Developing a self-hosted alternative to Google Keep
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Hi! I'm a software developer working on a suite of collaborative self-hostable apps to replace proprietary services I couldn't find a good replacement for.
I am writing this post to seek opinions and ideas now that I am still in the early prototyping phase, before it's too late to change track.
My idea is to develop a collection of simple single-purpose apps that do one and only one thing. The first app will be called Simple Notes (mirror), a replacement for Google Keep. Every operation is encrypted locally on the client, and the server never sees plaintext data. I am investigating federations models to let users connect to other instances and work collaboratively, much like Lemmy.
So, my goals in order of priority are:
- No compromises on privacy and security
- Completely FOSS
- Read-time collaboration between users
- Asynchronous collaboration (work offline, sync when back online)
- One account to operate on all apps in this suite
- Web UI / desktop UI / mobile UI
- Minimal interface which my grandma can use, no feature-bloat
- No anti-features such as advertisements, tracking, etc...
- Self-hosting
- Federation
After Simple Notes, I plan to keep developing other simple apps, some ideas on my list:
- Simple Notes - Replacement for Google Keep
- Simple Split - Replacement for SplitWise
- Simple Chat - Replacement for WhatsApp/Slack/Meet/Teams
- Simple Docs - Replacement for Google Docs
- Simple Draw - Collaborative drawing app
- Simple Calendar - Replacement for Google Calendar
Initially I started writing my own protocol (mirror), operating quite differently from Lemmy's, but then I realized that someone else already has developed a protocol for this purpose: Matrix. It is (optionally) E2EE, it's FOSS, and it's federated. So yeah, it sounds like the perfect choice to me. Also, if I pick Matrix, Simple Chat will just be a reskin of Element, so development cost is almost zero.
So, a questions for the developers on the Lemmy Selfhosted community: do you think piggybacking the Matrix protocol would be a good choice? Do you know any alternative that might be more suited for this purpose?
And a question for all Lemmy Selfhosted users: is there a simple app that you would like me to add to the list?
Bonus question: do you know of any Lemmy community where I could repost?
Thank you very much for the time you spent reading my post!
--
Link to source code on my server and GitHub mirror.
Except for federation, you described Notesnook, although it's a bit hard to self host because the server parts are in alpha with few documentation. I wanted to try it but it looked too complex (hard to backup and hard to maintain) with all those server components, mongodb in a replica set and S3
For self hosting, why e2ee? It makes backups much more complicated than having plain text/images on the server. Consider making it optional
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What I'm currently missing is a simple app for keeping contacts synced between my android phone and Linux desktop.
Excited to see what you do!
Radicale is an amazing light and efficient CardDAV/CalDAV server. Pair with Dav5x on android and you are fully setup.
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Ah, that's a shame, I quite liked the idea of using the "Simple" prefix. Well, naming software is hard! I'll just keep it as a temporary name for now. Thanks!
"Simply"?
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I use Nextcloud for that. On Android phone it's DAVx5. Thunderbird can use the contact via CardDAV, DAVx5 syncs them with the Android addressbook. Fossify Contacts is nicer than the Google contacts app.
The same way it's done with my appointments. I have also replaced the native Google calendar with the Fossify Calendar here, because it's less annoying.
That's what I use, but I don't think anybody would say that next cloud is a simple app.
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Ah, that's a shame, I quite liked the idea of using the "Simple" prefix. Well, naming software is hard! I'll just keep it as a temporary name for now. Thanks!
It's fossify now. Check them out! Original was sold afaik! So steer clear
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Hi! I'm a software developer working on a suite of collaborative self-hostable apps to replace proprietary services I couldn't find a good replacement for.
I am writing this post to seek opinions and ideas now that I am still in the early prototyping phase, before it's too late to change track.
