
encryption (with a zero-knowledge key distribution service), that’s very user
friendly when it comes to recovery.

Website: [https://tanker.io/product](https://tanker.io/product)

JS SDK: [https://github.com/TankerHQ/sdk-js](https://github.com/TankerHQ/sdk-
js)

~~~
craftzdog
Thanks! I'll take a look.

------
r3bl
I've been a happy user of this product for about half of its lifetime (in the
middle of my 2nd yearly subscription).

If I were to build one, it would be quite similar: intuitive design, some GTD
support, Markdown support. It has all the features that I need, and the
developer is easy to reach when there's a problem (I've been mentioned in a
few changelogs). I appreciate the openness of the developer about the features
he's gonna build next. I'd prefer it to be open source, but I understand that
financing an open source project wouldn't be as easy from the business
perspective. $50/year (IIRC) is really, really worth it for me.

EDIT: Here's a link to a note that I've made when I was looking for a new
note-taking solution:
[https://community.inkdrop.app/note/f607a6970af9e4b40795ec5be...](https://community.inkdrop.app/note/f607a6970af9e4b40795ec5bea7b852c/note:SylrWAak3Z)

~~~
craftzdog
Hi Aleksandar, Great to know that you are continuing to use my app! high five

~~~
norswap
Hey Takuya, the above says that you can only export as HTML, does that mean
that you can't export all your notes as Markdown?

It also says relative links between notes are not supported — is that still
the case?

Thanks for your hard work!

------
scarface74
Should I be as impressed as I am that one guy has an app that works on 5
different operating systems even if he is using a cross platform framework or
has cross platform front end development become that easy?

Whichever it is, great job! I don’t need something like this right now, but I
am favoriting it just in case I do later.

~~~
nathan-io
I certainly am.

The only thing I disagree with is the lack of a web client.

It just seems like you could save a ton of work by starting with the web
client, then create desktop versions via something like todesktop.com.

Then you're spending less time on updates - it's just one desktop version, and
the iOS + Android versions are just consuming data from your API anyway.

Love the BYO CouchDB feature - very interesting!

~~~
Too
A high quality note taking app is all about sleek UI. "Just consuming data
from an API" is going to be 5% of the development effort.

~~~
nathan-io
You're right there, not sure what I was thinking there.

Regardless, my original point is still valid. You could serve
web/MacOS/Windows/Linux users with a single UI.

------
xref
I just switched to the Joplin markdown note app (from DS Note, and Evernote
before that). It’s free, works on desktop and mobile, etc etc. Frankly I love
it and wish I switched earlier.

Anyone have a good comparison vs Inkdrop?

~~~
hashhar
Joplin kicks ass. The only area it might need improvement is regarding showing
the tags associated with a note without having to click a button.

The mobile app, web-clipper and desktop apps are all wonderfully done.

~~~
wj
Is this the only other note taking app besides Evernote that has a web
clipper? That has been the killer feature for me. Will have to check it out.

~~~
ymolodtsov
OneNote, Bear and Notion all have web clippers.

~~~
waz0wski
Quiver recently added one as well, works decently and actually fetches images
to store locally unlike Evernote web clipper

Some javascript-heavy segmented pages don't clip correctly, but firing up the
browsers reader-mode usually clears all the js crap and allows page content to
be cleanly clipped

[http://happenapps.com/#quiver](http://happenapps.com/#quiver)

------
program_whiz
Basically all the comments here are just critiques. My 2 cents: excellent
work, its extremely hard to stick with something for 3 years, especially with
people's constant criticism and worries it isn't "big enough". The attitude of
the developer seems quite wise and seasoned. Hearing things like "I'm making
tools I use" and "I'd rather be small and opinionated" or "I'll take paying
customers over droves of free users" makes my heart warm. Congratulations and
good work -- ignore haters and people with "suggestions" after their cursory
30-second glance at your work you've been eating / breathing for 3 straight
years. My go-to response to such things has become "wow in X years I didn't
think to google 'note taking app', thanks for that amazing suggestion!" :P
(end salty solo-dev rant)

~~~
sriram_malhar
Your note made me confront my own self-doubt. Time to dust off that old code-
base

~~~
gerbilly
You don't need to get all the customers, you just have to find _your_
customers.

As long as you find enough of them, you'll be ok.

You are wise to avoid trying to make an everything for everyone app. No one
will want to use it.

------
prepend
I like these apps because I’ve been trying note taking for 30 years and have
had many false starts of solo projects over the years. So when someone
releases it makes me a little happy.

I like markdown because the interoperability is high. I’d like a command line
way to just create a new note in one line that gets stuck somewhere that can
be added on or moved around later (eg, “note Inkdrop should be investigated
and forked later on #notes #hn #app”).

