Guides/Compared with…
Elba vs Standard Notes — encrypted notes app vs sealed folder
Standard Notes is a purpose-built end-to-end encrypted notes app. Elba is a general-purpose sealed folder for arbitrary files. Choose by what you're storing.
Pick Standard Notes if
You want a notes editor with tags, sync, and a long track record of encryption discipline.
Pick Elba if
Your ‘notes’ are actually a folder of PDFs, images, spreadsheets, and text, and you want them sealed together on your own machine.
Questions people actually ask
- Can Elba hold Markdown notes?
- Yes — any file. Write in your favourite editor, save into the vault, re-seal.
- Which has better sync?
- Standard Notes, by design. Elba doesn't sync — you do, using any drive you already trust.
Take the island
Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.
- €49MMXXVI· now ·
- €39MMXXVII2027
- €29MMXXVIII2028
- €19MMXXIX2029
- FreeMMXXX2030
the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030
pay once · no account · nothing leavesRelated guides
- How to encrypt journal entries so nobody else can read them
A small, offline way to encrypt your journal. Elba seals a folder of daily entries with one password — no cloud, no account.
- Elba vs Cryptomator: local folder vs cloud-transparent vault
Cryptomator encrypts for the cloud; Elba encrypts for your own machine. A short, honest comparison to help you pick.