Windows Notepad writes your text to the disk in the clear, and most notes apps for Windows solve that by keeping your text on their servers instead. NotePrivate is a notes app for Windows: every note and attachment is encrypted on your own PC with a key only you hold, the app opens with the network off, and on-device OCR makes the words inside your images searchable.
macOS and Windows · You hold the keys · Import from Evernote, Apple Notes, Standard Notes, Markdown and more
NotePrivate is an encrypted notepad for Windows for people who want the file on their own PC and the key in their own hands. Windows Notepad has no password field, no lock and no encryption of its own, so a saved note is readable text to anyone who can open the folder, the backup or the synced copy. The Windows answers are disk level rather than note level: Microsoft lists BitLocker enablement for Windows Pro, Enterprise, Pro Education/SE and Education, with device encryption available on all Windows versions on qualifying hardware, per the BitLocker overview on Microsoft Learn, checked 28 August 2026. NotePrivate works one level down. Every note is encrypted with a master key wrapped by your password, that password never leaves the machine, and one license at $59 a year covers a Windows PC and a Mac. It is a paid desktop app: no browser version, and no iPhone or Android app yet.
Named products are market context, not reviews or endorsements. Check each vendor's own site before you commit.
Four questions people ask right before they go looking for an encrypted notepad, answered plainly.
No. Windows Notepad has no lock, no password field and no encryption setting, and Microsoft's own Notepad help page covers page setup, headers and footers and the .LOG timestamp trick, with nothing about protecting a file. Saving in Notepad writes readable text to your disk, so anyone with access to that folder, a backup of it or the synced copy can read the note. NotePrivate is the encrypted notepad that closes that gap on Windows: every note is encrypted before it is written, and the app asks for your password before it shows you anything.
Windows Notepad is exactly as secure as the folder its file sits in. It stores plain text, so all of the protection comes from Windows file permissions, which keep out another user account on the same PC and keep out nothing else. A copy in a synced folder, on a backup drive or in an email attachment is readable text wherever it lands. NotePrivate takes the opposite approach on the same machine: the vault is ciphertext at rest, so a copy of those files without your password is not a readable note.
On Windows there are three routes, and they protect different things. Full disk encryption with BitLocker covers everything on the drive, and Microsoft lists BitLocker enablement for Windows Pro, Enterprise, Pro Education/SE and Education, with device encryption available on all Windows versions on qualifying hardware, per the BitLocker overview on Microsoft Learn, checked 28 August 2026. The Encrypting File System encrypts individual files, works only on NTFS volumes, and opens them automatically once you are signed in as you, which helps against a stolen drive and not at all against someone already inside your session. A password protected archive made with a tool like 7-Zip encrypts the .txt file, and you decrypt and repack it every time you want to change a line. NotePrivate skips all three by keeping the note encrypted inside its own vault and asking for your password when the app opens.
Yes, though Windows does not do it for you at the file level. Word and Excel documents can carry a password of their own, an archive can be encrypted with a password, and a plain .txt file written by Notepad cannot, because there is nowhere in the format to put one. That is the practical reason people search for an encrypted notepad rather than a way to bolt a password onto Notepad. NotePrivate gives every note the encrypted vault by default on Windows, and adds a separate per-note password for the handful you want sealed even while the app is open.
Your notes hold your life. On Windows, NotePrivate keeps them encrypted on your machine, not in the clear on the disk and not in a cloud that can read them.
| Capability | NotePrivate | Windows Notepad and a .txt file | Typical cloud notes app |
|---|---|---|---|
| Encrypted at rest by default | Yes | No | No |
| You hold the keys | Yes | No | No |
| Password on a single note | Yes | No | Partial |
| Works fully offline | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Rich text, code, checklists, spreadsheets | Yes | No | Yes |
| On-device OCR for images | Yes | No | Partial |
| Full export, no lock-in | Yes | Yes | Partial |
Competitor details are a general reading and change over time; verify on the vendor's site.
Search for an encrypted notepad and you get three different products in one list, which is why the choice feels harder than it is. Sort yourself into a group first.
ProtectedText and CryptPad are the two that keep coming up for an encrypted notepad you can use in seconds. CryptPad describes itself as a collaborative office suite that is end to end encrypted and open source, and both can be used without creating an account. The trade is that your notes live at a URL on someone else's service, so the site has to be up and reachable when you need them. NotePrivate is not in this group: it installs on Windows and the vault is a set of files on your own disk.
