Why I started building DumbNote:
I've been a fan of note-taking with Notion since the day it launched—I even paid for the subscription. But one day, I decided to cut down on my recurring expenses, and Notion was one of the first to go. That's when I realized: getting out wasn't easy.
I tried Obsidian. It looked great at first, but over time I found it too distracting and bloated with features I didn't need. All I really wanted was a simple notepad to write things down—fast.
Most of the time, I took quick notes using Markdown in VSCode before eventually copying them into Notion. Markdown was faster to type, entirely keyboard-driven, and easy to read with the right extensions. VSCode made it simple and efficient.
That's why I started building DumbNote:
Clean, VSCode-style Markdown rendering
Easy sharing/publishing via GitHub Gists (a feature inspired by Notion)
All notes are saved as plain .md files on my local machine—no lock-in (menu: File → Goto Note Folder)
Markdown is becoming a universal writing format, especially with AI tools
I can back up everything to my NAS, external drive, or Google Drive—no strings attached
Love Obsidian, but the reason many note apps exist is because of user preferences.
How do you justify the time investment in such a saturated market ?
Great question!
I built it for my daily works; anyway. I couldn't find one that fit me. Clean UI like Notion, and my data is my data. I tried export Notion but gave up.
I'm using Mac but use Android Phone. so Apple note doesn't works for me. Google Keep is my things but it's hard to organized.
Typora is focus too much on writing; IA writer looks neat but not for a braindump note.
Obsidian not quite neat as Notion, Typora or IA writer.
So right now I'm just building all feature that i daily use it (at least I'll be this user of Dumbnote Forever lol)
You can check my changelog: github/baibao577/dumbnote-page/releases
Thanks for asking a great question :)
Well, I am a very extensive note-taker and I tell you right now, markdown is not something common in taking notes, not for the majority. Yeah, developers like you and me can take notes, and if that's your intended end user - in that case also, since we are caught up with so many things, we don't want to go and write again something which needs our mind to be used. So speed in catching these thoughts I think is trivial in this industry. I tried many things like Evernote, Notion, Obsidian, Apple Notes, Google Keep, etc., and I tell you honestly, the most convenient way, although not the most elegant, is Apple Notes - it opens up fast, has a clean UI, no learning curve, everything can be seen where you want it to be. Again, it has some of its own problems, but the biggest one is searching or getting the right note recommended to you when you need it the most. For example, I have installed Postgres using Brew and then configured some root user password and then created another user for some different project, and running Postgres itself through command line is not easy, so when I again want to spawn this, I have to search through notes and sometimes I don't remember the text I wrote, so I don't search with correct keywords. This is the problem I have seen in one of the Reddit threads also - that people are good at taking notes but bad at arranging them, and that's why we have the Zettelkasten way of taking and managing notes.
Anyways all being said as a fellow creator its always good to see and try other fellow developers product. Will try and give my honest feedback in this thread.
Agreed on the Apple notes piece. At the end of the day, easy access anywhere and any time wins the game with my productivity apps!
Thanks for you honest opinion. Looking forward for more of your feedbacks!
hey Baibao, is there anyway i could contact you regarding my thoughts on DumbNote?
yes, you can reach me out via twitter as well: @baibao or we can talk on the github[dot]com/baibao577/dumbnote-page
I like the name! The product, not so much. Don't fall into the trick of just building the itch you want to scratch. At least, wait a few days to see if it's still a problem.
It's still a good name though, so I bet your pivot has a good chance of going well. Just wait a couple days, or even a few weeks, until inspiration strikes again.
Nice idea and congrats on building it! I just joined IndieHackers and it´s great to see people creating things from scratch like that. Very inspiring!
Nice 👍
I started building DumbNote to create a simple, distraction-free space for capturing quick thoughts without pressure, clutter, or over-engineered features.
It’s a solid, authentic story: you built DumbNote because bloated tools got in the way of quick, focused writing. By keeping notes as plain Markdown files with VSCode-style rendering, easy GitHub Gist sharing, and zero lock-in, you’ve created a clean, developer-friendly notepad that respects ownership and stays out of the user’s way.
Good one
simple, focused note-taking tool built for everyday use with no fluff, no over-engineering... hard to find these days to be honest
Totally relate to this. I went through the same cycle—Notion → Obsidian → back to plain Markdown. Sometimes all you need is a fast, boring notepad that doesn’t get in your way.
glad that we share the same believe!