Free open source cross-platform standalone
Quick Notes Application
Full control. Works offline. Not a service. No vendor lock
Why Las Notes?
Las Notes is a free open source standalone cross-platform Quick Notes editor.
All your thoughts are kept as a linear feed of small notes like in social networks.
Just create a new DB file and start adding new quick notes.
Then you can quickly search them by tags or by keywords in global search.
Features
Full control
You and only you possess and control all your notes. No one else.
No vendor lock
All your notes are local and not “connected” to an external service. Do with your notes whatever you want.
Open format
All notes are stored in a local SQLite DB storage, and can be open by any DB tool of your choice.
Simple
You can add new small notes instead of editing the existing ones and thinking of full structure of your knowledge base.
Global search
Type a keyword and just press ENTER to quickly find your thoughts matching the search criteria.
Markdown support
Markdown support powered by Github styles.
Synchronization
Since Las Notes stores your notes in plain DB files, you can sync them with any synchronization tool like Dropbox or One Drive.
Cross platform
Currently there are versions for Mac and Windows. Mobile apps are under active development, and should be 100% compatible with all your existing DB files.
Works offline
Las Notes is designed to work completely offline, and it’s fully available out-of-the-box. You can sync your DB files later with any synchronization tool.
No data sharing
Las Notes does not gather any personal data, not does it collect any anonymous usage data, debug logs, stats, etc. If you find any bug, please raise the issue on our Github page.
Open source
Las Notes is completely open source. You can find source code for Mac and Windows on our Github page.
Free
Las Notes editor is released under MIT license, completely free, and backed by donors and donations.
No vendor lock. What does it mean?
Most popular note taking apps are implemented “as a service”. On the one hand, all notes are stored in a cloud, and it’s simpler to synchronize them. On the other hand, if the service goes down (yes, it happens from time to time), you will lose everything. Also the service provider may change their billing policy and force you to pay more and more, just for your pieces of text.
With Las Notes you will control the full lifecycle of your notes stored in DB files. You can archive them, back them up, share, copy-paste, etc.
What about synchronization?
Since Las Notes keeps your notes in simple DB files, you can use any synchronization tool of your choice.
• Cloud platforms (Dropbox, iCloud, One Drive, Google Cloud, pCloud, etc.)
• Version control systems (Github, Gitlab, BitBucket, etc.)
• Enterprise resource management solutions (MS Active Directory, etc.)
• Distributed storage tools (Samba, etc.)
• Simple Unix sync tools, like “rsync”
• Uploads to your dedicating storage via FTP or web-server
• Share as attachments to email, popular messengers and social networks
What about backup?
All notes are stored in DB files. Backing them up is as simple as you backup your local documents or photos.
How secure is this?
We don’t store your data. You’re the one in charge for your notes if you want to utilize any 3d party synchronization tool.
Force majeure
In case of emergency, recall that your thoughts are kept in local SQLite DB files. Open these files with any SQL editor, and you can find and access all your notes easily.
Commercial usage
Yes, you can use it for personal, enterprise and government purposes. No data is shared and even no network connection is being established.
Compatibility
• All your DB files are compatible between all the platforms in Las Notes. You can create the DB file on Mac and it should work the same way on Windows.
• Unofficial apps may add extra incompatible features to your DB files that may not be supported by official Las Notes app.
• Different versions of Las Notes follow the backward compatibility policy. All DB files created in older versions of Las Notes should work with newer versions of the app. Newer features may not work with older versions of the app.
Markdown support
Please check the Github guide to follow the Markdown syntax in Las Notes.
Contribution
• Donations are strongly encouraged to keep the active development of new features.
• We’d also like to accept contributions for language translations
• Found a bug? Create an issue on our Github page.
• Feature requests are also available on our Github page.
• Want to be an open source contributor? Contact us: support@lasnotes.com
Special thanks
We want to thank the authors of open source libraries used in Las Notes:
• Swift Markdown UI
• MdXaml
• SQLite.swift
• MS.Data.Sqlite
Current roadmap
• Mobile versions for iOS and Android
• Encryption support
• Images in markdown
• Quick synchronization via Las Notes Cloud.
Copyright © 2025. Artem Mitrakov
Support: support@lasnotes.com
Source code: Github page