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UpNote continues to improve
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Posted by MadaboutDana
May 1, 2021 at 03:07 PM
I haven’t written about UpNote for a while, but it’s worth pointing out that this is one excellent cross-platform note-taking app that’s under steady, thoughtful development and works across macOS, iOS, Windows and Android. It was first launched back in 2018, I believe, and from modest beginnings has become something of a powerhouse.
Some of the features, for reference: It supports notebook hierarchies, cross-linking and back-linking (here it takes a sensible approach – you can call up backlinks if you want to see them); you can also link to headers inside notes. It supports rich text and markdown. It supports multiple windows and (too rare in note-taking apps) always-on-top windows. It imports and displays images. It supports tags. It exports notes in a wide range of formats, ranging from PDF to Word to HTML. It imports Evernote notes. Notebooks can be password-protected. It claims to be fully encrypted. It’s also notably quick, even when displaying notes with big images in them.
Negatives? Well, it’s a subscription app (not very expensive, mind!), and it uses its own synchronisation server (because it’s cross-platform); the underlying system is, I believe, Firebase. Neither of those things are a strong negative, in my view, although I know some forum members have Strong Views on subscriptions ;-)
More details for those interested on https://getupnote.com; there’s also a useful blog on https://upnote.medium.com
No, I have no concealed interest in UpNote, I just love the fact that it’s yet another sole developer app that’s really made and continues to make impressive progress. Go indies!
Cheers,
Bill
Posted by Cyganet
May 1, 2021 at 06:17 PM
You’ve convinced me to give it a go. I really like the Android app. Next step is to import my notes from Evernote.
Posted by satis
May 1, 2021 at 08:45 PM
Looks nice, but aside from the Windows and Android support it resembles a half dozen free and cheap non-subscription apps in the Apple ecosystem, including Apple Notes.
For example I think SnipNotes offers pretty much everything UpNote does, but also offers phone widgets and quick entry bar in macOS, Markdown and is searchable in Spotlight. And pro unlock is a one-time $6, and data is securely stored in your iCloud.
UpNote says it supports ‘attachments’ but I don’t see anything describing what that means. However if it can swallow PDFs that would make it significantly more useful than most of these other apps like SnipNotes, which for some reason are limited to image attachments only.
Posted by Cyganet
May 1, 2021 at 10:58 PM
You can attach PDFs and other files in UpNote but it doesn’t search inside them as far as I can tell. They’re not embedded or displayed, just attached.
Posted by satis
May 2, 2021 at 10:49 AM
That’s good to hear. There’s a whole class of Mac/iOS notes apps that don’t handle pdfs at all. SnipNotes, good as it is, bizarrely ‘accepts’ a pdf attachment but merely imports the first page as a jpg; unwary users might think they’re importing the pdf but learn they haven’t the first time they try opening one. Otherwise it’s a very good app, but that is egregious behavior, and I didn’t quite believe the app meant to do that until the developer confirmed it to me.I still like and recommend the app but not for people who need to save pdfs. Otherwise I’d have switched to it as a Notes replacement.
UpNote seems fairly capable but the pricing is confusing. Is the $29.99 ‘lifetime-upgrade’ for both macOS and iOS, or per-platform?