Standard Notes or Sealed for notes you keep to yourself

Disclosure. Sealed is made by Loopware LLC. We read Standard Notes’ own pages and store record on 13 November 2026 and made no account. Where it is the better tool, we say so.

A notes app, and a vault that also takes notes

Standard Notes is built around writing. Its listing calls it an end-to-end encrypted notes app that syncs across iPhone, iPad, Mac and the web, and says the company can’t read your notes (listing).

Sealed is built around photos and papers, and notes are one of the things it seals. Secure notes are sealed like everything else in the vault. Names, notes and the fields of a record are sealed with your vault key too, not just the photos. If most of what you keep is text, that difference matters more than any feature row.

Side by side

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Where Standard Notes is ahead

• Writing on a computer. It runs on the Mac and the web as well as the iPhone (listing). Sealed runs on iPhone and iPad.
• Notes for free. Its free plan keeps unlimited notes, encrypted and synced (listing). On the free plan you can add photos. Videos, documents, notes and records need Sealed Pro.
• Open code. Its listing says the code is open for anyone to audit (listing). Sealed has not had an independent security audit.
• Editors and tags. Paid plans add Markdown, code and spreadsheet editors, and every plan has tags (listing).

Where Sealed fits better

Notes that belong with pictures. A note about a medical scan sits in the same vault as the scan. Secure notes are sealed like everything else in the vault. Sealed Pro can scan paper with the camera, or import PDFs and other files, into the vault.

No account at all. Sealed has no account, so there is nothing to sign up for. We run no server, so there is nothing of yours for us to see.

A way back after a forgotten passcode. With your recovery key you set a new passcode, and nothing is lost. If you forget your passcode, your recovery key lets you set a new one. Standard Notes says a forgotten password can’t be reset (forgotten password), so its password is the one thing you must not lose. Our guide to a forgotten vault password covers both cases.

If you try Standard Notes without an account

Its help center says the app works offline with no account, and that local notes are encrypted once you set an application passcode in the Security menu (offline use). So set that passcode on day one: without it, notes kept on the device alone are not encrypted by the app.

Later, if you make an account to sync, write the password on paper. There is no reset (forgotten password).

Sealed asks for a passcode during setup and shows you a recovery key. When you first open Sealed it takes you through a few screens, asks you to make a passcode, and shows you your recovery key. For the lock built into the Notes app, see a locked note versus a vault. What “can’t read your notes” means in practice is in our page on zero-knowledge encryption.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps if your notes sit beside photos and scans you want sealed on the iPhone. Secure notes are sealed like everything else in the vault. Names, notes and the fields of a record are sealed with your vault key too, not just the photos. See notes and voice memos in Sealed.

It helps if a draft must survive the vault locking mid-sentence. A note is sealed when you tap Save, and a draft you haven’t saved is kept if the vault locks while you write.

It doesn’t put your notes on a Mac or the web. Sealed runs on iPhone and iPad.

It doesn’t keep notes on the free plan. On the free plan you can add photos. Videos, documents, notes and records need Sealed Pro.