My idea is to develop a collection of simple single-purpose apps that do one and only one thing. The first app will be called Simple Notes (mirror), a replacement for Google Keep. Every operation is encrypted locally on the client, and the server never sees plaintext data. I am investigating federations models to let users connect to other instances and work collaboratively, much like Lemmy.
So, my goals in order of priority are:
- No compromises on privacy and security
- Completely FOSS
- Read-time collaboration between users
- Asynchronous collaboration (work offline, sync when back online)
- One account to operate on all apps in this suite
- Web UI / desktop UI / mobile UI
- Minimal interface which my grandma can use, no feature-bloat
- No anti-features such as advertisements, tracking, etc...
- Self-hosting
- Federation
After Simple Notes, I plan to keep developing other simple apps, some ideas on my list:
- Simple Notes - Replacement for Google Keep
- Simple Split - Replacement for SplitWise
- Simple Chat - Replacement for WhatsApp/Slack/Meet/Teams
- Simple Docs - Replacement for Google Docs
- Simple Draw - Collaborative drawing app
- Simple Calendar - Replacement for Google Calendar
Initially I started writing my own protocol (mirror), operating quite differently from Lemmy's, but then I realized that someone else already has developed a protocol for this purpose: Matrix. It is (optionally) E2EE, it's FOSS, and it's federated. So yeah, it sounds like the perfect choice to me. Also, if I pick Matrix, Simple Chat will just be a reskin of Element, so development cost is almost zero.
So, a questions for the developers on the Lemmy Selfhosted community: do you think piggybacking the Matrix protocol would be a good choice? Do you know any alternative that might be more suited for this purpose?
And a question for all Lemmy Selfhosted users: is there a simple app that you would like me to add to the list?
Bonus question: do you know of any Lemmy community where I could repost?
Thank you very much for the time you spent reading my post!
--
Link to source code on my server and GitHub mirror.
There are several decent note apps that strive to replace Google Keep, but they all seem to fall short on the one feature that keeps me on Keep: Reminders. Being able to jot a note and have it pop up later today, on the weekend, or on an arbitrary recurring schedule is the primary use-case for me. Joplin's come the closest but the reminders were unreliable, and an unreliable reminder is a useless reminder.
There's also something to be said for the number of clicks/menus/presses it takes to create a note. If it's meant to be just a quick note when something pops into your head then it's nice if it doesn't take more than a click or two to get it down.
One last thing. A feature that I think would greatly enhance adoption would be an option to import existing Keep notes from a Google Takeout into your Simple Notes.
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Hi! I'm a software developer working on a suite of collaborative self-hostable apps to replace proprietary services I couldn't find a good replacement for.
I am writing this post to seek opinions and ideas now that I am still in the early prototyping phase, before it's too late to change track.
My idea is to develop a collection of simple single-purpose apps that do one and only one thing. The first app will be called Simple Notes (mirror), a replacement for Google Keep. Every operation is encrypted locally on the client, and the server never sees plaintext data. I am investigating federations models to let users connect to other instances and work collaboratively, much like Lemmy.
So, my goals in order of priority are:
- No compromises on privacy and security
- Completely FOSS
- Read-time collaboration between users
- Asynchronous collaboration (work offline, sync when back online)
- One account to operate on all apps in this suite
- Web UI / desktop UI / mobile UI
- Minimal interface which my grandma can use, no feature-bloat
- No anti-features such as advertisements, tracking, etc...
- Self-hosting
- Federation
After Simple Notes, I plan to keep developing other simple apps, some ideas on my list:
- Simple Notes - Replacement for Google Keep
- Simple Split - Replacement for SplitWise
- Simple Chat - Replacement for WhatsApp/Slack/Meet/Teams
- Simple Docs - Replacement for Google Docs
- Simple Draw - Collaborative drawing app
- Simple Calendar - Replacement for Google Calendar
Initially I started writing my own protocol (mirror), operating quite differently from Lemmy's, but then I realized that someone else already has developed a protocol for this purpose: Matrix. It is (optionally) E2EE, it's FOSS, and it's federated. So yeah, it sounds like the perfect choice to me. Also, if I pick Matrix, Simple Chat will just be a reskin of Element, so development cost is almost zero.
