Plainpad
Modern note taking application for the cloud, utilizing the best features of progressive web apps technology.
Maintained, but at a slower pace than the leaders in its category.
Commit activity more than 39% of tracked projects; popularity more than 22%. How this is calculated.
Commits, last 11 months
| Stars | 448 |
|---|---|
| Latest release | 1.2.0-beta.1 · 7 Sept 2026 |
| Repo updated | 14 Sept 2026 |
| Licence | GPL-3.0 |
| Built with | PHP |
Is Plainpad actively maintained?
Plainpad is under active development: 164 commits landed over the last 11 months, averaging roughly 18 commits a month in the most recent quarter.
The most recent tagged release, 1.2.0-beta.1, shipped within the last month — a current, installable version exists today.
Plainpad ranks #16 of 22 tracked note-taking & editors projects. Several better-maintained options exist in the same category — they are listed below.
What Plainpad actually does
Plainpad is a web-based note-taking application packaged as a progressive web application for cloud deployment. It provides a centralised interface for creating and managing notes through a standard web browser. While the official documentation is sparse on exact synchronisation and formatting features, it operates within the standard note-taking and text editing software category.
Best fit: It suits individuals looking for a self-hosted, web-accessible notepad running on a familiar PHP stack.
Worth knowing: The project is currently distributed in an alpha release state and carries a modest community adoption footprint, meaning you may encounter bugs or limited documentation during setup.
Deployment notes
As a PHP application, you will typically need to configure a web server such as Nginx or Apache, a compatible PHP runtime, and a persistent database backend if required by the codebase.
Alternatives to Plainpad
Projects in the same categories, ordered by health score.
Cross-platform hierarchical note taking application with focus on building large personal knowledge bases (fork of Trilium Notes).
Note taking application with markdown editor and encryption support for mobile and desktop platforms. Runs client-side and syncs through a self hosted Nextcloud instance or similar (alternative to Evernote).
Knowledge base that works with a SQLite db file.
Collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales.
Realtime collaborative markdown notes on all platforms, formerly known as CodiMD and HackMD CE.
Note-taking application optimized for people with a hacker mindset.