Scrinium vs Apple Notes: what the default gets right, and where it stops

Is Apple Notes end-to-end encrypted?

Apple Notes inherits iCloud’s security model, which is good and conditional. With Advanced Data Protection switched on, your notes are end-to-end encrypted and Apple cannot read them. Without it — the default — the keys are held by Apple, which means the content is encrypted at rest but available to Apple in the circumstances Apple documents.

There are second conditions. Advanced Data Protection requires two-factor authentication, needs to be enabled per account, and is not available in every country: Apple has withdrawn it in some jurisdictions rather than comply with orders to weaken it. A privacy guarantee that a user can only claim inside three preconditions is not the same as one baked into the product.

Scrinium has no switch to forget. Notes are encrypted on your device before they sync, the keys never leave the device, and the server is architecturally unable to read a note — on iOS, Android, Windows, or a borrowed laptop.

Scrinium’s encryption, in specifics

Key derivation

Argon2id, 3 iterations, 64 MiB of memory, 16-byte salt

Key hierarchy

32-byte keys: Master Unlock Key → Account Key → Vault Key → per-note Note Key

Encryption

XChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD with a 24-byte nonce on every note, title and attachment

Recovery

BLAKE2b-256 recovery key that unwraps the Account Key without the password

Limits

5 MiB per encrypted note, 5 MiB per attachment, last 30 revisions inside the blob

Can Apple Notes read your notes?

Apple Notes is the purest expression of a format you cannot really hold. The store is a proprietary database; the content comes out as a PDF, or as an HTML/attributed-string approximation via third-party exporters, and formatting, links, and attachments do not survive the trip cleanly.

There is also a platform veto. Notes is available on Apple platforms and, in a reduced way, through iCloud on the web. If your next laptop runs Windows or your next phone runs Android, the notebook does not come with you.

Scrinium stores Markdown. Export the vault as Markdown, take it to any editor, and the notes survive intact — headings, tables, code fences, and all. The app runs in any browser, so the only thing your notes depend on is the file format.

Does Apple Notes have a Markdown editor?

Apple Notes is a good quick-capture tool. Type, ready; drag a photo in, done; scan a document, done. It is not a writing environment: no Markdown, weak code handling, no real table support, no version history, and a formatting model that fights you the moment you want structure.

Scrinium is built for the notes you come back to. Inline Markdown rendering while you type, code fences with syntax highlighting, tables, task lists, math and diagrams, folded sections, and local full-text search that runs over decrypted content in memory and does not touch the server.

What does Apple Notes cost?

Apple Notes is free, with sync counting against the 5 GB iCloud allowance that every Apple service shares. For text notes the practical cost is close to zero.

Scrinium is free too, and unlimited: notes, encrypted sync, and devices are not metered, and no storage allowance is consumed by the notes themselves. Paid tiers add features rather than capacity, so the price of entry stays zero on any platform.

When is Apple Notes the better choice?

Keep Apple Notes for what it is genuinely best at: a scrapbook. Shopping lists, a photo of a parking spot, a phone number on a call, quick shared notes with family through iCloud sharing. It is instant, offline, and integrated with the OS in ways no web app matches.

It is also the right answer for people who want no account, no setup, and no decisions. If the note is going to be deleted next week, the default tool is the correct tool.

When is Scrinium the better choice?

Choose Scrinium for the notes you intend to keep and to think in: research, drafts, journals, meeting notes, code snippets, anything with structure. Markdown gives you a format that survives contact with other tools, and cross-platform sync means the note you wrote on the train opens on the office machine.

It is also the honest choice when your devices are mixed, when you cannot rely on an encryption setting being present and enabled, or when the note is sensitive enough that “Apple could technically access this under narrow documented conditions” is a sentence you would rather not have in your head.

How do I move my notes from Apple Notes to Scrinium?

Apple Notes does not export Markdown, so migration is the fiddly part. The practical routes are exporting to PDF or HTML through the app, or using a third-party converter that reads the Notes store directly and writes Markdown files.

Once you have Markdown files, importing them into Scrinium is a single step, and attachments can be re-added with the original media you still have on the device.

Questions people ask