A calm place to think — in files you own
A local-first notebook that keeps everything you write as plain files on your own computer. Notes, links, databases, boards, charts, flashcards, and documents in one quiet place — offline, never held hostage, and synced across your computers in seconds with end-to-end encryption not even we can read. It records your meetings too, and hands them back knowing who was in the room.
macOS & Windows · early access is invitation-only · your account is ready the day your invite is
The tour
Meet Vantanote.
Recent ···
Graph ···
Tags ···
Note
Sourdough Lab
Week 12. Switched the levain to 75% hydration — the crumb opened right up, and the crust finally sings.
Fed the starter at 8:00 — doubled by noon.
Note
Sourdough Lab
Compared [[Poolish vs Biga]] for the weekend bake — and the numbers from [[Flour Suppliers]] say the stone-milled bag wins.
Link a note once — it answers back forever.
Note
Sourdough Lab
The panels beside your writing are blocks — to-dos, connections, an outline, a clock, a calendar.
Drag them into your order. Move them across sides. Add more.
Database
View settingsBakes178 notes
| Name | Status | Bake day | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ciabatta | done | 07/28 | 4.8 |
| Cardamom Buns | testing | 08/06 | 4.5 |
| Rye Loaf | testing | 08/05 | 4.2 |
| Danish | idea | 08/14 | — |
+ New note
Database · Board
Bakes
Database · Calendar
Bakes · August
Note · Chart
Market Sales
Note
Sourdough Lab
Check it off in the panel, in a note, anywhere — it's the same checkbox.
Filters
Groups
Decks ↗
From note — Food Science › open
Note
Sourdough Lab
The same library, dressed how you think — twenty-four themes and three surfaces.
Write in plain files.
Markdown on your own disk — readable anywhere, yours in twenty years.
Link your thinking.
[[Brackets]] connect notes — and the Connections panel answers back.
A workspace of blocks.
Every panel is a block you can reorder, move across sides, or remove.
A database is just a note.
Rows are links to real notes. The table is a view — nothing to export.
Drag it to done.
The board writes the note's own properties — through the same safe save as everything else.
Plans, on their days.
Hover a day, press +, and a new note lands there — already dated.
Charts that tell the truth.
Mixed scales split into honest panels. Numbers on, if you want them.
Check it off anywhere.
A task in the panel is the checkbox in your note — one click, saved. Give it a date and it reminds you; give it a rhythm and it comes back.
597 notes, one map.
Every dot is a note, every thread a link — clusters form around what you think about.
Any note can quiz you.
Write question :: answer — spaced repetition schedules the reviews for you.
Dress it how you think.
Twenty-four themes, three surfaces — midnight glass to warm paper.
Master view
Download invites — only links minted here can download
| Label | Link | Downloads | Expires | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loading… | |||||
Users
| Joined | Last sign-in | Confirmed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loading… | |||
Releases & downloads
| Version | Published | Asset | Downloads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loading… | |||
Why people switch
Six reasons it's built differently
Most note apps ask you to trust a company with your thinking. Vantanote asks you to trust a folder on your own disk — and then gives you more, not less, for doing it.
Your notes are plain files — forever
Every note is a normal file in a folder on your computer — the same kind of file you could open in any text editor, today or in twenty years. Delete Vantanote tomorrow and every word is still there, still readable.
It works without internet
Everything — writing, searching, your files, your flashcards — happens on your computer. On a plane, in a cabin, during an outage: nothing changes. The internet is optional, used only if you turn on sync.
Sync in seconds — sealed with your key
Type on one computer and it's on the other in a few seconds. With end-to-end encryption on, notes are sealed on your machine before they travel — what reaches the cloud is unreadable to everyone but you, us included. A conflicting edit is kept as a second copy; nothing is ever overwritten.
One place, not five apps
Notes link to notes and answer back. A graph draws the shape of your thinking. Boards, tables, flashcards, PDFs, and spreadsheets all live — and open — in the same quiet place your writing does.
It won't quietly corrupt your work
Before a single byte is written, every save is checked to be perfectly reversible. If a paragraph can't be stored losslessly, Vantanote refuses and tells you — rather than silently mangling it. Few editors can promise this.
Ready for the AI era
Markdown is the language today's AI reads and writes best. Your library is already in the format the future speaks — nothing to convert when you want a model to work alongside your notes, on your terms.
What it does
Everything in these pictures is the real app
No mockups. These screenshots come straight from Vantanote running on a Mac.