The App Store and Google Play both have small secure notepad apps built around a PIN on a phone, and they are a reasonable fit if your notes never leave that phone. They are usually one device and one shape of note. NotePrivate is a desktop app for Windows and macOS with no Android or iPhone app yet, so if the phone is where your notes actually live, this group is the better fit today.
NotePrivate, Standard Notes, Joplin and Obsidian with an encryption plugin all keep the notes on your machine under a key you hold. NotePrivate is the macOS and Windows option at $59 a year with every feature in the box. Compare the neighbours directly on the Standard Notes alternative page and the Obsidian alternative page.
Named products are market context, not endorsements or reviews. Features and platform support change; check each vendor's site before you commit.
NotePrivate encrypts every note and attachment on your Windows machine with a master key wrapped by your password. The password never leaves the PC, which also means a forgotten password is not something support can undo.
NotePrivate uses the built-in Windows OCR engine to make the text inside your images searchable, without sending the image to a server. A screenshot of an invoice becomes something you can find six months later.
Rich text, Markdown, code with highlighting, checklists, quick spreadsheets, one-time codes and saved web pages all live in the same NotePrivate vault on Windows, which is where a plain notepad and a .txt file run out of room.
NotePrivate imports from Evernote, Apple Notes, Standard Notes, Notion, Markdown and plain text, folders and all. If Notion is the thing you are leaving, the private Notion alternative page walks through the export step by step, and the Evernote alternative page covers the .enex route.
Apple ships no Notes app for Windows, so iCloud.com in a browser tab is the only official route and it leaves nothing on the PC. The Apple Notes alternative page covers what carries over and what does not.
Plenty of the notes people want encrypted on a Windows PC are dated entries rather than work notes. NotePrivate treats a journal entry exactly like any other note, and the private journal app page covers what changes when the entries sit under your own key.
Six questions worth answering before you move a single note, with where NotePrivate lands on each.
This is the question under every encrypted notepad. Most cloud notes apps encrypt in transit and on their own disks while keeping the keys, which is what makes server side search possible. NotePrivate wraps its master key with your password and that password stays on your Windows PC, so nobody at this end can open your notes for anyone else.
A browser based encrypted notepad needs the service to be reachable. NotePrivate stores the vault on the Windows machine in front of you, so it opens on a plane, on hotel wifi that never quite connects, and on a PC that has been off the network for a month.
Check the platform list before the feature list. NotePrivate is macOS and Windows on one license, with no browser version and no iPhone or Android app yet. If Linux or Android is in your mix, Joplin is the name people usually land on instead.
An encrypted notepad that is hard to leave has only moved the problem. NotePrivate exports the whole vault, or every note as Markdown, in one action, so the files still open in any editor after you stop paying.
Count the note types you actually use. NotePrivate covers rich text, Markdown, code, spreadsheets, one-time codes and saved web pages on Windows, and it does not cover handwriting, pen input or scanned documents.
Free usually means someone else's servers and someone else's keys, which is a fair trade for plenty of notes. NotePrivate is $59 a year with every feature included, no tiers and no free plan, and going up against a notepad that ships with Windows is an argument it has to win on privacy.
For a free encrypted notepad with nothing to install, a browser based one like ProtectedText or CryptPad does the job. For an open source vault you sync yourself, Standard Notes and Joplin are the usual names. NotePrivate is the paid desktop option at $59 a year, with the vault encrypted on your own Windows PC, rich text and code and spreadsheets in one app, on-device OCR, and a Mac covered by the same license.
Yes, several, and NotePrivate is not one of them. ProtectedText and CryptPad are free to use in a browser, Joplin is free and open source with encryption you switch on, and Standard Notes describes itself as a free, secure note taking app with end to end encryption. NotePrivate is $59 a year with every feature included and no free tier, so if free is the deciding factor one of those is the better fit.
Yes. NotePrivate has a native Windows installer, keeps your notes encrypted on the PC, and opens the same vault on a Mac under one license. It is a desktop app, so there is no browser version and no phone app yet.
Yes. Your whole NotePrivate vault is encrypted at rest with a master key wrapped by your password, and that password never leaves your PC. There is no switch to remember and no server holding a copy of the key, which is also why a forgotten password cannot be reset for you.
Yes, through a cloud folder you already use, and the NotePrivate vault stays encrypted the whole way, so your provider stores ciphertext it cannot read. One license covers both machines. If you would rather not sync at all, the app is complete on a single Windows PC.
Yes, for images, using the built-in Windows OCR engine on your device, so the text inside a screenshot becomes searchable without anything being sent to a server. PDF OCR is coming.
Private by design, rich enough to be your only notes app, and yours to keep forever.
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