Towards the end of January, I had set a goal: write and publish at least four articles a month. I wanted to make writing a habit, and also document my experiences. It’s July now, and it has already been six months since I set the goal. In all that time, I have managed to write a grand total of two articles: ‘Free Uptime Kuma’ and ‘Best Web Hosting @ $5/yr’.
Life happened, towards the beginning of February. And then some more of life happened.
When things settled, I had forgotten my goal of writing and documenting my journey. It was only a few weeks ago that I remembered my goal of writing an article a week. And, when I sat down to write - after six whole months - I came across an old frustration of mine. I cannot, for the life of me, write in Google Docs. Don’t get me wrong, Google Docs is a great tool and it does every single thing I would want from a word processor. The problem is that when I sit down to write, type docs.new into the searchbar, and begin to write - I get stuck. I cannot express what it is I want to write. As I sit there, facing the blinding pure-white (why?) screen, trying to write what I think - my mind just stops thinking altogether.
I traced this mental roadblock to one key issue: it’s got too many options. Google Docs, by being this swiss-knife of online documents, was giving me a headache. It’s my problem, I know. I get overwhelmed way too easily when I get presented with too many options. And Google Docs is literally packed full of options. It can do almost anything, which, ironically, is the problem for me.
If I wanted to write and achieve my goal of four articles a month, I was going to have to get off Google Docs and choose something else to write on. It wasn’t going to be Word, or Calibre, or any other feature ridden word processors. My ideal writing tool, it had to be clean, minimal, and light. And since I sometimes write from my phone, it needed to have a mobile-friendly interface - web-based; I hate having to install mobile apps.
And so my hunt began. I was going to set up this software in a VPS and back it up to Borgbase with Restic. I wanted the software of choice to have a docker image; it would be simple to set up, back up, and if it wasn’t to my liking, remove. I also wanted some organization built-in, like the ability to group various articles or have some hierarchy. Finally, the ability to share articles was also needed.
5. DumbPad
What I like about Dumbpad is its bare-bones nature, much like its other DumbWare companions. If you need nothing more than a space to write, Dumbpad is perfect. It offers basic markdown support, dark/light mode, search functionality, autosave, and the ability to switch between different pads from a dropdown menu. It has no database and stores files as a simple txt file in the backend, but that’s all it truly needs. Honestly, even though I have decided Dumbpad isn’t for me and moved all my files elsewhere, a part of me still wants to switch to this stupidly simple notepad.
Ultimately, it was a little too simple for my taste. While not limiting, it lacked some nice-to-have features. More importantly, it offers no way of organizing, or sharing the file, which led me to choose another software. But the entire DumbWare collection, with its bare-bones approach, is pretty compelling.
4. Flatnotes
Flatnotes, on paper, sounds exactly like what I want. It’s simple, clean, and minimal. Its structure is also familiar, consisting of two components: an index page, and the notes themselves. The index page lists all my notes, while the notes contain - well - the notes, like how Google Docs is organized.
Flatnotes is a simple markdown editor, and contains no database. Similar to DumbPad, it saves files directly to your server, though in .md format. It supports most features you would need from a note editor; you can write in Markdown and preview it, or use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode. However, I find the note editor’s design is more complex than necessary. It features two navigation bars: one for the logo, a button to create a new note, and the main menu; and another for the note’s title along with options to delete, save and edit. It also has two toggles: one to switch between Markdown Editor and Preview, and another for Markdown and WYSIWYG. In my opinion, the navigation bars could be combined into one and the toggles could be placed in the dropdown menu to reduce the visual clutter.
I also would have greatly appreciated an autosave functionality. Additionally, you also cannot share documents with users who don’t have an account. Flatnotes also lacks any organizational features whatsoever, which I believe would make it infinitely better. The ability to create folders/groups, and share would make Flatnotes perfect.
3. Standard Notes
I have been suggested Standard Notes many times before, and I installed it on my vps to try it out. However, a quick look at the interface was enough to make me say ‘nope.’ Visually, Standard Notes appears incredibly complex, and I was looking for something simple, and minimal - even at the cost of some features. Standard Notes is as far away from what I want as a note editor could get.
