Local-first
Your data lives on your device by default. Apps work fully offline — no server has to be up for your notes, lists, or files to open.
boringbydesign.com
Software that
minds its own business.
A growing collection of local-first, private by design, simple by choice mini apps — built to be genuinely useful and nothing more. Install any of them on your phone or desktop, no account required.
Three rules. No exceptions.
Private by design
No accounts, no trackers, no analytics phoning home. What you make is yours — export it, back it up, or delete it. It's your call.
Simple by choice
Every app does one thing well, on purpose. No feature creep, no upsells, no onboarding tour. Open it and start.
The apps
Each one stands alone. Use the one you need — you don't need the others to make it useful.
Notes
A simple note-taking app that gets out of your way. Every keystroke autosaves, so you never think about saving again.
- Autosaves as you type
- Import notes from a file
- Export notes any time
- Works fully offline
Todos
Your pending tasks at a glance. You can do simple todo/done lists or go more organized with kanban-style ones.
- Autosaves, of course
- Import and export a single task list or all.
- Glimpse and Due Date views.
- Works fully offline, as expected.
Calendar
Don't forget about dates, events or things you have to do.
- Calendar and list views
- Import and export, your data is yours
- Works fully offline
- Upcoming alerts and notifications.
More on the way
Every new app follows the same three rules. Nothing ships here until it earns its place.
So, what exactly is a PWA?
A PWA (Progressive Web App) is just a website that's allowed to act like a real app. There's no separate build for iOS and Android, no app store review, nothing to download — the same page you're reading now can sit as an icon on your home screen and open full-screen, offline, like anything else you installed.
- It's the same site — just added to your home screen, no separate download
- No app store, no review process, no waiting
- Once installed, it opens in its own window and works without a connection
- Updates happen quietly in the background, the next time you open it
Where it works
Mobile
iPhone and Android phones and tablets, using Safari or Chrome. This is the main experience — install it once, use it like any other app.
Desktop
Windows, macOS and Linux, using Chrome, Edge, or another Chromium-based browser. It installs as its own app window, separate from your browser tabs.
Exact steps vary a little by browser — the install section below covers the common case.
Install in three taps
No app store, no download, no waiting for a review. It's just a website that behaves like an app.
-
1
Open the app
Visit it from your phone or desktop browser, like any other page.
-
2
Add to home screen
Use your browser's share or menu button, then "Add to Home Screen" or "Install app".
-
3
Use it offline
It opens like any native app from here on — no connection required, no accounts to sign into.
The person behind this
Hi, I'm Luis.
I've spent the last 20+ years building software, most of it under far stricter rules than a side project needs — HIPAA, ISO 27001, app store review boards. Boring by design is what I build when none of that friction applies: just useful software that respects the person using it.
By day I collaborate on the frontend architecture for Ralph Lauren's e-commerce platform at Merkle (Dentsu International). Before that, I worked as part of the React Native team behind Enterprise and National's rental apps — rebuilding the Enterprise app from the ground up and among amazing software engineers until the project passed into different hands.