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Standard Notes Server

Standard Notes Server is the official self-hosted backend for Standard Notes, an end-to-end encrypted note-taking and knowledge-management platform.

  • Cloud
  • Productivity
  • Security
Standard Notes Server is the official self-hosted backend for Standard Notes, an end-to-end encrypted note-taking and knowledge-management platform. It runs the full server stack — API gateway, user authentication, real-time note sync, file storage, and extension support — as Docker containers, letting homelab users host their own Standard Notes instance with complete data ownership instead of relying on the cloud service.

Platform availability

Available on 1 of 9 platforms

  • Unraid
  • TrueNAS (not listed)
  • Umbrel (not listed)
  • ZimaOS (not listed)
  • Proxmox (not listed)
  • Helm (not listed)
  • Mac (not listed)
  • Windows (not listed)
  • Linux (not listed)

Health score?A 0-100 score computed nightly from four factors: maintained (40%: recent commits and steady activity), popular (25%: GitHub stars, log scale), easy to install (20%: platforms, install notes, setup guides, Docker image) and light to run (15%: minimum RAM, ARM support). When the source code has been checked, a fifth factor, security check (20%: automated scan for committed secrets, unsafe desktop-app settings, known-vulnerable dependencies and project hygiene; any serious finding caps it at 20), is added. Factors without data are left out and the rest are rescaled.

70/100 Good

Maintained
100last commit 10 days ago
Popular
54475 GitHub stars
Easy to install
351 install platform, install notes, Docker image
Light to run
602 GB minimum RAM, runs on ARM

Availability: platform listings confirmed today, links checked 9 days ago

GitHub stars
475
Open issues
70
Last commit
2026-10-05
License
GPL-3.0
Activity
declining

Checked today - source: GitHub (standardnotes/server)

Resources & Compatibility

Minimum requirements: 2 GB RAM, 1 CPU core(s). ARM (e.g. Raspberry Pi) is supported.

Checked 16 days ago - source: Docker Hub image tags and published docs

First-install notes

  • Side containers and first-run setup Before starting the Standard Notes Server container, deploy three prerequisite containers: (1) MariaDB with an empty database 'standard_notes_db' and a dedicated user granted full privileges on that database; (2) Redis on default port 6379 with no password; (3) a LocalStack companion container exposing SNS and SQS, reachable at hostname 'localstack' on port 4566 (without it, file sync fails and no source

Fetched today - each note links to its source

Alternatives (12)

  • Anchor - Anchor is an offline-first, self-hostable note-taking application for people who want private, local notes with rich editing, tags, attachm…
  • Anytype - Organizes notes, tasks, and projects offline using Markdown, P2P syncing, and encrypted storage, complemented by dynamic collections on all…
  • Beaver Notes - Your personal note-taking haven for privacy and efficiency.
  • Blinko - Blinko is an open-source, AI-powered card note-taking application for quickly capturing and organizing fleeting thoughts, featuring retriev…
  • Evernote - Cross-platform app for creating and organizing notes from text, web pages, images, and voice memos.
  • Google Keep - Multifunctional cross-device tool captures ideas, lists, voice/photo notes.
  • Joplin - Open source note-taking app with Markdown support, to-do integration, and synchronization with cloud services like Dropbox and OneDrive.
  • Logseq - Logseq is a privacy-first, open-source platform for knowledge management and collaboration.
  • Memos - A modern, open-source, self-hosted knowledge management and note-taking platform designed for privacy-conscious users and organizations.
  • Microsoft OneNote - Microsoft OneNote, part of the Microsoft 365 Copilot, is a digital notebook application that gives people one place to gather notes and inf…
  • Notesnook - Fully open-source, end-to-end encrypted notes with device-based security, secure sync, offline access, powerful editor, vault, backups, and…
  • Notion - Streamline teamwork with real-time collaboration, drag-and-drop content organization, and visual simplicity across notes, tasks, wikis, and…

Checked 13 days ago - source: AlternativeTo

Common questions

What containers must be running before the StandardNotes-Server Unraid template can start?

MariaDB must be created first with an empty standard_notes_db database and a std_notes_user that has all privileges on it. Redis should then be running on port 6379 with no auth, followed by the StandardNotes-LocalStack companion for SNS and SQS. The server expects that companion to be resolvable as localstack on port 4566.

What should I generate before first starting the template?

Generate three 32-byte hex secrets before starting the template by running openssl rand -hex 32 three times.

Which ports are used and how should they be exposed?

The API gateway uses port 3000/tcp over HTTP and should be put behind a reverse proxy. The files server maps host port 3125 to container port 3104.

Can users still access notes when the internet connection is down?

Standard Notes keeps an offline copy of the data, so notes and files can be accessed even without an internet connection.

Answers sourced from github.com, standardnotes.com

Community

Collected 15 days ago - public community threads