So, a questions for the developers on the Lemmy Selfhosted community: do you think piggybacking the Matrix protocol would be a good choice? Do you know any alternative that might be more suited for this purpose?
And a question for all Lemmy Selfhosted users: is there a simple app that you would like me to add to the list?
Bonus question: do you know of any Lemmy community where I could repost?
Thank you very much for the time you spent reading my post!
--
Link to source code on my server and GitHub mirror.
I've started looking for a open source alternative to Keep recently as well, following are few features I'm looking for in random order, maybe you could look into implementing some of these. Once I get some free time I can try to contribute to the code as well.
- Cross platform with sync - iOS, Android, Web, Windows, Linux (Sync should not need to rely on 3rd party servers, should be able to use free syncing solutions)
- Free
- Open Source
- Easy to export all my notes / data in a open format like markdown etc.
- Hackable - can make automations that connect to other apps like Obsidian, TickTick, maybe using some API?
- Good notes search functionality, with search inside a note option
- Notes organization, via tags and folders
- Notes linking like Obsidian ?
- Google Keep like virtual pinboard of notes display, AKA masonry layout ?
- Markdown support for lists, links etc
- Runs in the background (system tray) in Windows / Linux and can be brought up and a new note added quickly using keyboard shortcuts like TickTick.
- Reminders / Alerts For Notes
- Pin Notes
- Notes Can Contain Rich Links, Images, Sound, Video
P.S I think notes collaboration might be a anti feature, it takes away from the simplicity of it and I don't think most people take notes to share with others, I think for most people notes are personal, so I don't know how many would want this feature.
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I've started looking for a open source alternative to Keep recently as well, following are few features I'm looking for in random order, maybe you could look into implementing some of these. Once I get some free time I can try to contribute to the code as well.
- Cross platform with sync - iOS, Android, Web, Windows, Linux (Sync should not need to rely on 3rd party servers, should be able to use free syncing solutions)
- Free
- Open Source
- Easy to export all my notes / data in a open format like markdown etc.
- Hackable - can make automations that connect to other apps like Obsidian, TickTick, maybe using some API?
- Good notes search functionality, with search inside a note option
- Notes organization, via tags and folders
- Notes linking like Obsidian ?
- Google Keep like virtual pinboard of notes display, AKA masonry layout ?
- Markdown support for lists, links etc
- Runs in the background (system tray) in Windows / Linux and can be brought up and a new note added quickly using keyboard shortcuts like TickTick.
- Reminders / Alerts For Notes
- Pin Notes
- Notes Can Contain Rich Links, Images, Sound, Video
P.S I think notes collaboration might be a anti feature, it takes away from the simplicity of it and I don't think most people take notes to share with others, I think for most people notes are personal, so I don't know how many would want this feature.
Honestly, shared notes is my #1 most used feature. I have many shared notes with my family (e.g. shopping list, movies to watch, etc.)
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Hi! I'm a software developer working on a suite of collaborative self-hostable apps to replace proprietary services I couldn't find a good replacement for.
I am writing this post to seek opinions and ideas now that I am still in the early prototyping phase, before it's too late to change track.
My idea is to develop a collection of simple single-purpose apps that do one and only one thing. The first app will be called Simple Notes (mirror), a replacement for Google Keep. Every operation is encrypted locally on the client, and the server never sees plaintext data. I am investigating federations models to let users connect to other instances and work collaboratively, much like Lemmy.
So, my goals in order of priority are:
- No compromises on privacy and security
- Completely FOSS
- Read-time collaboration between users
- Asynchronous collaboration (work offline, sync when back online)
- One account to operate on all apps in this suite
- Web UI / desktop UI / mobile UI
- Minimal interface which my grandma can use, no feature-bloat
- No anti-features such as advertisements, tracking, etc...
