Analyze and list similar products

[CatEars]

I want to find what the most important features are for privnote. The easiest way is to look at similar products and competition and see what they look like and what features they have. And of course, which ones are worth implementing.

I have already identified some similar products:

• Privnote
• Safenote
• Privatty
• Firefox Send

Some things to consider:

• How do they sell their encryption?
• How polished is the UI?
  • Is it polished on mobile?
• Is it free? How much does it cost?
• Are there different tiers of the application and what are the differences between tiers?
• How quick can you get a note out? (workflow)
• Are there any development API:s?
• Are there "on premise"-offerings?
• Does it send anything more than notes?
• Are there any advanced options for the note? What are they?
• Does it use any open source software?
• How many people are using it?
• Does it offer language support?

[CatEars]

Privnote

https://privnote.com

The strongest and seemingly most established product is privnote. It is a free internet service that allows users to enter messages and share them with others. It's extremely straightforward and can basically only share the note. The options that are available are changing self-destruct behavior (after reading or after a few hours/days up to 30 days). Manual password (for "extra security"). Destruction notification by email. That's it.

• How do they sell their encryption?

Not really. They say it is secure. Looking around you can find that they alude to system administrators not being able to read the notes. To me that says they use end to end encryption. Looking at their FAQ reveals that they have actually completed a privacy audit on privnote with external auditors. Looking at the external audit it seems like they use a double scheme for the encryption. There is one key in the browser and one on the server. I guess that also works, but I don't know why the server would encrypt the message a second time. I guess you split the key in two? However, the audit also says that the each key is 16 characters long. That doesn't sound like a whole lot...

• How polished is the UI?

It looks okay. Not a masterpiece, but it does look slim and easy. There are no animations, so clicking and dragging things can be a bit abrupt. The application uses responsive designs to look good on mobile as well. I think it works well.

• Is it free? How much does it cost?

It is completely free. I couldn't even find an offering. I think that the product is part of an R&D effort of a tech firm (seems to be consultants). So essentially it is marketing to sell the company competence, or just straight up philanthropy. Hard to tell, honestly.

• Are there different tiers of the application and what are the differences between tiers?

N/A

• How quick can you get a note out?

Within seconds. The flow is very smooth. Notes are right, front and center.

• Are there any development API:s?

Could not find any.

• Are there "on premise"-offerings?

No, doesn't seem like it.

• Does it send anything more than notes?

No. Just notes.

• Are there any advanced options for the note? What are they?

So there are three different options.

1. Setting when note will be destroyed. Either after reading or after a specific amount of time, up to 30 days.
2. Entering a manual password for the note (however, I think this is just security theater).
3. Destruction notification by email. Send an email when the note has been destroyed.

• Does it use any open source software?

I could not find any licensing, which to me is strange because there are quite a lot of things used by the app described in the audit that I believe have licenses which say you need to disclose the software you are using. Examples include PostgreSQL, Django and Apache HTTP Server.

• How many people are using it?

Snooping around the company website says it has roughly 200'000 monthly users.

• Does it offer language support?

Yeah, for quite a lot of languages actually.... It seems to have been submitted by people using the app so there is a small community around it.