Interesting comments about sync being essential.
I'd agree cloud sync is great for things like shopping lists and todo lists, but I don't want it for very personal information (medical, financial, passwords, etc). I want to keep that information out of somebody-else's nebulous cloud. The recent macrumors security breach serves as a reminder that determined hackers are a constant threat to sensitive online data - particularly where it exists in large, lucrative concentrations.
Then I sure hope you also be careful with iCloud sync/backup - at the very least.
So that's why I like the idea of no sync (or at least being able to turn it off and keep it off)
My take is that, for that kind of use case, you want/
need a concrete feature, namely encryption and generally information security focus - not the lack of another feature. No?
(...are you really using a non-encrypted notepad for that kind of info?)
That said, the vesper devs have sync on their todo list:
http://daringfireball.net/2013/09/vesper_whats_new_whats_next. But it's reassuring to see they understand the dangers of just throwing everyone's data into some cloud somewhere:
I bought the app recently. It's simple and beautiful for it. We'll worth $4.00. These devs get it. A point made abundantly clear from their frequent and very thoughtful blog posts, such as:
I ask you, how many iOS devs agonize over the spacial and cognitive weight of their icons?
I ask you back, how many iOS devs do you want agonizing over icon placement (for months!) instead of offering real features like, oh I don't know, sync?
Needless to say, you are free to use the app you want and pay whatever you want. If the agonizing over placement of icons is more important for you than sync, sounds like Vesper is perfect for you.
But certainly that doesn't reflect my priorities - I am not even sure if I know what would make a note-taking app "beautiful". So probably Vesper is too exquisite for me.
And so I find the free, excellently-sincyng SimpleNote to be good enough for me.
Also, secondarily but important for me at least, I find myself not wanting to support developers who wax philosophical over icon placement and beauty in half-baked note-taking apps while other apps are already offering the real meat - for free.
And just so you know that it isn't about the "free" part, I am waiting for SimpleNote to start accepting premium accounts again to get one. Simply because I want to make sure that they stay around.