Benchpad: Scratchpad Notes

Owldo

About this app

Benchpad is a digital scratchpad: three offline-first pads for quick notes,
checklists, and voice capture. No folders, no AI, no setup — open, type, close.

"The app that gets out of your way starts by giving you less to manage."


Benchpad is a scratchpad, not a second brain.

Three pads. You name them — Work / Personal / Scratch, Today / This Week /
Someday, whatever fits your head. No folders, no tags, no filing decisions.
Open, type, close.

WRITE WITHOUT DECIDING
Every note app asks "where does this go?" before you've written a word.
Benchpad doesn't. Three pads means the decision is already made.

WORKS ON A PLANE
Offline-first, not offline-tolerant. Every keystroke saves to your device
before any network request. Sync happens in the background when you're online
— and merges conflict-free if you edited on two devices at once.

A REAL EDITOR
Headings, checklists, tables, code blocks with syntax highlighting, images,
file attachments. Slash commands and ~28 templates (meeting notes, standup,
daily note, habit tracker). Voice notes with live on-device transcription —
your device's dictation, not AI.

DONE ISN'T DELETED
When a section is finished, archive it — tagged, dated, searchable,
restorable. Pads stay clean. Nothing disappears.

NO AI. NO ADS. NO DATA MINING.
Nothing reads, summarizes, or trains on your notes. Notes are encrypted at
rest. Plain markdown — copy everything out anytime, no lock-in.

FREE FOREVER, REALLY
One pad, the full editor, offline support, sync, and an archive of 100 notes —
free, no credit card, no time limit. Pro ($20/year flat) unlocks all three
pads, all six themes, attachments, voice-note audio, and Markdown/PDF export.

CONSTRAINT IS THE PRODUCT
Benchpad is for people who want to write things down — not maintain a system.
A note app that knows when to stop.

When you can't create infinite folders, you write instead of organizing. Constraint isn't a compromise. It's the product.

WORKS LIKE A COMPUTER
Scratchpads are your RAM.
Archive is the ROM.
Scratchpads: Active thinking. Fast, temporary, always in use.

Archive: Permanent, searchable, never in the way.

This is how your brain actually works. Benchpad works the same way.



WHY NOT JUST KEEP?
Google Keep is built for sticky notes; Benchpad is built for writing. A real
block editor, sections you can archive, templates, and offline-first sync that
merges edits from all your devices without losing a word. And it's the rare
scratchpad that isn't Apple-only — the same app runs on your phone, your
laptop (tucked away in the toolbar tray), the web and even as a browser extension.

What’s new

Improvements in sync functionality.