Privacy & terms

Privacy

What the app does with your data

Everything you write — notes, tasks, mind maps, attachments — is stored in a single encrypted database file on your own computer, in a folder belonging to your user account. It is never uploaded anywhere, because the application has no ability to make network requests at all.

The encryption key is generated on your machine the first time you open Neurain and kept in your operating system’s password store (Keychain on macOS, Credential Manager on Windows, the Secret Service on Linux). If that store is unavailable, the key is written to a file readable only by your user account. The key does not exist in the downloaded file or in the source code.

What is not collected

• No account — no name, no email address, no password.
• No usage statistics in the app — the app records nothing about what you open, click or write. (This website counts anonymous visits — see “This website” below.)
• No crash reports — nothing is sent when something goes wrong.
• No advertising or profiling, and no data sold or shared with anyone.
• No remote content — fonts, icons and images all ship inside the app.

Your rights over your data

Because your data never leaves your computer, you already have complete control of it: the database is an ordinary file you can copy, back up, move to another machine or delete. Notes and maps can also be exported as PDF or image files. There is no request to make of anyone, and nobody else holds a copy to delete.

This website

This website uses PostHog, an analytics tool, to count anonymous visits — for example, which operating system people download for. That data is not sold or shared with anyone, and the app itself still collects nothing. If you click a download link you are taken to GitHub, where GitHub’s own privacy policy applies to that visit.

Terms of use

Using the app

You may install and use Neurain on as many of your own computers as you like, for personal or professional work. Neurain is free of charge until 1 October 2026. After that date it becomes a one-time purchase rather than a subscription.

Any version downloaded before that date remains free to use indefinitely: the software contains no licence key, no account system and no expiry check of any kind, so nothing stops working when the price changes. An optional cloud sync service is planned separately; it would be a subscription, would be entirely optional, and would not be required to use the app.

No warranty

Neurain is supplied “as is”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied — including fitness for a particular purpose. The author cannot be held liable for any loss of data or other damage arising from the use of the software, to the fullest extent permitted by law.

In practice this matters most for one thing: keep your own backups. Neurain writes a fresh backup of its database each time it starts and keeps the last fifteen, but those copies live on the same computer. A stolen laptop or a failed disk takes them with it. Copy the database file somewhere else too.

First launch and system warnings

Neurain is not registered with Apple’s notarisation programme or signed with a Windows code-signing certificate, so both systems display a warning the first time you open it. This is expected and is explained on the download page. Only ever install Neurain from the official download links on this site.

Reporting a problem

Bugs and suggestions are welcome on the issue tracker. Please don’t include private content from your notes when reporting something.

Last updated: 16 August 2026.