A Private, Local-First Notepad That Never Touches the Cloud

Most "free" note apps aren't really free — they're funded by your data. FreelyMemo isn't. It's a private, local-first notepad with no cloud requirement: by default, everything you write stays inside your own browser, and nothing about your notes, or the pages you were on when you wrote them, is sent anywhere.

A private, local-first notepad with no cloud requirement

FreelyMemo stores your notes, tabs, and settings using your browser's own local storage APIs — the same mechanism Chrome and Firefox provide to every extension for on-device data. There's no FreelyMemo server involved in saving a note, no account required to use the extension, and nothing to log into. If you uninstall the extension, that local data is removed with it.

This is the default and the whole point of the product, not a fallback mode: FreelyMemo works fully offline, on a plane or in a tunnel, because writing a note never depends on a network connection.

Zero telemetry, by design

The extension includes no analytics, no tracking pixels, and no telemetry. FreelyMemo doesn't see what pages you're on when you write a note, and it doesn't track your usage. The only permissions it asks for are the ones it needs to function: local storage to save notes, the right-click menu for clipping text, access to the active tab to show the pad, and permission to run the pad on any page you visit — nothing tied to sending data out.

If you only ever use FreelyMemo on one browser, this is the entire privacy story: your notes go in, they stay on your device, and that's it.

That's also why FreelyMemo doesn't ask you to sign up before you can use it. There's no account system to build a profile behind, because there's no server-side account at all for the free tier — your identity, as far as the extension is concerned, is just "whoever is using this browser right now."

When something does leave your device

The one exception is optional: if you turn on cross-device sync — a Pro feature — your notes are encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM before they're transmitted anywhere. FreelyMemo's servers only ever store that encrypted, unreadable form. You can read the full mechanics in how end-to-end encrypted sync works. If you never turn sync on, none of this applies — no data is ever transmitted.

A practical example

Say you take notes during a client call about pricing you were quoted, or jot down a password reset code a support agent read out to you. With a cloud-first notes app, that text is sitting on someone else's server the moment you save it. With FreelyMemo's default setup, it never leaves the laptop you typed it on — there's no server in the loop unless you deliberately opt into sync.

The same applies to text you clip rather than type: right-clicking a quote or an order number into your pad follows the identical local-storage path as anything typed by hand. See how clipping text into color-coded notes works if you haven't tried that yet.

Try it without giving anything up

You can install FreelyMemo and use it fully offline for a 7-day free trial — no account, no credit card, no data handed over just to evaluate the product. If you decide to keep it, it's a one-time $10 payment rather than a subscription; see the pricing page for what's included.

Add it to Chrome or Firefox and take your first note without creating an account for it.

Privacy here isn't a setting you have to find and turn on — it's the state FreelyMemo is in from the moment you install it, and it stays that way for as long as you leave sync off.