My problem is that phones are just too slow for me to fire up and start a note
so I tend to wait and forget before I can write down. I’ve seen a lot of
approaches to digital zettelkasten [0], but the UX requires a lot of
familiarity that lead me back to eventually (not) writing my own.

[0] [https://zettelkasten.de/](https://zettelkasten.de/)

~~~
lloeki
> I’d like a command line way to just create a new note in one line that gets
> stuck somewhere

5 min hackjob that saves my day every day:

    
    
        # `note foobar` opens vim on a timestamped foobar file within a folder
        # `note` just opens the same folder in netrw
        # also, using tpope/vim-vinegar and liberal use of `-` to go back and forth
        function note() (
          local title="$1"
          local timestamp="$(date +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z)"
          local dir="${HOME}/Dropbox/Notes"
    
          mkdir -p "${dir}"
          cd "${dir}"
          if [[ -n $1 ]]; then
            exec vim "$timestamp-$title.md"
          else
            exec vim .
          fi
        )

~~~
rcdwealth
Thumbs up. I would just add the encryption filter, like gpg to yourself or
within the editor automatic decryption and encryption.

You can also add your own file type if necessary.

~~~
lloeki
Good point and easy enough to add, although it does not fit my use case: I
want the files to be readable on mobile, plus I only put non-confidential, to-
be-public, or already public data in there.

------
weystrom
> Electron Markdown editor with monthly subscription to boot.

Beautiful as it is, you're competing with Bear using the sub model, and my
common sense to use buy-once native apps (like Sublime Text). This is a non-
starter for me.

~~~
atorodius
But Bear is also subscription based? Which buy-once app are you using.

~~~
weystrom
Yeah, but Bear has this huge following around it already and is OSX native,
although it is missing e2e encryption support so Inkdrop has this going for
it.

As for me I'm just using sublime text with a bunch of plugins and Markor on my
phone. Resilio to sync between the devices.

~~~
vladharbuz
I also use Bear and really like it, but I don't think the fact that something
already has a huge following around it should be an argument. By that
rationale we'd never switch to anything new.

~~~
weystrom
My point is that it's a big competition for him.

Bear has a development team and it's $1.49 monthly, even cheaper if you buy
annually (I know that that it leverages iCloud, but even then - you can spend
1$ and get 50 gigs of storage to use for anything you want).

Not to even mention that there are so many alternatives. Markdown editor is
the new todo app. Everybody is doing one, just look at this thread.

------
Quanttek
I really like the project but I struggle with the fact that almost all
Markdown editors, even note-taking applications, only offer you a rendered
view separately from the file you edit. When I am taking notes, they should be
rendered where I type them down in order to be easily digestible. Even later
on, I will probably make a few smaller edits, so I can't solely rely on the
rendered review.

So far, I've only discovered Typora, which is an application unfortunately
plagued with performance and interopability issues - and I even had some data
loss bugs. So, are there any alternative, "rich" (i.e. pictures, tables, math,
code) WYSIWYM note-taking applications?

~~~
zeppelin101
What are the "interoperability" issues you're referring to? I'm a very happy
user of Typora and I've, thankfully, not experienced any data losses. The only
thing that keeps me from using it more is that it's not the most smooth
experience. When I take notes in Notepad++, for example, it's instantaneous.
Which makes for a much more enjoyable experience.

~~~
Quanttek
Agreed on the lack of a smooth experience. Re interopabiltiy: This mainly
relates to the usual fact of markdown flavors/extensions and there, for
example, being no mobile app with the same exact flavor of markdown

------
Improvotter
This definitely looks great. But I feel like 5 USD a month is a bit much for
_"just a note taking app"_. Like I pay 5 USD a month for Spotify and the value
it gives is substantially higher than a note-taking app, and I do not mean to
offend you with that. Maybe I'm saying this because I'm still studying, maybe
it will different coming September when I'm working and got an income. I don't
know.

~~~
otachack
The notes are markdown and in the FAQs he mentions the location of the local
data cache. I imagine you can simply copy all your notes from the cache, clean
up any incompatible metadata, and import them to your next note app.

Don't let paying for software stop you if you can afford it. This looks like
quality software and we should support it, if able. If you're looking for free
note software that's tied to a company, Firefox has a note taking app that
syncs between phones/web browser (it's a bit buggy and logs out at times), and
Google has Keep that also has apps and available on the web.

~~~
Improvotter
I'm all for supporting the things that are good. But at what point do we say
"enough!"? All of these subscription services start to add up, going from free
to 5 USD a month is a bigger jump than I'm willing to take. Why aren't there
any services out there that offer 1 USD/EUR plans?

------
mrunkel
Looks very nice, I just signed up.

Ignore the people muttering about the subscription. If your tool scratches an
itch, the price and how you pay is irrelevant.

One thing, the email sent to verify my account got marked as spam by google.
Not sure why, SPF and DKIM both marked as PASS. Maybe they just hate Amazon
SES.

