Frequently asked questions

A note-taking app you run on your own web space. It feels like an ordinary word processor, organises notes in folders and labels, searches everything, lets you write on PDFs and works offline too.

Nothing. The app is free and open source. From 1 December 2026, you can optionally let us host it for €99 a year.

Better you read it here than find out later. There’s no end-to-end encryption: notes are stored as plain text on the server, and whoever runs the server can read them. There’s no live co-editing: if two people write in the same note at the same moment, the last save wins and the overwritten text goes into the version history. And there are no native apps: Snowfox is a web app you can install on your device.

Yes. Snowfox Notes runs in any modern browser and can be added to your home screen as an app. On iPad you can write on PDFs with Apple Pencil.

All current browsers – Safari, Chrome, Edge and Firefox, on computers and phones alike. For the offline view and installing it as an app, your instance should be reachable via HTTPS.

German and English – the interface, the manual and the built-in templates. You choose the language under Settings → Account.

No. Every change is saved to your server shortly after you type. If the server is briefly unreachable, your text stays in the editor and is sent again until it gets through.

Yes. Make single notes, folders or everything available offline. Changes sync once you’re back online – and aren’t lost even when there’s a conflict.

On Android, yes: once the app is installed, it shows up in other apps’ share menu. iPhone and iPad don’t offer that, because Apple doesn’t let web apps into the share menu.

Yes. One instance has several accounts – as admins, writers or read-only. It’s built for a family or a small team, not for thousands of accounts. Create accounts yourself or invite people with an access code.

Not necessarily. Every top-level folder is open to everyone on the instance, just for you or for chosen people, each with read or write rights. Notes outside any folder are always visible to everyone. What someone may do also depends on their role – admin, user or reader. Sharing decides who sees something in the app: whoever runs the server can technically reach all data.

The text saved last wins. The overwritten version isn’t lost, though: it goes into the note’s version history.

Look in the trash – you can restore everything from there until the retention period runs out. If you only overwrote text, the note’s version history helps.

Any time. Download everything you can see as a folder of Markdown files or as ENEX – Obsidian, Notion, Joplin, Evernote and Apple Notes can read that. Single notes come as Markdown or PDF, your whole library as a ZIP.

Yes. Under Settings → Backup and import the app reads an Obsidian vault as a ZIP (or any folder of Markdown files), a Notion export and ENEX files from Evernote. Folders, images, attachments, links, tags and dates come along. Just drop single Markdown or text files into the window.

No. The note stays in its folder and also shows up in the calendar.

By e-mail if your account has a confirmed address, and as a push on every device you switch it on for. On iPhone and iPad, push only works once Snowfox is on your home screen. If nothing’s on, nothing comes.

No. Revealing doesn’t change the note: open it again and everything’s hidden – for others reading it too.

Yes, once the PDF has been read. Your browser reads the text a PDF already contains. It recognises scans locally by default too, and the pages stay on your device. That runs on a computer while the app is open.

No. Ordinary web hosting with PHP 8.4 is enough. You upload via FTP; SSH isn’t required.

PHP 8.4.1 or newer with the usual extensions (including pdo_sqlite, mbstring, openssl, fileinfo), write access to three folders and ideally HTTPS. A built-in check page tells you upfront whether your hosting is ready. Everything else is in the self-hosting guide.

No, not a separate one. Snowfox Notes keeps your notes in a SQLite file on your web space; images, attachments and PDFs sit next to it as files.

No. The app does housekeeping such as emptying the trash on the side, while it’s being used. Only if reminders should arrive on time and backups run at night does something have to wake the server every few minutes – that works without cron too, via a free service. The app only needs a mail server for e-mails.

From the settings: choose the update package, the app checks it, then install. If something isn’t right, one click takes you back to the previous version. If your provider doesn’t allow that, FTP works too.

The server checks permissions on every action. Once opened over HTTPS, the app only runs encrypted, and you can switch on two-factor sign-in. There’s no end-to-end encryption: whoever runs the server can read the notes. If you self-host, you decide who gets access.

On the server your instance runs on: notes in a database, with images, attachments and PDFs as files next to it. With hosting by us, available from 1 December 2026, that’s our server.

Nothing without a reason you can switch off. Once a day the app asks for a new version when an admin opens it; you can turn that off. Everything else only happens if you set it up: Mistral for scans, a copy of your backup via WebDAV, e-mail through your mail account, push reminders as an empty wake-up signal, a template catalogue and a connected AI.

Not built in. Connect Claude, ChatGPT or a similar client via MCP. MCP stays off until an admin switches it on. Without that connection, no AI sees your notes.

Claude, ChatGPT and similar clients. claude.ai and ChatGPT sign in via OAuth; Claude Code, Claude Desktop and Cursor use an access key. What a connected AI reads goes to its provider – which is why it’s your decision, not the app’s.

Only if you allow it. When connecting, you pick read only or read and change, and it can only change things if both account and key may write. It only sees what your account sees, and what it changes shows under your name in the version history.

No, never. Recognition in the browser is the default. Mistral OCR is just an option for admins who’d rather have scans read there – with their own key. PDFs with scanned pages then go to Mistral as a whole file; PDFs from folders only certain people can see stay here, unless an admin explicitly allows it.

With self-hosting, Snowfox Notes runs on your own web space and you take care of it yourself. With hosting by us, available from 1 December 2026, it runs on our server, with 10 GB of storage and your own subdomain – nothing to install. It’s the same app either way.

To be honest: it doesn’t apply here. With hosting by us, available from 1 December 2026, the server is ours. So your notes live with us, and as the operator we could technically read them, because Snowfox Notes has no end-to-end encryption. Your data is still yours, though: you can leave at any time with your export and move to your own web space.

Yes. Download the ZIP backup, set up Snowfox Notes on the new web space and import the backup there. Notes, folders, files, versions and annotations come along; accounts you create anew.