When comparing Apple Notes vs Standard Notes, the Slant community recommends Standard Notes for most people. In the question“What is the best cross-platform note-taking app?” Standard Notes is ranked 5th while Apple Notes is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose Standard Notes is:
Notes are encrypted and secured so only you can decrypt them.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Sync with other Apple devices via iCloud, other cloud/email services
It syncs with iCloud, and surprisingly, also with Gmail and possibly other services too.
Pro Built-in
It's a default system app, making it easy to find and use since it is already installed.
Pro Rich-text editing
Allows for simple text formatting and making TODO lists with checkboxes.
Pro Attachments
You can add files to notes and then filter notes by attachment types.
Pro Supports sharing
Pro It's fast, and syncing is very dependable
The app launches quickly on both Mac and iOS, it also syncs quickly (in seconds) and very dependably across different Apple devices.
Pro It remains simple to use with a gentle learning curve
Despite the significant new updates in iOS 9 and iOS 10, you can start using Notes immediately, then try/master new features with ease — definitely a gentle learning curve.
Pro Encrypted
Notes are encrypted and secured so only you can decrypt them.
Pro Extensible
Editors, components, actions, and themes.
Pro Open-source
Pro Simple
Faster and lighter than most notes apps.
Pro Cross-platform
Available on Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and Linux.
Pro Themes
Cons
Con Cannot export to a format that can be imported again
This makes it obscure and cumbersome to back up your notes as files that could be managed by your backup system. You can export to PDF, but not in bulk; and this isn't the native format that you can easily recover with.
Apple compounds the problem by using some undocumented format for notes. You can, however, back them all up by backing up the files found in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes