Zen Notes Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

Deploy Zen Notes hosting and keep your notes as plain Markdown files on a server you control. xCloud runs the pinned Zen Notes 2.69.1 image with a read-only, non-root container, generates the access token you sign in with, mounts persistent volumes for the vault and settings, and publishes the browser editor over HTTPS in minutes.

Deploy your Zen Notes

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is Zen Notes?

Zen Notes is a keyboard-first Markdown notes app. It keeps your notes as ordinary Markdown files in a vault of your choosing and adds Vim-friendly editing, split and preview modes, tasks, tags, search, wiki links and backlinks on top of those files.

The project ships as a desktop app and as a self-hosted web app backed by a Go server. This page covers the self-hosted web app: you open it in a browser from any device, sign in with a token, and the vault lives on your server.

From Sign-Up to a Live Vault In Just 3 Easy Steps

A self-hosted notes app normally means a container, volume ownership, a sign-in secret, a domain and a certificate before the first note. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick Zen Notes from the OneClick catalog. Choose your domain and target server — there are no extra fields to fill in.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the community Zen Notes image, pinned by immutable digest, with a helper that fixes volume ownership and a health-probe sidecar (neither publishes a port), mount the zennotes_vault and zennotes_data volumes, generate the access token, and publish it over HTTPS on your domain.
Step 03
Sign In And Connect The Vault
Save the access token shown in the protected installation credentials and open your HTTPS Zen Notes URL. Sign in with the token, choose /workspace when the app offers to connect a vault, then create your first note.

Everything Zen Notes Does, On Your Own Server

The Zen Notes web app runs here in full: a Markdown vault and browser editor on your own domain, with your notes stored as files you can copy out.

Plain Markdown Files
Every note is a normal .md file inside the vault, not a row in a hidden database, so notes can be copied out and opened in any editor.
Edit, Split And Preview
Write in a CodeMirror-based editor with live preview, or switch to split and preview modes. Preview renders GitHub-flavored Markdown, KaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, callouts and footnotes.
Wiki Links And Backlinks
Link notes with wiki links and follow backlinks between them, in the editor and in preview.
Search, Tasks And Tags
Search notes by title and path or search the text of the whole vault, and use the tags and tasks views to see what is open.
Daily And Weekly Notes
Optional daily and weekly notes can be switched on in Settings, with configurable folders and title patterns.
One Access Token, No Accounts
A random token generated at install is the only credential; requests without it get 401. There is no registration and no multi-user model.

Everything You Need To Run Your Notes Vault 24/7

Managed hosting for Zen Notes, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

Zen Notes 2.69.1 deployed instantly
Community image pinned by digest
Access token generated for you
Read-only, non-root app container
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
30+ server locations
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With Zen Notes

A personal notes vault you own
Keep notes as plain .md files on your own server, so they can be copied out and opened in any editor whenever you want.
Linked notes for research and writing
Connect ideas with wiki links, follow backlinks and search the whole vault to find what you wrote earlier.
Tasks next to the notes they came from
Track tasks in the same vault as your notes, with a tasks view and tags to find what is still open.
Daily and weekly notes from any device
Turn on daily and weekly notes in Settings and open your vault from a browser on any device with the site URL and token.

Zen Notes Screenshots

Zen Notes vault home with the sidebar, quick access to Tasks and Quick Notes, a recent notes list and New note, Database and Drawing buttons

Zen Notes Markdown editor with Edit, Split and Preview mode buttons and a note open in a tab

Zen Notes first-run welcome screen with Vim mode, theme and vault setup steps

Zen Notes vs Alternatives

Obsidian: Upstream describes Zen Notes as working with existing Obsidian-style vaults, including notes at the vault root and ![[image.png]] embeds. Zen Notes here is a web app you reach through a browser on your own server.
Notion: Zen Notes keeps notes as plain Markdown files rather than in a hosted workspace; upstream's CSV databases offer Table and Board views over plain .csv files.
Memos: Memos is a lightweight self-hosted note-taking and knowledge base app with markdown support, tags and private posts. Zen Notes is organised around a vault of .md files with wiki links, tasks and split preview.
BookStack: BookStack is a wiki organised into shelves, books, chapters and pages with WYSIWYG and Markdown editing. Zen Notes is a single access-token vault of Markdown files without accounts.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

Dedicated Cloud VPS sizes, pre-configured for Zen Notes hosting. Pick the one that fits, and resize any time.