Write & connect
Notes that remember how they relate
Type [[ inside any note to link it to another — the way your thoughts actually connect. Open a note and its Connections panel shows every note that points to it, every note it points to, and even notes that mention it without a link.
- Checklists, tables, images, and callouts with a single keystroke
- Daily notes and a calendar for journaling and planning
- Search that finds words inside every note, instantly
In plain words: it's like your notes get a "related pages" list that fills itself in. You never have to remember where you wrote something — you just follow the links.
See the whole picture
A living map of everything you know
The graph view draws your whole library as a constellation: every dot is a note, every line is a link you made. Clusters form around the things you think about most — and clicking any dot opens that note.
- Color groups by topic, folder, or tag
- A local view that shows just one note's neighborhood
- A timelapse that replays how your library grew
In plain words: imagine pinning every note to a corkboard and running strings between the related ones — then seeing the whole board at once. That's the graph, and this screenshot is a real library.
Spreadsheets built in
Edit Excel and CSV files without leaving your notes
Drop a budget, a price list, or a workout log into your library and open it like a spreadsheet — because it is one. Click a cell and type. Add rows, sort columns, filter, and paste to and from Excel or Google Sheets. Every change saves back to the same file automatically.
- Works with .xlsx, .xls, and .csv files
- Excel formulas are preserved and recalculate when the file opens in Excel
- Link any sheet from a note — "review the [[Household Budget.xlsx]]"
In plain words: the file on your computer stays a normal Excel file. Vantanote just lets you open and edit it in the same place you keep the notes about it.
Browse everything
A home view that shows your whole library as cards
The Library page lays every note out as a card, grouped by folder — with your tags, saved searches, and bookmarks alongside. Cards show what's inside: flashcards due, open to-dos, links. Type in the search bar and the grid filters live.
- Folders with counts, plus canvases, tables, and files in one list
- Study chips show which notes have cards waiting
- PDFs, Word docs, and voice memos live here too — they open full-page, right inside
In plain words: it's the "everything at a glance" view — like laying your notebook's pages out on a big desk, already sorted.
Study & remember
Turn any note into flashcards that quiz you
Write question :: answer on a line and that note becomes a deck of flashcards. Vantanote schedules each card using spaced repetition — a memory technique that shows you a card again right before you would forget it, so reviewing takes minutes, not hours.
- The Study page shows what's due today, your streak, and every deck
- Set a "know it by" date and the app paces you to meet it
- Made for exams, languages, licensing tests, and trivia nights
In plain words: it's a built-in quiz machine. The app remembers which facts you find hard and asks about them more often — the same technique medical students use to memorize thousands of facts.
Think spatially
An infinite board for the messy middle
Some thinking doesn't fit in a line. Canvas gives every idea a card on an endless board — drag them around, draw arrows between them, drop whole notes on as live cards, and zoom out to see the plan.
- Text cards, note cards, groups, arrows with labels, colors
- Double-click a note card to jump into the note
- Boards are files in your library, like everything else
In plain words: it's a whiteboard that lives inside your notebook — for planning a project, plotting a story, or untangling a decision.
Make it yours
One app, four completely different feelings
Twenty-four themes and three surface materials — the same library, dressed how you think best. Every screenshot below is the real app showing the same kind of note.
Reading Room — one continuous warm page; only soft cards float
Engraved Paper — a flat sheet with hairline dividers
Frosted glass — floating panels over a soft gradient
Dark — the same rooms, lights down
Plus custom accent colors, folder colors and icons, and every keyboard shortcut rebindable.
And the workspace itself moves
The panels either side of your writing aren't fixed furniture. Drag them wider, hide either one with a keystroke, and fill them with the things you actually want in view.
Widgets on both sides
A clock, a timer, a pomodoro, a countdown to a deadline. Your open to-dos pulled from every note, a live list of whatever you can describe, a scratchpad that files a thought into your inbox, today's flashcard count. Add them to either panel, drag them into the order you want, drop the ones you don't.
Panels that fit your screen
Drag either sidebar wider or narrower and it stays that way. Hide the file list with ⌘\ or the connections panel with ⌘⇧\ when you want nothing but the page. Even the built-in sections can be switched off.
A file list you arrange
Drag notes and folders above or below each other into an order that means something to you, pin what you reach for daily, and hide anything you don't want in the writing view — it stays in your library, just out of the way.
Everything here is remembered per device, so a laptop and a desktop can be set up differently — and none of it touches the files in your library.
