A truly cross-platform notes app

The problem: The platform lock-in trap

The best, most carefully designed minimalist scratchpads have a frustrating habit of being Apple-only exclusives. Apps like Bear, Tot, Drafts, Ulysses, and Antinote are undeniably excellent—right up until the moment your company issues you a Windows laptop, your next phone is an Android, or you need to quickly jot down a note on a borrowed machine.

A notes app that you cannot open on the device in your hand has failed at its only job.

When your note-taking tool is locked to a single operating system, your brain is locked to that operating system too. You shouldn't have to choose between a beautiful, native user experience and the flexibility to switch your hardware.

The solution: Every platform is first class

The problem: The fragmented scratchpad

A scratchpad is only useful if it's always exactly where you are. If you have to reach for your phone to check a note while you're furiously typing on your desktop, or if you can't access your work notes on your personal tablet, your scratchpad is completely broken.

Most minimalist scratchpad apps (like Tot or Apple Notes) are stubbornly locked to the Apple ecosystem. They work beautifully on a Mac or an iPhone, but the moment you sit down at a Windows PC, a Chromebook, or a Linux workstation, you are violently cut off from your own thoughts.

This forces a terrible compromise. You either have to carry multiple devices everywhere you go, or you start keeping separate scratchpads for separate operating systems—copy-pasting text to yourself over Slack or email just to move a simple idea from point A to point B. This is not how an intelligent person should work.

The solution: The true cross-platform scratchpad

Benchpad is built from the ground up to be a completely cross-platform scratchpad. It doesn't matter what piece of glass and metal you use; your three pads are always instantly available. We built a very sharp knife, and we make sure you can carry it everywhere.

1. Native Mobile: Fast, native apps for both iOS and Android.
2. Native Desktop: Dedicated desktop apps for macOS and Windows that completely respect your global keyboard shortcuts.
3. The Web & Linux: A full-featured PWA (Progressive Web App) that you can install directly onto a Linux machine, Chromebook, or any browser, behaving exactly like a native app.

Offline-First Sync that Actually Works

The biggest challenge with a cross-platform scratchpad is ensuring that your notes stay synchronized without losing data. Most apps use a lazy "last-write-wins" syncing model, meaning if you edit a note on your phone while on the subway (offline), and also edit it on your laptop at home, the app will brutally overwrite one of your changes the moment you reconnect.

Benchpad solves this with an offline-first architecture powered by CRDTs (Conflict-free Replicated Data Types).

When you type on any device, the data is saved instantly to that device's local storage. There is no waiting for a cloud server. When your devices eventually reconnect to the internet, Benchpad merges the changes at the character level. If you wrote a paragraph on your Android phone and added a checklist on your Windows PC, both edits merge perfectly without a single "Conflicted Copy" error.

No Folders. No Friction.

The reason Benchpad works so well across platforms is because it is structurally rigid. We deliberately refused to build folders, complex tagging systems, and visual clutter.

You get exactly three scratchpads: Now, Next, and Later. It's the exact same interface, the exact same speed, and the exact same data, everywhere you go. No decisions to make, just a place to write.

One price for all of it

Your notes shouldn't care what logo is printed on the back of your hardware, and neither does our pricing.

Our $20/year Pro subscription covers every single platform. There are no mobile companion upsells, no per-device pricing limits, and no cheaper tier that leaves out the machine you actually use to get work done. Even our free tier—one full pad—syncs seamlessly across every device you own.

Start writing for free

Related: The best offline note app · Benchpad vs Apple Notes · Benchpad vs Bear