To start Supernotes is very different from many other note-taking apps – we are focusing on the social aspect of sharing knowledge with your friends via markdown notecards [1], rather than local-first note-taking apps of which there are many to choose from if that is what you prefer. As a small team of two, trying to do both ease-of-sharing and end-to-end encryption (E2EE) right is a mammoth task, so we wanted to do one right, the social side of things.
E2EE has become a buzzword for marketing for the last few years, but what's most concerning is how misunderstood it is. That's one of the main reasons why we decided to publish this article as we regularly received support interactions from customers mis-understanding encryption, with some asking whether we have "end-to-end encryption in transit" and "two factor encryption".
This article is here to help the average (less tech savvy than HN) user better understand how encryption works so they can make a more informed choice whether Supernotes is right for them. We are not saying there are no reasons to use end-to-end encryption — there are a lot and other people have explained the obvious benefits quite well! The question is whether the increased effort and friction are worth it for your use case.
If you want to quickly jot down and share your recipes, restaurant recommendations and startup ideas with your friends then Supernotes is for you. If you'd like to write down passwords, trade secrets, or your deepest darkest desires then we suggest using an alternative.