I built a zero-account, local-first notepad — and why I think most note apps are solving the wrong problem

The itch Every time I needed to jot something down quickly — a snippet, a URL, a half-formed idea at 1am — I'd open a new browser tab and start searching for a notepad tool. The results were always the same: sign up to save your notes. Connect your Google account. Install our desktop app. Enable cloud sync. For a notepad. I just wanted to type. So I built one. What DarkNotepad actually is DarkNotepad is a minimal online notepad with three hard constraints I set for myself: No account required — ever. Not even optional. Nothing leaves your browser — notes live in localStorage , full stop. Dark mode by default — because most people who need a quick scratchpad are developers, and developers live in dark mode. That's it. No backend, no user table, no analytics that track what you type. The stack (it's boring, intentionally) I kept it simple on purpose: React + react-router-dom for SPA routing react-helmet-async for per-route meta tags (SEO without SSR) vercel.json rewrites to avoid 404s on