The Commonplace story

Commonplace is a project that I started because I wanted a new place to organize my life, without having to worry about my data being sold to the highest bidder.

Orignially I just wanted a new place to store my book collection. I had a large Google Sheet with all the books I wanted to read. However, Google is known for finding ways to mis-use whatever you put on their platform. I don't trust their 'do no evil' anymore. I found other sites not to be trustworthy either. So, I created my own solution. Something that doesn't rely on targeted advertising for revenue.

After implementing the book collection I wanted to start adding my book notes as well, so I extended the platform to include Remarks on my books. With that out of the way, I noticed that I still had many other notes, links, articles, poems, and more saved in my OneNote account. I don’t trust Microsoft with my data either, so I decided to make my book list platform into a single one-stop shop where everything I record can be organized.

In times of old, people like Leonardo DaVinci had large notebooks where they kept all of their notes. They called these ‘commonplace books.’ Hence, I decided to name this my Commonplace app. An app where I can put all my ‘stuff’.

I’m continually updating the app with improvements and new features. If you’d like to see something changed, please drop me an email at michiel@mvdm.io. I’d love to hear from you.

Interested in more?

You can register a free account here.
You can read about trial, pricing and refund policy here.
Finally, I've tried my best at describing each Commonplace feature on the 'feature' page here.