KeepIt vs Notebooks vs FSnotes

Posted by Dellu
May 16, 2022 at 05:39 AM

In relation to a recent discussion on KeepIt; and why I think this app because my first choice of the plethora of note writing apps in the Mac world, here is a brief & opinionated comparison I did a few months ago of it with its closest competitors.

KeepIt (version 1)

Formats: rtf, markdown, plaintext

Reasons why KeepIt is supperior to Notebooks (Alfons Schmid’s Notebooks):

1) Native rtf support: format of of Notebooks are html, markdown and plain text
2) The float window: the floating window is very useful for me.
3) metadata: KI allows assigning not just tags, but also Spotlight comments directly within the app.
4) Better organization tools:
- Bundles
- Labels
- Folders—-these are reflected to finder: others are internal to the application
- Saved searches
5) universal tags: tags assigned in KI are finder tags: will be visible to Finder and DT.

Notebooks (v2)
Formats: html, markdown and plain text

Areas where Notebooks appears supperior to KeepIt:

1) Contexts: tags:
#noun (or @noun) within a document tags the document with the word “noun”.
- even a new character can be assigned for this.
- But, these tags are not finder tags

2) Tasks:
- it has internal task manager: and very useful for writing because can be assigned on any of the notes; and will popup seprately
- tasks can be defined using speical characters; just like tags.
For example, if use + sign, all lines after this sign will be considered as tasks.

3) [[Linked]] style of linking. It would have been great if KT supports this feature.

Other notable features:
- supports opening in new tabs and windows—KP has this
- WebDav server to sync with ipad: local network—-don’t care much about it

FSnotes (v5)
Formats supported: rtf, markdown, plaintext

pros
- the contextual prefix taging is available: #word; the word is a tag
- nvALT type of [[linking]] is supported. I just need to [[to start to link] with another note
- Search and new file creation are unified: nvALT style again
- Git support: absolutely useful to restore earlier versions of notes

Cons:
- open doesn’t open in a separte window of the app: opens in externa apps: this makes all the capabilites useless because I spend most of my editing in seprate windows: helps me to hide the other stuff—-this is deal breaker for me.
- there is no organizational tools apart from folders and tags
- NO metadata such as Spotlight comments: and the tags are not going to be visible ot the Finder. The tags are internel to the app because they are not really finder tags.