- Self-hosting
- Federation
After Simple Notes, I plan to keep developing other simple apps, some ideas on my list:
- Simple Notes - Replacement for Google Keep
- Simple Split - Replacement for SplitWise
- Simple Chat - Replacement for WhatsApp/Slack/Meet/Teams
- Simple Docs - Replacement for Google Docs
- Simple Draw - Collaborative drawing app
- Simple Calendar - Replacement for Google Calendar
Initially I started writing my own protocol (mirror), operating quite differently from Lemmy's, but then I realized that someone else already has developed a protocol for this purpose: Matrix. It is (optionally) E2EE, it's FOSS, and it's federated. So yeah, it sounds like the perfect choice to me. Also, if I pick Matrix, Simple Chat will just be a reskin of Element, so development cost is almost zero.
So, a questions for the developers on the Lemmy Selfhosted community: do you think piggybacking the Matrix protocol would be a good choice? Do you know any alternative that might be more suited for this purpose?
And a question for all Lemmy Selfhosted users: is there a simple app that you would like me to add to the list?
Bonus question: do you know of any Lemmy community where I could repost?
Thank you very much for the time you spent reading my post!
--
Link to source code on my server and GitHub mirror.
There is a foss alternative to split wise.
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Hi! I'm a software developer working on a suite of collaborative self-hostable apps to replace proprietary services I couldn't find a good replacement for.
I am writing this post to seek opinions and ideas now that I am still in the early prototyping phase, before it's too late to change track.
My idea is to develop a collection of simple single-purpose apps that do one and only one thing. The first app will be called Simple Notes (mirror), a replacement for Google Keep. Every operation is encrypted locally on the client, and the server never sees plaintext data. I am investigating federations models to let users connect to other instances and work collaboratively, much like Lemmy.
So, my goals in order of priority are:
- No compromises on privacy and security
- Completely FOSS
- Read-time collaboration between users
- Asynchronous collaboration (work offline, sync when back online)
- One account to operate on all apps in this suite
- Web UI / desktop UI / mobile UI
- Minimal interface which my grandma can use, no feature-bloat
- No anti-features such as advertisements, tracking, etc...
- Self-hosting
- Federation
After Simple Notes, I plan to keep developing other simple apps, some ideas on my list:
- Simple Notes - Replacement for Google Keep
- Simple Split - Replacement for SplitWise
- Simple Chat - Replacement for WhatsApp/Slack/Meet/Teams
- Simple Docs - Replacement for Google Docs
- Simple Draw - Collaborative drawing app
- Simple Calendar - Replacement for Google Calendar
Initially I started writing my own protocol (mirror), operating quite differently from Lemmy's, but then I realized that someone else already has developed a protocol for this purpose: Matrix. It is (optionally) E2EE, it's FOSS, and it's federated. So yeah, it sounds like the perfect choice to me. Also, if I pick Matrix, Simple Chat will just be a reskin of Element, so development cost is almost zero.
So, a questions for the developers on the Lemmy Selfhosted community: do you think piggybacking the Matrix protocol would be a good choice? Do you know any alternative that might be more suited for this purpose?
And a question for all Lemmy Selfhosted users: is there a simple app that you would like me to add to the list?
Bonus question: do you know of any Lemmy community where I could repost?
Thank you very much for the time you spent reading my post!
--
Link to source code on my server and GitHub mirror.
I wish you best of luck
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There is a foss alternative to split wise.
There's also IHateMoney as a self hosted service and MoneyBuster as an Android app to interact with IHateMoney.
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Hi! I'm a software developer working on a suite of collaborative self-hostable apps to replace proprietary services I couldn't find a good replacement for.
I am writing this post to seek opinions and ideas now that I am still in the early prototyping phase, before it's too late to change track.