Furthermore, I am not the target audience for its primary selling point: a secure, end-to-end encrypted notetaking. Standard Notes is also quite limiting without a subscription, as most of its advanced features are locked behind a paywall. For free, you can access just the plain text editor.
Having heard so much about Standard Notes, I had certain expectations even before testing it. After testing it out, my opinion is that Standard Notes isn’t a sound financial choice for me, especially as I am looking for a minimal solution.
2. Etherpad
Etherpad is exactly what I need from an editor. It's clean, simple, and stunning. It has just one horizontal bar with all the options, and that's it. That's all that's required. When I sit down with Etherpad open, I can zone in and write.
Behind its minimalism, Etherpad is far more complex than others featured on this list. For one, it’s a collaborative editor, complete with features like chat and author colours. You also get a complete history of all changes, and can precisely see who made what changes. It also features tons of plugins, making it incredibly flexible and capable of a wide variety of tasks while being resource efficient.
Despite its strengths, I have significant concerns with Etherpad. The first is organization. I find it incredibly frustrating why document editors lack organizational features. Like all editors featured before, Etherpad has no organization built into it. Etherpad looks and functions great, is minimal, and allows me to truly concentrate on writing, but the lack of organization is clearly a downer.
If organization were its only flaw, I would have made peace with it. I would have played around with names, and built an workaround - if not for another glaring problem. I couldn’t, for all my tech-chops, create a Docker container for Etherpad that I could back up. I spent a significant amount of time trying to get Etherpad to work - far more time than I probably should have. But ultimately, I dropped Etherpad with a heavy, and frustrated heart.
1. Docmost
Organization. That’s what immediately impressed me about Docmost. It has so much organization that I could talk about it all day! The first level of organization is called a ‘space,’ which acts like a folder. You can create as many spaces as you like, so you could, for instance, create a space for work, or for whatever you’re currently doing. I’ve set up spaces for ‘Articles,’ ‘Quick Notes,’ and ‘Work’.
Inside each space are ‘pages,’ which is where you write your notes. That’s not all. You can create sub-pages, pages with lower hierarchy, and not just one - you can create as many sub-pages as you want. This allows for an absurd level of organization: I can create a page for ‘Articles’ (like this one), then sub-pages for ‘Dumbpad,’ ‘Flatnotes,’ and ‘Etherpad,’ and even sub-sub-pages to detail the various problems I encountered with Etherpad.
Docmost also boasts all the features you’d expect from a note editor. It’s a collaborative markdown editor which can easily share articles, track who made what changes and so on. The mobile editor is great, too, and I can work on the articles from both my laptop and my phone. Similar to Etherpad, I can review every change with Page History. Docmost supports adding images, tables, videos, and plenty of other elements, ensuring you won’t be left wanting in the features department.
Visually, Docmost looks clean, simple, and elegant. The writing interface contains a collapsible sidebar on the left, which contains a list of all pages, and buttons for search, settings, and overview (home). On the top of the page, there are two navigation bars 😩, though it’s not as intrusive as Flatnotes’ navigation bars. I am not a fan of how much space the title takes up in mobile, but I can just scroll past it - so it doesn’t hinder writing in any way.
I worked on this article for a far longer time than planned. My goal, to write and document my journey, is something I wanted to focus on properly. I tested more software than I have written about here; the ones featured are those that elicited a reaction from me (whether good or bad) or were suggested to me.
Docmost ended up being the software I chose to write with, primarily for the organization it offers, which, when I started searching for the apps, I didn’t even think I needed. Docmost also checks all the boxes for what I need: it’s got a great design, allows me to share documents and collect feedback, is stupidly simple to set up and get working, and accomplishes all this with minimal resource usage. That feeling I used to get, sitting down in front of Google Docs, I don’t get that when I sit down to write in front of Docmost.
After today, I’m going to publish regularly. I want to be consistent and put out content that helps others. All of my articles will be about software, with the majority being FOSS - as they are more approachable for someone with minimal resources, like myself. If you would like to support my journey, please do interact with the post.
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