“Offline” and “cloud” are often treated like opposites, but modern to-do apps can combine them in several ways. Understanding where the durable copy lives is more useful than relying on a feature badge.
Local-only: one device holds the notebook
A local-only app stores tasks on the device or in the browser profile you are using. It can offer strong immediacy and requires no remote account. The provider may never receive the task content at all.
The trade-off is responsibility. If the device is lost, browser storage is cleared, or the local database is damaged, the provider cannot restore information it never possessed. Good export and backup habits matter.
Cloud-first: the server is the main copy
A cloud-first app writes the canonical notebook to the provider’s servers. This makes account recovery and multi-device access straightforward. It may also mean the app cannot complete a change—or even open useful content—without a connection unless offline caching was built separately.
Your trust extends to the provider’s security, retention, and availability. Read whether content is encrypted in transit, at rest, or end to end; those phrases describe different protections.
Local-first synchronized: each device works locally
A local-first synchronized model writes to a durable local database first, then exchanges operations with a server. The interface can remain responsive and useful offline while the synchronized copy supports additional devices and recovery.
This model still has conflicts to solve when two offline devices change the same task. A responsible implementation needs durable outboxes, idempotent operations, ownership checks, and a visible way to recover from stale edits.
How Naremis uses the models
Naremis begins in This Device mode: a versioned IndexedDB database in the current browser, no account, and no Naremis-imposed task quota. Available device storage applies. After the first successful load, a cached application shell supports offline opening.
If you enable free Sync, Google signs you in and Naremis imports the complete local notebook into its synchronized store. Future changes still write locally first, then synchronize through Naremis. Task text is not sent to Google.
Sync is not end-to-end encrypted. Naremis and its infrastructure processors must be able to store and process synchronized content to provide the service. The privacy policy explains the processors and controls, while the offline feature page covers practical local-storage risks.
Questions to ask any to-do app
- Can I use it without an account?
- What happens on the first load with no connection?
- Where is the canonical copy after a change?
- Can the provider recover local-only data?
- What does clearing browser or app data remove?
- Is synchronization optional?
- Is content end-to-end encrypted, or only protected in transit and at rest?
- How do I export or delete my data?
Choose storage by the failure you most need to avoid: unwanted disclosure, losing the only copy, losing access offline, or losing access across devices.