UpNote is a note-taking app that helps you stay focused and productive with a clean and clutter free note space. It is available on Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android.
As you can see it is a very clean experience on Android and iOS. This is how it looks on Windows, Linux and Mac:
All of your notebooks have different images:
Also, you can format your text in a variety of ways:
It has dark mode, syncing capabilities, and offline capabilities.
Thomas, one of the devs, is incredibly responsive to both emails and Reddit posts. Which is very important for a notes app in case of any bugs that may arise. Also, they are quick to release updates. If you look at the Subreddit in the last week there were 2 software updates that introduced:
- Note Version History – This works even on iOS & Android.
- A settings screen that looks just like it does on desktop.
- Ability to search for notes via Spotlight search.
- A choice as to which new app icon they should use.
- When you delete a notebook, you can now choose to move the notes to the trash or keep them in “All Notes”.
These are some game changing features and feedback that the devs are adding to the app which makes the app just that much better.
The best part about UpNote is that it’s premium plan costs $0.99/mo or $24.99 Lifetime USD. That is INSANE! Besides Things 3, they are the only app that offers lifetime subscriptions anymore. Most are moving to subscriptions so your bills just pile up between utilities and subscriptions.
Anyway, you can upgrade to these options on iOS, Android or Mac. Currently they do not support Windows for upgrading. They go over what is included in premium (and not the free plan) below:
I know this sounds like an advertisement for it but I wanted to lay out the features it does have before I talked about what it doesn’t or what is lacking.
UpNote’s web clipper, is the bare minimum you could ask for in a web clipper. It saves links to articles in your general “all notes” section without allowing you to select anywhere else. You cannot save screenshots from pages unless you take them yourself and manually add them to the note and the title comes from the title of the website. Whatever shows above your address bar.
UpNote also “supports markdown” but anything written in markdown like this: [link](https://google.com)does not get automatically converted to a link like this: link. You can, however, export your notes to markdown though the file names get scrambled and you have to open the notes to see which notes each file is for.
UpNote’s locking feature can be unlocked by the developers if they need to view your notes for troubleshooting. It does not lock the notes so they aren’t able to be seen by anyone because they do not support any kind of encryption whether it be end-to-end encryption or encryption-at-rest. This lack of encryption means the lock means nothing if someone is able to figure out the password to your UpNote account. Once they have that password, they can view any and all of your notes. This is the reason why I keep those notes in Apple Notes which does support end-to-end encryption for any note that is locked.
UpNote also only allows importing and exporting of notes on Windows, Mac or Linux. If you are on an iPad, like me, you are out of luck. I have a Windows PC that I rarely turn on so if I need to import/export I have the ability but this sucks for anyone that uses an iPad as their PC and doesn’t have a Windows, Linux, or Mac on hand to use for backing up/exporting or importing their notes. I asked for this to be added and Thomas stated this is not something they are looking to add as it is difficult to integrate with the iPadOS File Manager.
While I am a Full Stack developer and have coded a bit with Dart/Flutter I haven’t coded for the iPadOS File Manager so I’m not sure how difficult that is. Off the top of my head, I don’t see why they couldn’t have the pop up that asks you for a file upload or where to save something and you select it. I guess they are thinking for an automatic export/backup. That would be more difficult. Either way, this is very upsetting. Especially since other apps like Obsidian work with the file system on iOS & iPadOS just fine for automatic backups. So that means it is possible.
My Conclusion
I love UpNote if it wasn’t for its flaws I’d probably be using it and obsessed with it. Unfortunately, I can’t get past its flaws. So, I am happily using Obsidian.
Overall, I am looking forward to the future updates in UpNote and I love the application. It is beautiful, easy to use, and speedy. I can understand why so many people love the application.