~~~
craftzdog
The author here. Thanks! Yeah this app is basically for professional use. I'm
providing it to only those who got more productivity with it and who would
think that is worth more than the price. I don't know why emails got marked as
spam.

------
vault
Nobody's mentioned notable yet:
[https://github.com/notable/notable](https://github.com/notable/notable)

~~~
fbnlsr
Notable is amazing. I spent weeks trying to find a good note taking app until
I stumbled upon Notable. It works really well.

Before that, I was using a bunch of .md files stored in a Github repo. ;)

------
tomrod
Many of us speak about adverts that inform as being ethical. I consider this
post one of them. I wish all ads were like this one, a story.

~~~
craftzdog
The author here. I think so. I don't like ads, too. People started visiting my
webpage after I started talking about my stories, instead of pitching my
product.

------
fock
a) Joplin is free and seems to do the exact same thing? (+actual working todo-
lists)

b) Having md-notes and a dual view seems redundant... In general I either work
with the notes, then the "nice view" helps nothing and on the rare occasion, I
print/share it, I'm more than fine with an export button. Inline math would be
great though

c) all of these apps seem to think that you'r really needing yet another sh
__*y webapp on your desktop. Why not store files on your android-sd-card in a
flat file structure, which you can easily sync (syncthing, termux...) and edit
with your texteditor of choice on the desktop.

~~~
techntoke
I agree 100% and like the way you think. I'm under the impression that a lot
of these additional services are just trying to skim a few dollars for people
that are too naive to do a quick Google Search, or that just search in the
iTunes App Store. I wouldn't be surprised to find a bunch of Joplin or Laverna
source code in this app.

------
Legogris
I would love, love, love if I could self-host this and would happily pay a fee
if it meant I got the source for the backend and could do that. Product looks
great, but I will hold off until I find such an option.

I have been looking for years for a viable self-hosted Evernote/OneNote
replacement I can sync between devices.

Takuya; You can differentiate from your competitors on business model!

~~~
laurent123456
If I may make a suggestion: I develop Joplin [0] a similar note-taking app,
and it can sync with Nextcloud or WebDAV (some have made it works with the
Nginx WebDAV module for instance), allowing you to control all your data.

It may or may not have all the features of Takuya's app though.

[0] [https://joplinapp.org](https://joplinapp.org)

~~~
melicerte
Just to say I'm using Joplin on a daily basis. Thank you for building that
piece of software and keep up the excellent work!

------
vortico
I'm of the "organize everything in random .md files spread throughout my
filesystem" type, but my friends would find this handy, and the design is
beautiful.

~~~
diminoten
I think people are underestimating the value of design in this space.

This is competing with every single idiosyncratic note taking activity that we
all go through, and find probably at least marginally functional. Lots of
people were taking notes before this app, it's not like this is opening a
_new_ door into how to live. What it's doing is taking the pains the half-
solutions of the past were providing, and trying to offer a "better way".

I dunno if it actually _is_ a "better way" yet, but for $0 bucks over 60 days,
I'm willing to find out!

------
bloopernova
oh lord I've become "that guy". My first instinct was to say something along
the lines of "well _emacs_ and _deft_ will do blah blah blah blah blah".

This looks really slick, and actually fills a need I identified about a couple
of years ago. Namely a OneNote style app but with Markdown.

Nice job, I hope you get a lot of paying users!

------
eevilspock
Why all that effort to have synced Side-by-side View instead of implementing
an editable WYSIWYG view, like Typora?

(Typora is nice, and popular, but it has some serious performance and
usability issues. Some competition would be good.)

~~~
craftzdog
The author here. That's a personal preference. I don't like WYSIWYG but do
prefer plain Markdown.

~~~
eevilspock
Sure, I get that, totally. When you are in the Markdown view. But when you
need to view the rendered rich text form, isn't it much more efficient and far
more user-friendly to show just that, and allow it to be edited?

In other words, Inkdrop's two views could be Markdown and WYSIWYG (both
editable), rather than Markdown and Side-by-side.

------
techntoke
The market for markdown editors and note-takers is already saturated. Joplin
appears to have all the features yours does and probably more, plus it is open
source. There are a handful of other open source Markdown editors as well for
note-taking that have most (if not more) of the features you are including. I
don't know why anyone would pick a subscription service when they can get the
same thing for free and have access to the source code to help implement their
own features. Plus syncing with Joplin can be accomplished on multiple
providers like Google Drive.

~~~
cloverich
If it is saturated (and by inference, unwanted), why do note taking apps
consistently front-page? I can think of two possible reasons. One, there is no
clear winner, and nobody has made the note taking app everyone _really_ wants.
Or two, note apps are a bit like IDE's, where people use them all the time and
subtle preferences mean a variety of apps doing the same thing is preferred.

