TriliumNext Notes vs Standard Notes
Both are alternatives to Evernote. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Standard Notes vs TriliumNext Notes — same comparison, one verdict.
TriliumNext Notes and Standard Notes are closely matched on ownership (87 vs 80) — this one comes down to pricing and to which trade-offs below you can live with.
TriliumNext Notes
A self-hosted, tree-structured personal knowledge base built for power users with very large note collections.
TriliumNext Notes (the actively maintained community continuation of the original zadam/Trilium, which was archived) organizes notes as an unlimited-depth tree where a single note can be cloned into multiple places — a strong fit for readers building a large, deeply cross-referenced personal wiki rather than simple flat notebooks. It runs as a desktop app or a self-hosted server (Docker image available) with notes stored in a local SQLite database, plus per-note encryption, scripting, and a REST API for automation.
Standard Notes
A privacy-first, end-to-end encrypted notes app, open source and self-hostable, now part of Proton.
Standard Notes is built around zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption: notes are encrypted on-device before they ever reach a server, so not even Standard Notes (or Proton, which acquired the company in April 2024) can read them. The app is open source and its sync server can be self-hosted, though the free tier is limited to plain-text notes — rich text, Markdown, spreadsheets, and file attachments require a paid plan or self-hosted setup with community extensions.
Side by side
6 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| TriliumNext Notes | Standard Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 87 | 80 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first data | Yes | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Pricing | Free and open source, unlimited notes and self-hosting. A third-party paid sync-hosting service exists for readers who don't want to run their own server, but self-hosting the sync server yourself costs nothing. | Free tier: unlimited plain-text notes, unlimited devices, 100MB total storage, no rich text/attachments/history. Paid Productivity tier: $90/year (Markdown, rich text, spreadsheets, unlimited history). Professional tier: $120/year (adds 100GB encrypted file storage, family sharing). Self-hosting the sync server is free. |
TriliumNext Notes edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Weighing both against staying on Evernote? Is Evernote free? What it actually costs →
TriliumNext Notes
Strengths
- +Handles very large note collections (100,000+ notes) smoothly — a genuine strength over flatter note apps at serious scale
- +Rich structural features (note cloning, relation maps, scripting, kanban/table/geo-map views) well beyond Evernote's flat notebook model
- +Fully free and self-hostable with an official Docker image and active weekly release cadence
- +Per-note AES-128 encryption for sensitive entries
Trade-offs
- −No official mobile app — mobile access is via browser/PWA or an unofficial third-party Android client (TriliumDroid)
- −The steep organizational power (tree + clones + relations) has a real learning curve versus Evernote's simple notebook-and-tag model
- −Notes live in a local SQLite database rather than plain files, so raw-file portability is lower than Joplin's Markdown-file approach
Standard Notes
Strengths
- +Audited zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption by default — stronger baseline privacy than Evernote's standard cloud storage
- +AGPL-3.0 open source, with a self-hostable sync server for readers who want full control
- +Unlimited notes and devices even on the free tier — no per-device cap like Evernote's single-device free plan
- +Backed by Proton's long-term privacy-focused funding model since the 2024 acquisition, a signal of stability
Trade-offs
- −Free tier is plain-text only — rich text, Markdown rendering, and file attachments require a paid subscription, a real step down from Evernote's richer free formatting
- −No OCR or document-scanning search comparable to Evernote's
- −100MB storage cap on the free tier is tight for anyone attaching files or images
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose TriliumNext Notes
if a lower exit cost matters more to you than any single feature, and handles very large note collections (100,000+ notes) smoothly — a genuine strength over flatter note apps at serious scale.
Choose Standard Notes
if audited zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption by default — stronger baseline privacy than Evernote's standard cloud storage.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — no official mobile app — mobile access is via browser/PWA or an unofficial third-party Android client (TriliumDroid), and free tier is plain-text only — rich text, Markdown rendering, and file attachments require a paid subscription, a real step down from Evernote's richer free formatting. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
TriliumNext Notes vs Standard Notes — common questions
Is TriliumNext Notes a better fit than Standard Notes for notes & knowledge?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: TriliumNext Notes scores 87 to Standard Notes's 80 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. Standard Notes earns its place on a different axis — audited zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption by default — stronger baseline privacy than Evernote's standard cloud storage. Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
TriliumNext Notes keeps its data local or in open formats, so leaving is an export rather than a negotiation. Standard Notes is still self-hostable, so the files stay on your server either way — but it is not local-first by design, so check what its export produces before you rely on it.
Can I self-host TriliumNext Notes or Standard Notes?
Both can be self-hosted. The difference is what it costs you in time rather than whether it is possible — see the setup and maintenance rows above.
Are TriliumNext Notes and Standard Notes both alternatives to Evernote?
Yes — both appear in our Evernote comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off Evernote and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
More Evernote head-to-heads
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Facts verified 2026-07-12. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.