Notable (DOWNLOAD)
The markdown-based note-taking app that doesn't suck.
I couldn't find a note-taking app that ticked all the boxes I'm interested in: notes are written and rendered in GitHub-flavored Markdown, no WYSIWYG, no proprietary formats, I can run a search & replace across all notes, notes support attachments, the app isn't bloated, the app has a pretty interface, tags are indefinitely nestable and can import Evernote notes (because that's what I was using before).
So I built my own.
/path/to/your/data_directory
├─┬ attachments
│ ├── foo.ext
│ ├── bar.ext
│ └── …
└─┬ notes
├── foo.md
├── bar.md
└── …
-
No proprietary formats: Notable is just a pretty front-end for a folder structured as shown above. Notes are plain Markdown files, their metadata is stored as Markdown front matter. Attachments are also plain files, if you attach a
picture.jpgto a note everything about it will be preserved, and it will remain accessible like any other file. -
Proper editor: Notable doesn't use any WYSIWYG editor, you just write some Markdown and it gets rendered as GitHub-flavored Markdown. The built-in editor is CodeMirror, this means you get things like multi-cursor by default. If you need more advanced editing features with a single shortcut you can open the current note in your default Markdown editor.
-
Indefinitely nestable tags: Pretty much all the other note-taking apps differenciate between notebooks, tags and templates. IMHO this unnecessarily complicates things. In Notable you can have root tags (
foo), indefinitely nestable tags (foo/bar,foo/.../qux) and it still supports notebooks and templates, they are just special tags with a different icon (Notebooks/foo,Templates/foo/bar).
Upon first instantiation some tutorial notes will be added to the app, check out those for more in-depth details.
+=============================+=================================+==============================================+======================================+=======================================+==================================================+========================================+=========================================+
| | Notable | Evernote | Notion.so | Boostnote | Quiver | Bear | Simplenote |
+=============================+=================================+==============================================+======================================+=======================================+==================================================+========================================+=========================================+
| Free | ✔ | △, with paid plans | △, with paid plans | ✔ | ✘, only during trial | △, with paid plans | ✔ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Open source | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Cross platform | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| No account required | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| No proprietary formats | ✔ | △, can only export to HTML | ✘ | ✔, but notes are stored in .cson | △, no inside Text cells | △, can export to Markdown | ✘ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| No WYSIWYG | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | △, no inside Text cells | ✘, but it's a surprisingly decent one | △, only if you set "Markdown formatted" |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| No bloat | ✔ | ✘, work chat, webclipper, annotations etc... | ✘, spreadsheets, kanban board etc... | △, publish to blog, snippets | △, presentation mode | ✔ | △, publish to website |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Pretty UI | ✔ | ✘ | ✘, too much bloat | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| GitHub-flavored Markdown | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔, only within Markdown cells | ✘ | ✘ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Code syntax highlighting | ✔ | ✘, only generic code blocks | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘, only generic code blocks |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Attachments | ✔ | ✔, but base64 encoded in HTML when exported | ✔, but 5MB limit on free plan | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Fuzzy search | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Indefinitely nestable tags | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Multi-note simple editing | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | △, very limited | ✔ | ✔ | △, very limited |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Multi-note search & replace | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | △, with some effort, notes are stored as .qvnote | ✘ | ✘ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Keyboard friendly | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | △, can't toggle edit and preview mode | ✘, I couldn't edit a note without the mouse | ✔, but some shortcuts are undocumented | ✘ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Mobile app | ✘, but notes are Markdown files | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | △, only iOS | ✔ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Synchronization | △, via Dropbox/etc. | ✔ | ✔ | △, via Dropbox/etc. | △, via Dropbox/etc. | ✔ | ✔ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Version control | △, via Git | ✘ | ✔, but paid | △, via Git | △, via Git, but cumbersome .qvnote format | ✘ | ✔ |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
Part of this comparison is personal opinion: you may disagree on the UI front, things I consider bloat can be consider features by somebody else etc. but hopefully this comparison did a good job at illustrating the main differences.
If you have an idea, or found an problem, please open an issue about it.
If you want to make a pull request, or fork the app, you should:
git clone https://github.com/fabiospampinato/notable.git
npm install
npm run svelto:dev
npm run iconfont
npm run tutorial
npm run dev- enex-dump: Dump the content of Evernote's
.enexfiles, preserving attachements, some metadata and optionally converting notes to Markdown. - Noty: Autosaving sticky note with support for multiple notes without needing multiple windows.
- Markdown Todo: Manage todo lists inside markdown files with ease. Have the same todo-related shortcuts that Notable provides, but in Visual Studio Code.
- Todo+: Manage todo lists with ease. Powerful, easy to use and customizable.
MIT © Fabio Spampinato