Clipto

Stone -
💡
Clipto is no longer on Google Play

Clipto's name is deceiving as it's so much more than a clipboard manager. It's one of the best note-taking apps that I've used. You can use it local-only or signup using email, Facebook, or SMS. It's very customizable and configurable, supports plain text, Markdown and you can export to PDF, HTML, Markdown, or plain old text.

From what I can see, the Developer is moving to a new place and has not been active on the Discord server for the past four months. Hopefully, all is OK.

Clipto uses Google's Firebase service, which is great technology but requires enough subscribers to cover the costs. From one of the Developer's messages on Discord back in April, the app is not profitable yet. I hope some of you sign up and help him become profitable as I feel that this app needs to live on!

I enjoyed using the app this week, especially some of the wording for his features aka runes. For example, if you hover over the save button on a note, you get this:

The point of no return

Notes in Clipto are not end-to-end encrypted, but they are encrypted at rest on the server and in transit between your device and the server since it uses HTTPS. I saw a comment on Discord from the Developer saying he was going to be looking at end-to-end encryption which is good to hear.

For now, don't keep your passwords in Clipto and be extra careful if you use a password keeper not to accidentally copy your password into Clipto or any app for that matter.

Clipto errata - 2022-09-10

One big correction I made was related to the pricing of Clipto. The $5/mo plan is for a maximum of 30,300 notes, not 300,300.

I also missed a few features and one limitation of Clipto plus a feature that I stumbled upon!

  • 6 Heading levels
  • Authentication via Google
  • Tables (Markdown)
  • No front matter
  • You can add a description and an abbreviation on a note
  • (almost) full-screen mode while editing a note

I played with the app a bit more this week and enjoyed it. I will keep it on my Android desktop, in my second-class Note Apps folder.

Quotes

Your personal writing companion - [2]
Clipto is a cross-platform, community-driven Clipboard and Notes app with a focus on speed and productivity - [4]

References

  1. Google Play
  2. clipto.pro - Web
  3. r/cliptopro - reddit, joined 2019-11-23
  4. clipto-pro/Android - GitHub
  5. Privacy Policy

People

  • "Alex" - no more details on the developer a Location in Google Play shows as Cyprus

Pricing

Clipto is free for up to 300 notes and that includes complete sync. Check the pricing page for up-to-date prices. As of today, you can pay anywhere from $7 per year for up to 1,300 notes to $5/mo for 30,300 notes. What I like is that you can have an unlimited number of notes locally.

Ugly

  • Send as Markdown didn't work
  • Add a calendar event didn't work
  • Add a contact didn't work

Bad

  • Doesn't automatically add "- " for the next bullet when in Markdown mode
  • No WYSIWYG editing
  • Image preview not shown in the note list
  • No front matter support
  • No audio recording
  • When using "Location", I thought it was going to add geo-location
  • Can't understand why I need to specify the type of file

Good

  • Attach an image
  • Grid view of notes and condensed grid view
  • Undo and redo
  • Tags on notes
  • Sort by date created or date modified
  • Filter by type of note (text, text with Hyperlinks, QR code, Markdown, HTML, text with copied lines, text with tokens)
  • Filter notes with attachments
  • Filter public notes
  • Filter by date range, today, yesterday, last 7 days, last 30 days, last 90 days
  • Recycle bin
  • Backup notes

Great

  • Can use it without the cloud initially, maybe longer although I'm not sure about the limits
  • Free sync for up to 300 notes
  • Export to PDF
  • Attach video
  • Shows tags in some of the note list modes (not in grid view)
  • Folders are nicely done
  • Markdown support
  • Tables
  • Add a note while in a note, a simple idea that I hadn't seen before
  • Optionally can keep a note for anything on the clipboard. That's unique!
  • Sort tags alphabetically, by colour, or manually
  • Filter by tags
  • Select one or more notes
  • Merge notes
  • Preview hyperlinks
  • Full-screen mode for editing

Awesome

  • Beautifully done UI
  • Super fast
  • Backup one or more notes to JSON
  • Import from Google Keep, Simplenote
  • Export to Markdown
  • Linux, macOS, Windows, and Web versions (no iOS as yet)
  • Attach files up to 300MB file size
  • Device synchronization
  • 30 fonts, yummy!
  • Snippets (templates)
  • Description on a note
  • Abbreviation for a note
  • Send as PDF
  • Share notes publicly with several options: at a specific time and for a specific duration, with password, allow it only to be opened once, or with time to expire