~~~
techntoke
It really comes down to the subscription-based model being profitable for
people that think paying for something means they'll get a better product.
People will find an open source solution and rebrand it for a $5 or $10/mo and
have it sync to a server somewhere, and then move on to rebranding another
solution. You can find a ton of apps in the app store where they do this.

~~~
cloverich
> You can find a ton of apps in the app store where they do this.

But those do not consistently front-page as well, do they?

~~~
techntoke
Yes, HN is a PR site. People pay to get content frontpaged here.

~~~
cloverich
That doesn't explain that they also get a lot of discussion (relative to other
posts). To me the story is a bit different. I've talked to a lot of people
that take notes daily, and the only consistent theme I've found is that none
of them are satisfied with their experience thus far. Until that changes, I'd
expect every reasonably good notes application to front-page.

------
mostlyjason
Just signed up for a Standard Notes subscription today. How does this compare?
Seems they are both e2e encrypted with Markdown and code highlighting.
Standard notes also has rich text and todo list plugins.

~~~
darrmit
I’m a happy StandardNotes user and IMO it looks like it’s very similar but
StandardNotes is more mature and has more functionality. If anything this
might be slightly prettier.

This is also double the cost over 5 years.

------
frosted-flakes
If you're targeting your service to developers, you shouldn't set irritating
password requirements like "alphanumerics and symbols". Whatever that means,
because my password is still being rejected even though it satisfies both
requirements (it has both letters and symbols).

Yet, you allow 4 character passwords ("4-100 characters"). What's the logic in
that?

Edit: it looks like the password requirement is actually "any characters
except whitespace". You should fix the error message.

------
WA
Nice to see a product using CouchDB. From a quick glance, the revision utility
seems to use CouchDB's revisions. Just a note to the dev: The _rev is not
intended as a revision tool in CouchDB. Data will eventually be erased. See:
[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28354346/couchdb-view-
th...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28354346/couchdb-view-that-
includes-revision-history)

------
btreecat
Great work man, this is one of the few tools/use cases where I think mark down
is really the right choice. Limited set of keywords means you don't have to
spend a lot of time thinking about formatting. In the end it's easy enough to
convert to HTML/PDF as an export to share.

On top of that, the tool looks slick af.

I don't think I want the cloud sync feature, have you considered an option to
license the software with out that for a prorated cost?

------
alphagrep12345
Maybe a dumb question - but how did you create apps on so many different
platforms? Did you have to separately code everything? Or did you use some
framework?

~~~
SkyMarshal
Definitely not a dumb question, I was wondering that too. My first guess for
cross-platform desktop apps these days is Electron, and Inkdrop's UI looks a
little Electron-y. But it would be really interesting to hear if it's
something else.

For the mobile apps, afaik React Native is the most capable cross-platform
mobile framework right now. Again, would be really interesting if it's
something else (or hardcore if they're both native apps).

------
test6554
I worked on a markdown flash card app briefly because so many accounting terms
referenced other terms in their definitions. By linking flash cards together I
could quickly jump between flashcards to review unfamiliar terms.

Rather than wikipedia where everything about a subject is recorded, flash
cards were meant to be a distilled set of facts for a single term from a
single course or textbook you were studying.

I overhauled my models when I realized that the same field or subject (which I
organized into Decks) used the same term in two different contexts to mean
different things. That also meant I could not reference cards simply by name
in the markdown. So I updated all links to reference by id rather than name.
So I had to build some UI to select cards by name and generate links.

Then I hit a wall when I realized I would need a good way to encode and render
math formulas and that's when my hobby project died.

Also, in the end, I found that having such quick linked access to knowledge I
was studying made me less likely to remember the material, not more. I relied
too heavily on the cards and the ability to just click on a term I didn't
remember.

------
sam0x17
So I think this is a really cool idea, some feedback:

1\. would love to be able to toggle whether the markdown syntax is shown vs a
polished/rendered view of the markdown without the # symbols showing etc. For
me the whole point of writing markdown is that moment when you get to see it
rendered all nicely on github, and this hybrid mode doesn't quite do it for me

2\. tags are cool, but a folder hierarchy would be more appropriate for notes
imo. I immediately wanted to right click on the side bar and create folders,
but that's not a thing.

3\. Accessibility via web browser, as other people have mentioned, would be
nice

4\. ability to export any note to PDF or a single HTML file with inline
styling

5\. option to use github's exact markdown stylesheet

6\. The whole note "status" thing I think is a bit niche. I wouldn't use it at
all as I have project management software for that sort of thing. I would use
this for storing random bits of knowledge, how-to-type stuff, research/project
ideas, that sort of thing. It's a cool feature, I just wish it was optional
and there were more options for how to organize the notes.

------
00deadbeef
It looks nice but it being Electron and subscription-based means I won't buy
it. I'm pretty happy with Quiver.

