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When comparing Simplenote vs Nozbe, the Slant community recommends Nozbe for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform task apps?” Nozbe is ranked 35th while Simplenote is ranked 39th. The most important reason people chose Nozbe is:
With Nozbe you can manage and get your tasks done anytime and anywhere. Nozbe has apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, OS X, Windows, and Linux, as well as a universal web interface. The sync works smoothly and handles off-line work responsively – all the work saved on your device will be synced to the servers as soon as you’re back online.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Very simple and clean interface
Simplenote takes a minimalist approach to its interface. There are no toolbars full of formatting options or extra features like notebooks to group notes. The entire desktop interface consists solely of a sidebar with your tags and trash filters, the list of existing notes with search, a button to add a new note and a simple view for looking an existing note or writing a new one.
Pro Geared towards fast usage
Unlike alternatives (such as Evernote) that are laden with features, Simplenote is fast to use and sync. Reviews from the Verge, Lifehacker, and a variety of other sources all describe using the Simplenote apps as very fast. While it may not be as feature-rich as other apps, the responsiveness of the app and simple interface keep it easy to use while never slowing down the user when they need to quickly take a note.
Pro Works offline
Users can edit and create documents offline, can then sync their content the next time they are online. This way a user can work even when there's no data connection without the worry of losing work.
Pro Desktop app is open source
The desktop version of Simplenote is hosted on the GitHub and since it is open source, it can allow developers to fork the code in order to improve the app.
Pro Can export your data
The program enables exporting of notes as text documents.
Pro Collaborative features
Notes can be shared with others or worked on collaboratively.
Pro Open Source
All of the Simplenote apps are open source and ready for your contributions! You can find the source on GitHub:
iOS: https://github.com/automattic/simplenote-ios
Android: https://github.com/automattic/simplenote-android
macOS: https://github.com/automattic/simplenote-macos
Electron (Windows and Linux): https://github.com/automattic/simplenote-electron
Pro "Time machine" style revision control on the notes
Each edit of a note is saved in order to allow the user to go back to a previous version of a document. This way, if mistakes are made or something is deleted, you can go back to the previous version without any hassle.
Pro Wide range of great clients with great sync
Official native apps are available on popular platforms such as Android, iPhone, iPad, Kindle, OS X, Windows and Linux. Open-source clients extend this support even more widely to various other platforms, such as webOS and the BlackBerry PlayBook. These apps embody the core philosophy of Simplenote: minimalism and focus on the note taking.
There are multiple unofficial clients (including the excellent Notational Velocity and NValt, a fork of the app with markdown support and other goodies.)
Pro Markdown support via web interface
There is support for Markdown when using the web app. This can be convenient for those who want to use Markdown in a particular note.
Pro Linux client available
Pro Excellent iOS app
Pro Excellent desktop client in the form of nvAlt
Pro Cross-platform
With Nozbe you can manage and get your tasks done anytime and anywhere. Nozbe has apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, OS X, Windows, and Linux, as well as a universal web interface. The sync works smoothly and handles off-line work responsively – all the work saved on your device will be synced to the servers as soon as you’re back online.
Pro Great real-time team collaboration features
Nozbe can be a perfect tool to manage communication, data, and workflow for teams – large and small. Features like comments, @mentions, admin/guest roles, attachments, and categories are great for managing all the documents and emails associated with a project. You can also invite people who don't have Nozbe account to participate in your projects.
Pro Nice and simple user interface
Nozbe is based on Getting Things Done (GTD), a productivity philosophy created by David Allen. However, you don't need to know the methodology to use the tool. You can just add projects, tasks, and attachments, and gradually learn to use the other features to organize your time even better.
Pro Practical integrations with some favorite tools
Nozbe integrates with email, Evernote, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, Google Calendar, etc.
Pro Nozbe.HOW templates
Nozbe users curate a vast collection of free templates that share everything from favorite recipes to tried-and-true vacation itineraries.
Pro Highly intuitive and works the same way across all platforms
Cons
Con No note encryption at rest
Notes are encrypted in transit, but remain unencrypted on Simplenote's servers.
Con Limited ways to reorder notes
You are able to sort your notes alphabetically, date modified, or by last created. There is no way to drag and drop the notes to create a custom order.
Con No reminders
You cannot set reminders to revisit a specific note or complete a task.
Con No support for file attachments
Simplenote doesn't provide support for embedded attachments. This can limit the use for some as many other note-taking apps do support this type of feature.
Con Search is limited to one tag
There seems to be no way to find notes that have both tag X and tag Y. This isn't a big deal until you have a large library of notes, and want to cross-search for two things at the same time to vastly narrow down your search.
Con No way to import notes from anywhere
Con Web access only for updated browsers
They recently removed support for older browsers, and it's not working on the latest version of Waterfox. You need an updated version of a well-known browser.
Con No 32-bit version
Con The search function doesn't see tags
If you search for 'foo' you won't find notes with tag foo. In that regard, tags are completely isolated from the search.
Con No way to bulk-apply a tag
This is a typical workflow action in other apps: Do a search, multi-select notes among the matches, then apply or de-apply one or more tags to all these notes at once.
There's no way to do this in Simplenote. The only bulk operations are Delete and Pin-to-top.
Con No notification when changes made on a shared note
Currently, there is no way to be alerted when a change is made by another contributor on a shared note.
Con Save-to-disk feature is poor
The only way to download your data off Simplenote is via a "download zip" feature that unfortunately loses all the semantic structure of your data (tags, for instance).
Con No integrated social media sharing
The only way you can share notes with others is with a link you're given when you publish your note. There is no integrated social media sharing if you directly want to post your note to Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Con Lack of color impacts usability
There are two themes available, the default theme and a dark theme.
Both use only the single solid color (either white or black) for the background, so there is a lack of visual cues to separate what you're looking at.
Con Limited free plan
After the free trial you can choose to remain on a free plan, but you’ll be restricted to a max of 5 projects and will have limitations on collaboration.
Con Task dependencies missing
Nozbe is great, but one shortcoming relates to "task dependencies" in projects. You should be able to sequence your tasks so that, when you complete a task, the next one that needs to be done becomes the "priority" task for that project. This is a vital feature that will make the program dramatically more useful. The company claims to be working on this improvement.
