Hello there!

I just wanted to stop by and say hi - I’m, Mirna, the creator of Marbles.

First of all, a warm welcome! I’d love to tell you a little bit about how Marbles came to be and where it’s headed.

The idea for an app like this appeared when I started my small vegetable garden. I needed a place to plan and journal the progress of my plants - something lightweight, a mix between a flexible checklist and a journal. I also wanted to keep a knowledge base for gardening tips and best practices, a sort of digital notebook. But I couldn’t find anything that met all those needs while staying simple.

I ended up juggling several apps at once and quickly lost track of everything because the whole process became too complicated for my scattered brain.

A year or so later, I wasn’t in the best place emotionally or mentally. I felt lost and uncertain about what I wanted to do next. Once again, I felt the need to pour my thoughts out into a journal - to clear the mess in my head. But this time, it was deeply personal, and I didn’t want to rely on an online tool where my most intimate thoughts might be exposed if something went wrong.

I wished for a private, comfortable space where I could just be myself - no pressure, no expectations. A place where I could plan my day or my next vacation, reflect on my thoughts, jot down things I want to remember that aren’t work-related - a home for my hobbies, dreams, and aspirations.

Having experience in creating digital products, I thought: why not create that space myself? And maybe, just maybe, it could help others who feel the same way.
And so, Marbles began to take shape.

It’s designed as a set of simple tools - nothing fancy - that you can start using right away, without complex setups or rigid workflows. There are no expectations. If journaling is your thing, great. But if you ever feel like making a checklist, or tracking progress toward a goal, you can do that too. The key is: you choose how to use it.

One of the most important aspects for me is privacy. Some of my thoughts are fine to keep online, but others I want to keep truly private. That’s what sets Marbles apart from most simple tools out there - you can enable client-side encryption for any notebook or journal. This means your content is encrypted as you write it, and it stays that way as it travels across the internet and gets saved in the database. Without your encryption PIN, there’s simply no way for anyone else to read it.

For me, that’s the only way I feel comfortable storing sensitive personal information online.

Of course, not everything needs to be private. My shopping list or quick to-do items don’t require encryption - I just want to access them fast when I’m at the store. That’s the beauty of Marbles: you can decide what matters more to you in each context - privacy or convenience.

And one more thing I’ve noticed - many apps sacrifice readability in favor of pretty visuals. But what’s the point of a shopping list if I can’t read it on my phone? That’s why Marbles lets you easily adjust font sizes. Plus, there’s a cozy dark mode for those late-night journaling sessions, and a bright light mode for your morning coffee planning rituals.

In the end, I want Marbles to be an unpretentious, everyday safe space - for reflecting, planning, journaling, and whatever else helps you grow into a better version of yourself, while making a positive impact on the world around you.

If you want to learn more about client-side encryption, read the next article →