My idea is to develop a collection of simple single-purpose apps that do one and only one thing. The first app will be called Simple Notes (mirror), a replacement for Google Keep. Every operation is encrypted locally on the client, and the server never sees plaintext data. I am investigating federations models to let users connect to other instances and work collaboratively, much like Lemmy.
So, my goals in order of priority are:
- No compromises on privacy and security
- Completely FOSS
- Read-time collaboration between users
- Asynchronous collaboration (work offline, sync when back online)
- One account to operate on all apps in this suite
- Web UI / desktop UI / mobile UI
- Minimal interface which my grandma can use, no feature-bloat
- No anti-features such as advertisements, tracking, etc...
- Self-hosting
- Federation
After Simple Notes, I plan to keep developing other simple apps, some ideas on my list:
- Simple Notes - Replacement for Google Keep
- Simple Split - Replacement for SplitWise
- Simple Chat - Replacement for WhatsApp/Slack/Meet/Teams
- Simple Docs - Replacement for Google Docs
- Simple Draw - Collaborative drawing app
- Simple Calendar - Replacement for Google Calendar
Initially I started writing my own protocol (mirror), operating quite differently from Lemmy's, but then I realized that someone else already has developed a protocol for this purpose: Matrix. It is (optionally) E2EE, it's FOSS, and it's federated. So yeah, it sounds like the perfect choice to me. Also, if I pick Matrix, Simple Chat will just be a reskin of Element, so development cost is almost zero.
So, a questions for the developers on the Lemmy Selfhosted community: do you think piggybacking the Matrix protocol would be a good choice? Do you know any alternative that might be more suited for this purpose?
And a question for all Lemmy Selfhosted users: is there a simple app that you would like me to add to the list?
Bonus question: do you know of any Lemmy community where I could repost?
Thank you very much for the time you spent reading my post!
--
Link to source code on my server and GitHub mirror.
I recently thought about what I'm missing, and came up with something rather complicated (sorry, nothing simple haha)
Basically I'm often compiling information in markdown text files. But images are still web hosted. Sometimes I use spreadsheets and wish I could do simple additions in markdown tables.
Or I use bookmarks, but know websites will go down and wish I could just "backup" any website in a compact file and organize it without mucking around with files. Zotero does this partly. I also use "SingleFile" to save websites but it would be nice if it was something semi-compatible to web-archive. Or maybe just save a stripped down version of an article like you see in "reader view" on Firefox. And of course usable in both desktop and mobile.I do think Project Jupyter does something like this and there are also other note taking apps.
Overall the state of computer science in 2025 is still deplorable. The very basics of storing data still don't have good solutions.
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System shared this topic on
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I've started looking for a open source alternative to Keep recently as well, following are few features I'm looking for in random order, maybe you could look into implementing some of these. Once I get some free time I can try to contribute to the code as well.
- Cross platform with sync - iOS, Android, Web, Windows, Linux (Sync should not need to rely on 3rd party servers, should be able to use free syncing solutions)
- Free
- Open Source
- Easy to export all my notes / data in a open format like markdown etc.
- Hackable - can make automations that connect to other apps like Obsidian, TickTick, maybe using some API?
- Good notes search functionality, with search inside a note option
- Notes organization, via tags and folders
- Notes linking like Obsidian ?
- Google Keep like virtual pinboard of notes display, AKA masonry layout ?
- Markdown support for lists, links etc
- Runs in the background (system tray) in Windows / Linux and can be brought up and a new note added quickly using keyboard shortcuts like TickTick.
- Reminders / Alerts For Notes
- Pin Notes
- Notes Can Contain Rich Links, Images, Sound, Video
P.S I think notes collaboration might be a anti feature, it takes away from the simplicity of it and I don't think most people take notes to share with others, I think for most people notes are personal, so I don't know how many would want this feature.
How well keep syncs lists between users is the only reason I can't pull my wife from it and migrate fully to joplin. That and the drop from list on checkbox behavior.
