I use Joplin and pay for the basic plan ~$2 a month.

Pros

— You don't have to pay anything. You can sync to your system and still have encrypted notes.

— Can switch between Markdown and rich text

— Web Clipper is fantastic for storing full website copies as reference material

— Can sync between mobile, desktop, etc

— Works with various OS's

Cons

— Printing crashes the desktop app on PopOS!. I have not reported this as it does not affect me that often.

—— The print crash does not affect OSX

— The mobile app can be a bit slow to start on older iPhones (several years old)

Overall, I view Joplin as similar to Apple notes, with a bit more control, ease of export, and benefits of Markdown.

My use case is journaling, work, and the first cut of writing that I publish.

Obsidian. It's the dogs nuts. Choose your own storage.

And their own excellent sync service is client side encrypted with separate passwords from your account credentials!

Best notes tool I’ve ever used.

I use WikidPad, and was looking forward to continuing to use it when I shifted from Windows 10 to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, but it doesn't work due to Python breakage. I switched back to Windows 10 as a result.

It still works well on Windows, though. 8)

I am not very paranoid about what I write, but my setup might work for someone who is.

I rent a VPS from one of the providers. I use this machine for many things, like running WireGuard.

I also use it as my development platform, as I work in a tmux session over SSH.

Anyway, I use a ".txt" style on there. It has backups already.

Phone availability is not a priority for me, though.

I have a simple private GitHub repository where I take notes, journal, etc. in a series of .txt files.

I have separate work and personal laptops, so I just push and pull from the repo.

Maybe not what you're looking for, but that's what I use.

Standard Notes. End to end encryption with mobile / web / desktop apps.

been using monkkee since 2019. It was (and probably still is) the best option to get started without any efforts for setup and also good security.

https://www.monkkee.com/en/

On a .txt file in my computer. Apple notes is good too, but I don’t sync.

Also Notes, encrypted and shared between all my Apple devices.