~~~
Pepe1vo
I get the sentiment against Electron, there are horribly bloated applications
out there which are a direct consequence of how (badly) Electron was built and
designed.

However, this particular application appears to work exactly as intended and
uses all of 150MB of RAM and 0.1% CPU on my (admittedly quite beefy) laptop.
Maybe, just maybe, this is actually a pretty well-built application? I
understand if someone won't use this program because it doesn't scratch their
particular itch. But, not using something solely because of the techniques
used to build it, seems a bit elitist to me.

~~~
EForEndeavour
Your comment snapped me out of the RAM-obliviousness in which I usually live
and work. I know memory is plentiful on modern PCs, but 150 MB of RAM for a
_note-taking app!?_

~~~
nepeckman
Its a note taking app that renders HTML. Arguably, this is an ideal case for
an electron app. 150 MB for a internet connected, syncing, HTML rendering note
app doesn't seem unreasonable to me

~~~
jamesgeck0
Markdown generates extremely basic HTML. Browsers twenty years old render
Markdown output satisfactorily. This sort of application is the ideal place to
use a webview provided by the host operating system.

~~~
dangus
Anyone can be an armchair quarterback, but this _solo_ developer has made
seemingly a great product that people really like.

I don't think it matters very much what underlying frameworks are being used,
especially to the end user.

If it's so easy to implement this natively on five platforms (Mac, Windows,
Linux, iOS, and Android), please send us your link to your native cloud-
syncing markdown note taking app, I'd really like to see it.

~~~
jamesgeck0
> I don't think it matters very much what underlying frameworks are being
> used, especially to the end user.

Every Electron text editing app I've used has noticeable input latency and
hitching compared to native on my system.

> If it's so easy...

It's practically part of the human experience to have opinions about
technology you haven't personally developed. The author can build their
software however they want. I just won't use it.

~~~
dangus
If you have no plans to try this product I wonder why you claim it has
performance issues or should have been architected in a different way, and why
you're wasting all of our time by vocalising assumptions about an application
based on its underlying technology.

I haven't been able to find _any_ other five-platform markdown based note
taking app with plugin support and cloud sync, so I'm still awaiting your link
to a superior native alternative. It seems like Electron itself specifically
enabled this application to exist.

If you can detect the input lag in Visual Studio Code I should commend your
superior reflexes and genetic makeup.

~~~
jamesgeck0
> I wonder why you claim it has performance issues

It's true, I haven't tried it. Perhaps this solo dev has succeeded where large
teams with more resources have failed.

> I'm still awaiting your link to a superior native alternative

Sorry; I thought you wanted one that I'd written. I've used SimpleNote for
years. It's got dozens of clients, many of them native; I use NValt, Resoph
Notes, and the official iOS client. It supports markdown. It doesn't support
plugins, but you didn't want that until just now.

> If you can detect the input lag in Visual Studio Code

I use VSCode extensively for a large Angular project on a Macbook Pro with a
4K screen. I get trivially reproducible hitching, often when autocomplete
kicks in. It doesn't require superhuman senses to see. The console is also
easy see lag on; just use it to edit a commit message with vim during a
rebase. Character input speed is easier to notice if you've been using Sublime
or Vim immediately beforehand. It's not a deal-breaker; VSC is unparalleled
for Angular development. I wish it was snappier, though.

~~~
dangus
Interesting choice: Simplenote's Windows and Linux clients are written in
Electron.

[https://github.com/Automattic/simplenote-
electron](https://github.com/Automattic/simplenote-electron)

> simplenote-electron is the official Simplenote desktop app for Windows and
> Linux.

I'm only being annoying and flame-war-ish to you about this because I'm
somewhat tired of "framework hate." Case in point, you still use VSCode
because no better alternative exists for Angular development. So, I still
criticize your initial comment where you chose to proclaim that this app that
you haven't tried should be written differently, even though it's written the
same way as an application you rely on.

It might be interesting to read one Electron developer's take on the issue:

[https://medium.com/@felixrieseberg/defeating-
electron-e1464d...](https://medium.com/@felixrieseberg/defeating-
electron-e1464d075528)

~~~
jamesgeck0
My "framework hate" directly stems from experience with applications written
in the framework. "Rely on," is different from "enjoy."

Electron is a trade-off that prioritizes developer productivity over end-user
experience.

------
Uehreka
A good looking Markdown app with syncing and clients for macOS, Linux, iPhone
and iPad? I have been looking for this for years.

