Kanso
Kanso app icon

Notes to simplify your day.

A calm markdown notes app for Mac and iPhone. Your notes live as plain text files in iCloud Drive - no account, no servers, no analytics.

Listed on the App Store as Kanso Notes.

Mac screenshot - capture pending
iPhone screenshot - capture pending

Plain Markdown files. iCloud sync. No account, no servers, no analytics.

Every note is a .md file on your device. Open them in any other editor. Back them up however you like. There is no proprietary database, because Kanso doesn't need one.

Features

A small handful of opinionated tools, instead of a dashboard.

Editor

Markdown that gets out of your way.

A WYSIWYG markdown editor that hides the syntax until your caret is near it. Bold, italics, headings, lists, checkboxes, and links all render as formatted text - and reveal as plain markdown the moment you click into them.

  • . Spell-check that auto-corrects without nagging
  • . Click a checkbox to toggle, drag a checked item to reorder
  • . Themes that change the type, spacing, and surface
editor.png
Note types

Six small tools, one app.

Most notes are just notes. The handful that are not get a tailored editor instead of a generic checklist.

Current - the workstream you're on now
Idea - quick capture with status
Grocery - auto-sorted by category
Recipe - drop a URL to import
Journal - one entry per day
Sketch - finger-and-pen drawing
note-types.png
Sync

iCloud Drive. That's it.

No account to create, no password to remember, no third-party sync layer to break. If you have iCloud Drive on, your notes appear on every Apple device you sign in to. If you don't, they stay local. Either way, the files belong to you.

sync.png
Themes

Five surfaces. Pick the one that fits your day.

Paper for default calm. Retro for warm cream. Graphite for cool grey. Sage for muted green. Terminal for green text on pure black with a monospace body. Each theme adjusts type, spacing, and accent together.

On Mac

Tabs and windows the way you'd expect.

Open notes in tabs (.T), drag to reorder, jump with .1-9, reopen what you closed with ..T. Plus full-keyboard navigation across the rail and list.

tabs.png
Import

Bring everything else with you.

One-click import from FSNotes, Obsidian, Bear, Apple Notes, Simplenote, Evernote, and Google Keep. Imports are reversible - Kanso checkpoints your notes folder before writing, so you can roll back if the result isn't what you wanted.

FSNotes
Obsidian
Bear
Apple Notes
Simplenote
Evernote
Google Keep
nvAlt
Markdown

Privacy

Your notes are yours.

Kanso does not collect, transmit, or store any personal information on any server we operate, because we have no servers. No analytics SDK, no crash reporter, no advertising framework, no tracking of any kind. The only network requests the app ever makes are the ones you explicitly trigger.

Read the full privacy policy >

Pricing

Free.

Kanso is free on the App Store. No subscription, no in-app purchases, no upsells. If a Pro tier ever lands, the core editor and sync stay free.

$0
Mac and iPhone
  • . All note types
  • . iCloud sync
  • . All themes
  • . Imports from every supported source