I am tired of notes apps. I have tried so many that I stopped counting.
There was one — I will not name it, you know the one. It could remember everything for you. I kept years in it: clippings, invoices, drafts, lists. And in the beginning it had exactly what I needed: a proper folder tree and an editor I could live with.
Then the tree went away. They simply removed the one thing my whole order rested on. What grew in its place was a monster I could no longer find my own notes in. Then came the subscription, and I found myself paying more and more just to keep using notes I had written years ago. By the time another company bought it, none of that mattered — it had already happened.
Apple Notes did not work for me either. Anyone who remembers my products from those years knows where this domain name came from: I had already built a notes app, precisely because Apple Notes was not it. I still hope to come back to that one someday.
But right now I need something else. Simple notes that simply work. A folder tree where a folder inside a folder is normal, not an exception. An editor with tables, checklists and images, and no syntax to learn. Notes that live on my Mac and sync through my own iCloud — between my own computers.
I spent quite a bit of time on keyboard navigation, too. I made it the way I am used to working: start a note, jump to any other one by a few letters of its name, file it away — without lifting your hands from the keyboard. But that is my habit, not the truth. Tell me what works better for you. I am thinking about settings so everyone can bend the shortcuts their own way — that is not there yet.
And this is the whole point. My notes are mine. They sit on my machine. I can take all of them out whenever I want. Paying a subscription to have your own writing held hostage, with no decent way to get it back, is nonsense.
This is a beta. I am not going to tell you it is all smooth — it is a beta, and I am waiting for your emails. Tell me what gets in the way, what is missing, what annoys you. I want to get it to the point where notes just work, and nothing gets between you and what you wrote.
NoteTree for Mac — a 14-day free trial, then $9.99 while the beta lasts. macOS 14 Sonoma or later.