~~~
techntoke
Look at Joplin

------
miccah
Hi Takuya,

Congratulations on the success! Your business is very inspirational to me.
Thank you for all the great posts.

------
ShakataGaNai
As a user of just slightly less than a year now - thank you! Ever since I gave
up Evernote, I had been on the hunt for a clean note taking replacement and
Inkdrop has been that for me. The new v4 looks great and works great!

------
perenzo
Also end-to-end encrypted without a central server and using rich text instead
of markdown [https://collect-app.com/](https://collect-app.com/)

~~~
nasredin
The 40+MB download tells me this is Electron(?)

------
samel88
Honnestly, my congratulations! I am in the same boat as you and 3 years is a
long time especially when doing big/risky refactoring. I did my refactoring
mainly to manage my application state, I really thought I would never gonna
make it (and I was working in Swift, in Javascript it would have been nearly
impossible to do the same thing...). But it was worth every second I spent on
it: code is the main value of independant developers, so we should take great
care of it!

I wish you good luck with your project and hope it will work.

------
jookyboi
For a code-snippet focused alternative with plugins for major editors and
support for team libraries: [https://www.cacher.io](https://www.cacher.io)

------
SimplGy
I love markdown. It’s been my primary way of taking notes for many years.

A key benefit of the format to me is that text files will never be deprecated
and are infinitely portable.

I saw mentioned a local cache. Would you add a pitch or squeeze page on this
topic to help convince users like me? I want to love your product. The
scrolling alone; beautiful.

Example user stories:

* can always see all notes as simple, well named, plainly organized, easy to read text files.

* Can output/sync certain folders of notes to plain text files. (To, for example, a Dropbox folder target)

------
paraknight
Do you or do you plan to add any kind of sharing/collaborative editing to
notes at all? Is the plugin system versatile enough to allow e.g. syncing
notes to Jekyll blog posts?

------
Bizarro
Can anybody comment on the vim-keybindings plugin for Inkdrop. I've tried
Notion, but I would really love a markdown/note-taking app with good vi-
keybindings.

~~~
jhoh
Long time Notion and vim user here. Just set up Inkdrop and tried the vim-
plugin and all basic features work great. For things like switching files or
navigation in general it seems like you'll need to use the software's standard
bindings. But it looks like you can edit them.

If you plan to switch from Notion I recommend using the paste-as-markdown
plugin. With this you can just copy a whole document from Notion and paste it
into Inkdrop. Works flawlessly!

------
crooked-v
I like the design of this app a lot, but as with others like this, it feels
like it wants me to double-pay for sync/storage I already have with iCloud or
Dropbox.

~~~
quarkral
Yea I would like it if the author offered a one-time purchase for the app
without sync functionality at say $60.

I mean if you are having trouble with server space for hosting text files,
then maybe you shouldn't be building your own cloud storage service.

There are lots of existing sync solutions without server space limitations,
and you can still have end-to-end encryption by just saving the encrypted text
file to local storage and decrypting it only in memory.

------
m0zg
Do people actually use all these "note taking" apps? I just use Google Docs
for longer notes, and Apple Notes for ephemeral stuff, like dimensions of
stuff I need to buy at Home Depot. The benefit of Docs is I can work with them
anywhere and search is quite good. I've tried a few of such apps but for the
life of me I can't see why I'd want to use them.

The app looks great. The dev is clearly talented.

------
foxyv
Dang it I was hoping this would be like a Sublime Text style individual
license and no cloud stuff. I can't upload work documents outside our network
and I hate monthly fees for software.

If I was working anywhere else though I would totally consider this, even
though $5 a month is pretty steep for a markdown application with cloud sync.
I would probably spring for their yearly pricing of $49.90.

~~~
SimplGy
+1 for A local only version of this that stores plain text somewhere on my
hard drive. Optionally as an encrypted zip archive.

------
norswap
Cool! Does it support inter-note linking so that it can act like a kind of
personal wiki? That would be a killer feature for me.

------
snickerman
I've been using Typora which is a similar or even a better tool and it's free
for now. I hope typora doesn't go the subscription/saas route. Everything is a
subscription these days and you probably would be better off going with a
different revenue model since the competition is heavy in the note taking
market.

~~~
jaden
Thanks for sharing, I hadn't heard of [https://typora.io](https://typora.io)
before. The extremely minimalist web site on mobile made it seem like the page
hadn't loaded.

Subscriptions are the best way to support products with a smaller user base.
Plus it has ongoing cloud storage.

------
pedrocr
I really like gollum for this:

[https://github.com/gollum/gollum](https://github.com/gollum/gollum)

It's just markdown files in a git repository when you're in your full
environment. But you get a read-write web wiki interface to use from anywhere.

------
rareutilities
I am looking to transition away from OneNote. Any tools to automate the
transition to a new app like this?

------
jammygit
In the spirit of tiny SaaS companies that offer great products, fman is a
cross platform dual pane file manager I like.

(No affiliation, I just love that people can make a living making things like
this)

[https://fman.io/](https://fman.io/)

------
sitruc
I love this idea. I am more than a little jealous as I have wanted to build
something like this since college. I just save my .md note files to a cloud
drive and load them as a project w/ sublime text. It's not as beautiful as
this but it works.

------
dgellow
Is there a way to not have the cloud features and use dropbox/icloud for
syncing instead?

