If you share text often, you have probably met the pattern: the tool is free until you want the two features that make sharing feel safe — a password on the note, and a note that disappears after it is read. Those sit on the paid plan.
DropText is a good example and a good tool. Its own site says its Pro plan "adds password protection, burn-after-read and optional end-to-end encryption" (checked October 2026). On ShareNotes, the first two are free on every note, and there is no paid plan to move them to later. We wrote up the full side-by-side, including where DropText is the better pick, on ShareNotes vs DropText.
What a ShareNotes PIN actually is
- A 4–6 digit code you choose when you save. It can lock editing only — anyone with the link reads, only you type — or lock viewing as well.
- Stored as a bcrypt hash, never as the PIN. The server keeps a one-way hash and checks each attempt against it.
- Remembered on your device. After you enter it once, your browser keeps it for seven days so you are not asked again on that device.
- Hard to guess at scale. After ten wrong PINs in fifteen minutes, that device is locked out of the note for a while — so a script cannot run through all ten thousand four-digit codes in an afternoon.
The step-by-step version is share a password-protected note without an account.
Why we don't charge for it
Checking a PIN is one hash comparison. Destroying a note after its first read is one database update — plus, in our case, making sure link previews in Slack or iMessage do not count as the read, which we wrote about separately. Neither costs us anything worth billing for.
And ShareNotes has no paid tier at all. That is a constraint we like: a feature cannot be moved behind an upgrade later, because there is nothing to upgrade to.
What a PIN does not protect
This is the part most "free password protection" pages leave out, so we will be plain about it:
- It is an access gate, not encryption. Notes are stored in a form our server can read. If you need a note that even the service cannot read, use an end-to-end encrypted tool — NullPaste is a free one, and we say so on our own comparison page.
- Anyone with the PIN can read it. Send the link and the PIN by different channels, so one leaked message is not enough.
- An edit-only lock leaves the note readable. That is the point for a classroom board, and the wrong choice for anything private.
- Short PINs are short. The guessing limit slows attackers down; a six-digit PIN slows them a hundred times more.
Which lock to use
- A board others should watch but not change — edit-only PIN (classroom mode).
- Something semi-private — view-and-edit PIN, and a short expiry.
- A one-time secret — a PIN plus view-once, so it is gone after the first read. For anything truly sensitive, an end-to-end encrypted tool.