Say you write by hand on an iPad, type on a Windows laptop at work, and want both kinds of notes kept private, not handed to a company to store. Most notes apps give you two of those three things.
Apps built for handwriting usually keep your notes in their own cloud. Apps built for privacy are mostly about typed text, and some don't handle a pen at all. And many apps leave out Windows or Linux.
We built Oaklet Notes to give you all three: handwriting and typing in the same note, an encrypted library that stays on your own devices, and the same app on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android.
Handwriting and typing in the same note
In Oaklet Notes you can type a paragraph, then write in the margin with your pen, sketch a diagram, and drop in a table or an equation, all in one note. Handwriting isn't a picture stuck onto the page.
On every platform, what you write by hand is recognized on your device. Search finds a word you wrote by hand, and you can turn handwriting into typed text when you're ready. The recognized text stays on your device.
Encrypted, on your devices, without an account
You don't create an account to use Oaklet Notes. Your notes live in a vault on your own device, and our servers don't have a copy of them.
Every vault is encrypted. Each note has its own random key, everything is protected with AES-256-GCM, and your vault password never leaves your device.
We drew the free/Pro line on one rule: locking your notes more tightly is free; unlocking them more conveniently is Pro. A separate password for an especially sensitive note is free. Auto-lock is free and on from the start, locking your vault after 15 minutes away. Unlocking with Face ID or Touch ID is part of Pro.
If you want your notes on more than one device, you choose where they sync: your own WebDAV server, a folder managed by a tool you already use, or one of your own computers acting as the sync hub for the rest. Syncing is part of Pro. To move notes without syncing, Direct Share sends them straight from one of your devices to another, free.
The same app on every device you use
People don't live on one platform. Oaklet Notes runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android, with the same vault format on all of them. A note you handwrite on your iPad opens on your Windows laptop.
Your notes don't get stuck there either. You can import and export Markdown at any time, and move notes between your devices or vaults as Notes Packages with all their content. A Note Password doesn't travel with the note, so set it again after a move.
How we decide what goes in
Behind every decision is one sentence: Oaklet is a place to write. The app's job is to help you focus, let you trust that your work is safe, and then get out of the way.
So the controls around your content stay quiet until you need them. In a Section, where blocks sit side by side, the frame and title bar aren't drawn while you're just reading; they appear when you hover over the Section or work inside it. Menus and dialogs inside a note take on the color of the paper you're writing on instead of a color of their own. While you're writing or drawing, we don't want the page to jump around or something to pop up and take over your keyboard. If something interrupts you, we treat it as a bug.
AI follows the same rule. It's optional, and it runs through a provider you choose: a model on your own computer or local network, or your own account with a cloud AI service. Oaklet doesn't run an AI service of its own. Once AI is connected, searching your notes by meaning, not just exact words, is free. On iPhone, iPad, and Mac with Apple Intelligence (version 26 or later), writing suggestions can also run entirely on your device (Pro).
Where other apps are ahead
Checked October 14, 2026.
- Goodnotes has more handwriting tools than we do, such as spellcheck and word completion that match your own handwriting.
- OneNote lets you share a notebook with other people and edit it together live, with each person's own access. Oaklet Notes syncs between your own devices. When you edit different paragraphs of the same note on two devices, sync merges both, but there's no sharing with other people and no live co-editing.
What we haven't done yet
Being honest about the gaps is part of earning trust:
- Oaklet Notes is not open source. You can't read the code yourself.
- It hasn't had an independent security audit. The encryption uses standard, well-known building blocks, but no outside firm has reviewed our implementation.
If either of those is a deal-breaker for you, we understand.
How it's paid for
Oaklet Notes is free to use. An optional Pro subscription adds features such as sync, PDF and Word export, and Face ID unlock, and you can try Pro free for 30 days in the app. That's the whole business model: no ads, and nothing to sell about you.
If you've been switching between a handwriting app and a private notes app, we'd love for you to give Oaklet Notes a try.