~~~
craftzdog
Nope, because I don't like file-based sync. It's slow, unstable and hard to
implement. People will say "how about Google Drive/OneDrive/Box support?" Hell
awaits you.

~~~
dgellow
> Hell awaits you.

From a developer point of view, maybe. From a user point of view it’s a quite
reliable and well known mechanism to sync between platforms. Dropbox is
already what I personally use to manage my documents between all my devices,
it’s part of my various workflows. I personally don’t want to add other
syncing mechanisms if I can avoid as that forces me to create/manage an
additional account and give my trust to an additional platform.

Of course I may be an outlier but I don’t think that’s the case, Dropbox is
well established. Inkdrop looks really, really nice and I might be a user of
such a tool, but only for the editing and categorizing part but if I cannot
disable the syncing using your backend that’s a blocker for me.

Anyway, congrats for the work that you’ve done, I hope you will change your
mind at some point :)

------
AmericanChopper
If this is aimed at developers, why would they want to use it over their
existing editor? I use VSCode and I write markdown in it all the time. A lot
of other common editors also have support for it. Why would I want to use a
seperate tool?

~~~
matwood
Good question. My answer is I see this tool as a note taking app that uses
Markdown. Not a general Markdown editing tool, though it may also handle that
functionality. Does that make sense?

I write code all day in VSCode/Intellij, yet I write all my notes in the Apple
Notes app. While not perfect (I would prefer to write them in MD), it
currently has the fewest trade offs for me. The most important feature being
that I can easily view/write notes anywhere on any of my devices.

------
traviswingo
Awesome job releasing! That’s really difficult to do - and few people can say
they have.

------
paddypad
Imho, notetaking Apps are solving problems that shouldn‘t be solved by them.
Encryption / sync should be done by the system via git, Nextcloud, Dropbox,
... Most of the rest is provided by a decent text editor.

~~~
vmurthy
Not really. There must be a small(big?) subset of people who don't want to
setup git,nextcloud,dropbox etc. to get encryption/sync working. As a hacker
it might offend your sensibilities of "one thing well" but not everyone is a
hacker :-)

~~~
zrobotics
This is a _markdown_ notes app though, who realistically is the target market
besides hackers? The only people I have met who like markdown are programmers.

------
rc-1140
> I built it because I wanted it.

I loved reading this line in Takuya's post. It felt a lot more real than all
of those "made with " and "we open source" taglines that other projects throw
around.

------
fredgrott
Thanks for posting this as I was looking for the exact same info as I will be
designing-developing a productivity suite based on my ADHD experience of using
productivity structure to control my ADHD.

very useful story

------
bovermyer
I love this! I've been using Notion for notes because I don't like Evernote,
OneNote, or Google Keep. This may replace Notion for me. I'll give it a try!

------
nilsocket
Boostnote is a similar open source project.

Even they look similar.

~~~
sylk
Plus you don't pay out the ass for someone to hold your data.

I tried InkDrop and couldn't justify the steep price point for something so
trivial.

I backup everything on my own and watch Boostnote grow as a competitor, but
free...

------
velobro
This supports what I've always wanted in a markdown note taking app...

being able to directly copy and paste an image from the clipboard.

------
huppys
Keep up your good work! I read your article about v3, about a year ago. It's
damn interesting to follow your journey.

------
laurent123456
The smart scroll on the editor is pretty nice. I don't know of any other
Markdown app with dual view that does this.

~~~
maddening
Joplin also does this.

~~~
laurent123456
I'm the Joplin dev and was impressed by his smart scrolling, because currently
we don't have this :-)

------
kokica
Does it have code/text block collapse support? I've been looking for an app
that can do this for years.

------
jbverschoor
Still looking for something similar where I can also simply add links from
Dropbox and other directories.

~~~
playpause
Can you clarify what you mean with a use case?

~~~
gingerware
file:// :)

------
faeyanpiraat
App looks promising, but is there a way for it to not convert tabs into spaces
automatically?

------
cvs268
Thanks for sharing! :-)

Inspiration for the rest of us to keep at it with our side-projects.

------
surfsvammel
I love it! I have been waiting for something like this to replace Bear.