Cloud VPS 6 GB

Cloud VPS 16 GB

More headroom if Zen Notes sits alongside other apps on one server.

$59.99per month

16 GB RAM
6 vCPU cores
200 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Every size is a dedicated Cloud VPS we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Billed monthly with no lock-in — delete the server and the unused balance comes back to your account. Zen Notes itself is licensed by its maintainers under MIT.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

Connect any VPS — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, Hetzner or bare metal — and deploy Zen Notes on it through the same panel, for a per-server management fee instead of a Cloud VPS rental.

Free

Start your journey without cost.

$0forever

1 server
10 sites

Start free

Starter

Professional

The same platform, discounted at 6–10 servers.

$4per server / month

6–10 servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

Get started

Agency

The same platform, discounted at 11+ servers.

$3per server / month

11+ servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

Get started

Priced per connected server, so your rate adjusts automatically as you add or remove servers. You pay your own provider for the server itself.

Self-managed hosting

Ready To Run Your Own Notes Vault?

Zen Notes on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Deploy faster. Own the server. Stay in control.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

Hear what people are saying about us

See why agencies, developers, startups, and growing businesses choose xCloud to power their projects.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

How do I sign in?

Use the access token generated at install and shown in the protected installation credentials. There are no accounts or registration; requests without the token, or with a wrong one, get 401.

Can several people use it?

There is no multi-user or sharing model. Everyone who holds the token has full access to read, change and delete every note in the vault.

What runs alongside Zen Notes?

Two small helper containers: one fixes volume ownership before the app starts, the other probes the app's health endpoint. Neither publishes a port.

What do I do when the app offers to connect a vault?

Choose /workspace, the folder kept on the install's persistent zennotes_vault volume, then create your first note.

Is the site public by default?

It is reachable over HTTPS at your domain, and the access token is the only credential. If the vault holds anything sensitive, keep the token private and restrict who can reach the site.

How do I rotate the access token?

Edit ZENNOTES_AUTH_TOKEN in the app's environment values and redeploy; it cannot be changed from inside the app. Leave ZENNOTES_BEHIND_TLS=1 in place.

Edit environment variables and redeploy

Why was I locked out after a few wrong tokens?

Failed sign-ins are rate limited, and behind the reverse proxy attempts may be counted against the proxy address, so wait ten minutes after repeated failures.

Are there upload limits?

By default uploads are capped at 50 MiB and a single note write at 10 MiB.

What should I back up?

Both named volumes: zennotes_vault (the Markdown notes, attachments and inbox folder) and zennotes_data (the selected-vault setting and browser sessions), plus the stable .env values. Keep the access token private.

Backups in xCloud

What survives a restart?

Data on both volumes. In QA a note and the browser session were still intact after an xCloud Restart.

Does xCloud automatically back up or update Zen Notes?

No. The template pins Zen Notes 2.69.1 by immutable digest; new installations use the pinned release, existing sites are not automatically upgraded. Back up first, read the upstream release notes, then bump the readable tag and digest together on your own schedule. Server-level backups and snapshots are available on every Cloud VPS.

What are the server requirements, and why does this page sell 6 GB?

The template's baseline asks for 1 CPU core, 128 MB of RAM and 2 GB of disk; measured idle use in QA was about 9 MiB across all containers. This page sells the 6 GB tier as the entry rung, which leaves ample headroom above that baseline and room for other apps on the same server.

Is xCloud officially partnered with Zen Notes?

No. No official partnership or endorsement between xCloud and the Zen Notes project has been verified. This is a deployment and server-management option for the open-source Zen Notes project.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.