Who it's for
For anyone who keeps things
If you think by writing — and you'd rather your writing outlive any one app — this was built for you, whether you work alone or with a team.
Students & lifelong learners
Notes that pass the exam with you
Take lecture notes, link them across subjects, and turn key facts into flashcards. The Study page tells you exactly what to review before the test — and paces you to your exam date.
Writers, journalers & researchers
A second brain that maintains itself
Sources, ideas, and daily pages, with backlinks that appear on their own and a graph that surfaces connections you'd have missed. Reading Room makes it feel like paper, not software.
Home & family
The household's second brain
The budget spreadsheet, the insurance PDFs, the renovation notes, the packing checklist for the trip — all in one place, linked together, readable offline, and synced to both partners' computers.
Developers & technical teams
Plain text, done right
A Markdown-native home for docs, specs, and runbooks — plain files that play well with git and open in any editor, with code blocks, diagrams, and tables built in.
Consultants, lawyers & small business
Confidential by default
Client and case notes that live on your own machine, not a vendor's cloud — with the contract PDF and the price sheet you can edit in place beside them. Everything two clicks away, even with the Wi-Fi down. The ones that need it can be locked behind a password and encrypted on disk, so a borrowed laptop or a copied folder gives up nothing.
Anyone who sits in meetings
The meeting writes itself
Hit record and stop thinking about it. Your microphone and the call are captured separately, so the transcript knows who spoke without guessing; the calendar tells it what the meeting was called and who was invited. Say “action item” out loud and it lands as a checkbox you’ll find waiting afterwards.
Teams & small studios
A shared brain, on the way
Today everyone keeps their own synced library in a format the whole team owns. Shared spaces — a folder you build in together — are the next chapter, so the knowledge base grows with the group.
What's next
A lot is here. More is on the way.
These aren't vague someday-maybes — they're the next chapters, being built toward openly. Local-first stays the foundation: even the shared features are built on files that remain yours.
End-to-end encryption Ready
Turn it on and notes are sealed on your computer before they sync — not even we can read them. A passphrase plus a printable Recovery Kit hold the only keys, and every new computer is approved from one you already trust.
Lock a note with a password Ready
Some notes are nobody else's business. Lock one and its text is encrypted on disk — open the file in Finder, on another machine, in any other app, and there is nothing to read. Inside Vantanote it keeps its name and loses everything else: no search results, no tags, no graph edges, no to-dos, and the assistant is refused it outright. There is no password reset, on purpose — which is why the lock screen makes you type it twice and confirm before it will do anything.
Deadlines that live in the line Ready
Write due:2026-08-14 on any checkbox and it becomes a date — shown as a quiet chip, not a wall of chrome. every:month keeps the original rhythm and skips what you missed, so rent is still due on the 1st however late you were; after:3days counts from the moment you tick it, so the plant gets watered three days after you actually watered it. Notifications when things come due, a bell for what is late, and the characters stay in your file — a date is always something you can retype by hand.
Sync that lands in seconds Ready
Edit on one computer, watch it appear on the other a few seconds later — hands-free, encrypted the whole way. Offline edits catch up the moment you're back.
Share a note as a link Ready
Send a read-only page to anyone — no account needed on their end. Edit links for collaborators, revocable any time.
Databases, boards & charts Ready
Any note can become a database of other notes — then render as a table, a kanban board, a calendar, a gallery, or a chart. And any table in any note can chart itself, honestly, with one click.
AI on your terms Ready
Ask questions and get answers from your own notes, with citations that only become links when the note really exists. Make flashcards from a page, get a hint on a card you keep failing, tidy formatting without a word changing. Bring your own key, keep any note or folder permanently invisible to it, and see the exact cost of every request.
Meetings that write themselves Ready
Record a meeting and it comes back knowing what it was called and who was in it. Your voice and the other side are captured as separate tracks, so the transcript says who spoke without guessing. Say “action item: send Alice the deck” out loud and it becomes a checkbox while you are still talking.
Your calendar, connected Ready
Connect Google or Outlook, read-only. A recording made during a meeting names itself after that meeting, fills the speaker list from the invitation, and your day’s events sit under the month grid. Connect once and every computer you sign into is connected.
Shared spaces for work Soon
Invite people into a folder and build a knowledge base together — a collaborative layer over files you still own.
Vantanote on your phone Soon
Your whole library in your pocket — same files, same links.
Plain words
The jargon, translated
Words you'll meet around apps like this — and what they actually mean.
