A web app I made for free, offline-first note taking, fusing Notion and Figjam.
DevBoard keeps notes, maps, and references in one local-first, linked workspace so you can change modes without losing the thread. Connect notes or put them on a board.
Most note and idea tools are built for teams presenting to stakeholders — not for a solo dev at 11pm trying to untangle a gnarly system design. They're slow to open, require sign-in, and default to a polished, presentation-ready canvas that fights against rough, fast thinking.
DevBoard started as a single HTML file I could run anywhere. The constraint — no backend, no build step, no accounts — turned out to be the feature. It loads in under a second. You close the tab; your board is still there next time.
Everything you need to think out loud, nothing you don't.
Pan, zoom, dot grid — no boundaries on your thinking
Color, edit, resize, copy/paste — full keyboard shortcuts
Bezier curves that snap between notes
Everything persists in your browser — no account, no sync
Keyboard shortcuts: V Select H Pan S Sticky L Line ⌘C / ⌘V Copy/Paste
The biggest milestone in this update: DevBoard is no longer browser-only. Native desktop builds are now live for Mac (Apple Silicon) and Windows — a portable .exe you can run without an installer.
Because the app was built to be self-contained from day one, going offline-native required almost no architectural changes. The constraint paid off.
The canvas started as sticky notes on a grid. It now covers most of what I reach for when a note stops being enough, without turning into a diagramming tool.
A blank canvas is the hardest screen in any whiteboard app. New canvases can start from a template: a gameplay loop, a mission flow, a kanban board, a timeline.
Notes are already Markdown files in a folder you chose, so export is mostly a convenience. A note can leave as Markdown, PDF or plain text, and a canvas as a PNG.
The pricing follows the architecture. Everything that runs on your machine costs me nothing to provide, so it is free and needs no account: unlimited local workspaces, notes, canvases and export.
The only part with a running cost is sync, so that is the only part with a price. It is free during the beta and expected to land around €4–€5 a month, for up to ten synced workspaces with EU-hosted storage and automatic backup. Local workspaces stay free either way.
That split also sets the positioning: more than a notes file, less setup than a full workspace tool.