~~~
blumomo
Why is it that you want to replace Bear?

~~~
surfsvammel
I need to run it on a Windows machine as well. It’s the only reason really.

------
rcdwealth
ehm, sorry, isn't markdown in itself editable with any text editor and thus no
further "application" is necessary. The point of markdown is that every text
editor can edit it.

------
cabalamat
I suggest you remove the misplaced apostrophe after "fox".

------
shapiro92
i am the only one that keeps using sticky notes on windows and google keep? do
people take that many notes that they need to invest in such a fancy tool?

~~~
Mithriil
I see some reasons to do so.

You can write a blog in Markdown and generate your own static website with it,
you could write a diary in Markdown, which I do, or you could take notes of
code implementation, which could require LaTEX for nice mathematics and code
fences to organize small chunks of code.

------
shatteredvisage
I was one of your volunteer beta testers years ago and provided some feedback.
I still get a little salty when I see this app since you still terminated my
account and made me pay :) hope you've been well

------
pault
This has been on my to do list for three years. :)

------
ylbss
Man, I want this, but I was burned by Collate.

------
1nverseMtx
Electron. As if I need another app taking up more RAM than needed

------
mrcoder111
any single pane note taker with latex support?

------
arisAlexis
sounds very agile

------
iraldir
Nice, will give it a try. Advice, loose the uppercase on every word in

"End-to-end Encryption Support, Smart Scroll Sync for Side-by-side View, New
Logo, and More."

------
pacifika
FYI, a notetaker without inline images is a nogo for me. I need illustrations
and screenshots with my notes. i'm happy to host the images externally.

~~~
banachtarski
So when you look at an article like this and there's this paragraph explaining
how image support has been improved with a GIF demonstrating inline images
scrolling in both the editor and the preview window, what is it exactly that
prompts you to write a comment like this.

~~~
mikestew
OT, but I believe that is the most diplomatic means of asking, "did you even
read the article?" I've read. :-)

------
nasredin
The recent trend of terrible introductions is very annoying.

The first sentence on any new app should be...

App is a (what it can do) for (Windows/Mac/Linux) written in/with
(languages/libraries/frameworks)

And FFS if it's an Electron app, SAY SO!!!!! Some people do avoid those on
principal.

------
mdhughes
Why, so have I, and so has every other programmer on Earth.

[https://mdhughes.tech/thoughtpy/](https://mdhughes.tech/thoughtpy/)

This has been mostly used as my engineering notebook, in lieu of stacks of
Moleskines.

Simple command-line tool for editing and searching, a pipeline to any Markdown
app for display, and DropBox for syncing, that's all I needed.

I could also use it on mobile with Pythonista, with some changes to get a
DropBox path and open it in Editorial or Drafts, but so far just having the
files is good enough.

My point is, every programmer should be capable of making certain basic tools
of their own, such as note-taking, blogging, a calculator, and scripting
languages.

~~~
zimpenfish
> every programmer should be capable of making certain basic tools of their
> own, such as note-taking, blogging, a calculator, and scripting languages.

I'd counter that by adding "...and wise enough to know better than to actually
do it."

~~~
mdhughes
Without the experience of making and supporting such tools, you'll never
acquire wisdom, or many useful skills.

Thought.py is maybe my 4th note-taking system, simpler and more precisely what
I needed than any previous. Practice makes perfect. Doing nothing makes
nothing.

~~~
jamesgeck0
> Without the experience of making and supporting such tools, you'll never
> acquire wisdom, or many useful skills.

There's nothing special about those specific tools. Instead, you'll acquire
the wisdom and skills from the experience of making and supporting different
tools. Ideally tools that don't already exist thousands of times over.

~~~
mdhughes
Go ahead and invent some totally unique tool nobody's ever seen before. I'll
wait. You, uh, you got one yet? No?

The point is to make your _own_ version of a thing; it doesn't have to be one
of those few I listed. To see that some other design or implementation doesn't
satisfy you, and analyze why, and do it "right". You can only get that by
writing something you can compare to something else.

If you do invent a thing for the first time—which you won't—it would be
terrible. It'll take many iterations, your own or more likely someone else's.
That's how Human tool-making works, from the first half-assed rubbing-sticks-
together fire to nuclear weapons (the first Atomic Bomb was not the best…)

And to a certain extent, I don't consider people incapable/unwilling to do
this "programmers". Merely typists.

~~~
zimpenfish
> Go ahead and invent some totally unique tool nobody's ever seen before.

I think people invent totally unique tools[1] all the time but, crucially,
they'll be commercially sensitive or rarely of interest or use to anyone else.

[1] Of course, it depends how you define this. Decades ago I wrote something
to blank out (not strip) comments in C++ source for someone. Is that a
'totally unique tool'?

> And to a certain extent, I don't consider people incapable/unwilling to do
> this "programmers". Merely typists.

Yeah, this is elitist nonsense.