- Markdown the file format
- A way of writing plain text so that **bold** means bold and # Heading means a heading. You never have to see it — Vantanote shows you normal formatted text — but underneath, your notes are simple text files any computer can read. That's what makes them yours forever.
- Local-first
- The app's home is your computer, not a company's server. Files live with you, everything works offline, and the cloud is an optional extra — the opposite of apps that stop working when your subscription or their servers do.
- Wiki link [[like this]]
- A link from one of your notes to another, made by typing two square brackets and a name. Named after Wikipedia, where every article links to related articles — your notes get the same superpower.
- Connections (backlinks)
- The list of notes that link to the one you're reading. You link "Trip to Lisbon" from your budget; open the budget later and Connections shows the trip note automatically. You build the trail once and it works in both directions.
- Graph view
- A picture of your library: each note is a dot, each link is a line. It's not just pretty — it shows which ideas are becoming central and which notes are orphans you've forgotten about.
- End-to-end encrypted E2EE
- Scrambled on your computer before it travels, and only unscrambled on another of your computers. The company running the servers holds nothing but unreadable bytes — so “we don't look at your notes” stops being a promise you have to trust and becomes something that is simply true.
- Spaced repetition
- A studying technique backed by a century of memory research: review a fact right before you'd forget it, and the memory lasts far longer each time. Vantanote does the scheduling; you just answer cards for a few minutes a day.
- Sync
- Keeping the same library on more than one device. Edit on your desktop, and your laptop has it too. In Vantanote, sync is off until you create an account and turn it on — and you can sync everything or only chosen folders.
- Library
- Vantanote's word for your collection — really just a folder on your computer that holds all your notes and files. You can have several (say, Personal and Work) and switch between them.
Get Vantanote
Apps coming soon
Vantanote for macOS and Windows is in private early access — invitations go out personally while the final polish lands. Create your free account now so encrypted sync is ready the moment your invite arrives; if you already have an invite link, it takes you straight to your download.
macOS (Apple Silicon) · Windows 10/11 · auto-updates built in — invitations are personal links from the maker
Fair questions
Things you might be wondering
Is it really free?
The app is, permanently — writing, organising, databases, boards, charts, flashcards, all of it, with no account and no time limit. Opening your own files on your own computer is not something anyone should be billed for, and it's why the whole thing is built the way it is.
What will eventually cost money is the part that genuinely costs money to run: keeping an encrypted copy of your library in sync between computers, hosting the pages you share, and paying for the AI. None of that is for sale yet, and there is no way to pay on this site. If you'd rather never pay for AI, you can plug in your own API key and use it without limits.
Where exactly are my notes?
In a folder called your library — by default Documents/Vantanote Vault on your Mac or PC. Open it in Finder or File Explorer any time; you'll see one file per note. Back it up like any folder (Time Machine and File History already do).
Can you read my notes?
No. Without sync, your notes never leave your computer. With sync, turn on end-to-end encryption and every note is sealed on your machine before it travels — what reaches the cloud is unreadable ciphertext, and the only keys are your passphrase and your printable Recovery Kit. Not even we can read them; that's a design fact, not a policy promise.
For the notes where that isn't enough, lock one with a password: its text is encrypted in the file itself, so it is unreadable even to someone sitting at your unlocked computer with Finder open.
What if I forget a note's password?
Then that note is gone. Permanently, with no way around it — no reset link, no recovery code, no support desk that can help, because there is nothing on our side to help with. That is the point of the feature, and saying so plainly matters more than sounding reassuring.
It's why locking a note is deliberately fussy: you type the password twice, you can reveal what you typed, it warns you if Caps Lock is on, it refuses a password that starts or ends with a space, and it makes you type the word LOCK before it will do anything. Locking also deletes that note's version history, since those older copies would otherwise sit beside it in plain text. Most notes don't need this — it's for the few that do.
What happens if Vantanote disappears?
You lose an app, not your work. Your library is a folder of standard files — Markdown text, ordinary PDFs and spreadsheets — that open in thousands of other programs. This is the difference between "export" as a promise and ownership as a fact.
I'm not technical. Is this for me?
Yes — that's why this page explains everything in plain words. If you can use a folder and a text box, you can use Vantanote. The technical parts (file formats, sync machinery) work quietly underneath and never need your attention.
Does it work with my old notes?
Vantanote imports from Apple Notes, Evernote, Notion, Obsidian, Bear, and plain folders of text or Word-style documents — links and attachments included wherever possible.