Own your notes — forever. No subscription.
Your documents stay yours, stored as standard files you can access anytime.
Pay once. Use for life.
Trial version available.
Notebooks is a powerful writing app and a trusted place for your work.
Write, plan, organize, and stay focused — all in one place.
Use Notebooks as a personal wiki, Zettelkasten, document archive, task manager, or long-term writing space. Capture quick notes, turn them into actionable tasks, combine text fragments into chapters, organize research, or keep business documents separate from personal journals — without ever switching apps.
Designed to help you stay focused and work at your own pace, Notebooks grows with your needs and is always ready to support you.
WRITE AND CREATE
Create beautifully formatted documents with styles, attachments, tables, checklists, and optional tables of contents. Choose from ready-made styles or design your own.
Write in different ways:
Formatted text (WYSIWYG)
Plain text, with smart handling of lists, automatic character pairing, and a focused writing view
Markdown, supporting MultiMarkdown and Discount, with syntax highlighting, dedicated keyboard shortcuts, wiki-style links, and interactive checklists
STORE AND ORGANIZE
Notebooks stores all documents as regular files in standard formats. You always remain in control — no lock-in, no export worries, fully compatible across devices and over time.
Organize your work in books and nested hierarchies without limits. Import PDFs, emails, web pages, MS Office and iWork documents, images, audio, video, and more. Use full-text search to find even the most deeply nested document.
PLAN AND ACT
Turn books into project lists and documents into tasks. Assign due dates and alerts, create nested projects, and track progress naturally — right where your work lives.
Use simple checklists in formatted documents or Markdown for lightweight task tracking.
STAY FOCUSED
Link documents together to build knowledge over time. Use wiki-style links, backlinks, contexts, and smart books to keep everything connected and within reach. When you rename or move documents, links stay intact.
A PLACE YOU CAN RELY ON
Sync your documents between iPhone, iPad, Mac, and PC. Work on documents stored in other apps, compile selections into PDFs or eBooks, scan documents and extract text using OCR, and trust that your data stays accessible — now and in the future.
With time, Notebooks often becomes the one place users rely on to keep everything that matters close at hand.
WHAT USERS SAY
“Notebooks is a wonderful app — sophisticated in an unassuming way. I feel more productive without spending time managing the app itself.”
“You are GTD in every way that makes it efficient — and makes me efficient.”
This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Finally, the perfect app for iPad and Mac!
the real tanata
I bought the updated iPad app and had some trouble figuring out the new Font configuration. I wrote the developer Alfons, and to my surprise, he answered the next day. After several attempts at explaining my issue, he walked me through the proper steps to achieve what I needed to do, a true gentleman. This app is the only one of it’s kind that allows yout to keep your ENTIRE writing catalogue across three Apple devices. It lets me keep my self-created DropBox orgainization tree and doesn’t rely on iCloud for syncing. I truly love all the iterations of this program.My only request would be for Alfons to add a “Typewriter Mode” option in both the iPad and Mac versions. This would be a new writing environment that incorporates how a typewriter flows, and adds the sounds that I’ve come to enjoy on the Hanx Writer app. If Alfons were able to do that, I could finally abandon every other writing program. With the exception of Hanx Writer, there are no other writing applications that have this feature, and it would go a long way to further separate it from the competition. I know it’s a big request, but based on what I’ve experience so far from this exceptional developer, he is completely up to the challenge. Keep up the great work!!!!
Love it! My gripe below addressed via link in response.
soildoc
I first bought the non Apple Store version. Upgraded it numerous times. It became more uncomfortable to use with each month and year. Watching the spinning wheel and numerous crashes, until I stepped away for about a year. Recently purchased the Apple Store version hoping the experience would be different. Nope. I like so very much about the experience…when it works, mean really like it. My theory is that I liked it to much and have about 4GB of Data in. I believe adopting it so much is what the issue might be. Perhaps this adopting it for so much is what brings the app to its knees. Sad really. I want it to be my go to, and I’ve tried, again, and again, but I just dropped $30 again, thinking perhaps maybe a repurchase only to get the same failures. So, if you only have a tiny bit to work on, then perhaps your use will not likely see an issue, but if you are all in, then my experience has been that it Boggs down and makes you grumble with frustration while it stops responding and fails repeatedly and provides the visual of watching the spinning wheel and the system notification that it has stopped responding, over, and over, and…… Gerrr.
Developer Response
I am sorry to hear you having issues with Notebooks. I do not know if you ever contacted us directly regarding this, but I guess that these freezes or hangs could be resolved with two simple steps. They are not related to the number of documents you have; Notebooks copes well with several GB of data and thousands of documents - as long as you don't put them into a single book, of course. If you are using Notebooks with iCloud Drive, then the most likely reason for these hangs is that iCloud Drive pretends that all documents are available on your Mac, while in fact it is syncing part of them in the background. So Notebooks needs to wait for documents to be downloaded, and that is what causes the beachball. - To resolve, just follow the tip in our FAQ (https://www.notebooksapp.com/faqconc/when-icloud-sync-seems-stuck-ios/) and all should be well. If not, why don't you drop us an email? I am sure we can resolve this issue.
Exceptional functionality!
jespadge
This is my first app review ever. Notebooks is PERFECT for someone looking for a clean and functional workspace to get their thoughts and documents organized, especially if using multiple devices. After many months of wasting time trying to get all my information organized in Evernote (I really wanted to love it), I finally decided there had to be something better out there. I just downloaded Notebooks on my Mac, iPad and iPhone yesterday and set up the DropBox sync using the instructions the developer provided on his website. I’ve already seen a HUGE increase in my productively and a HUGE decrease in my frustration and anxiety over delayed and/or conflicting syncs. This is so perfect and my work flow is already so much more streamlined and simplified. I am a busy mom and I don’t have time for (or need) all the bells and whistles. I love that Notebooks is minimal, yet super versatile! I also love that there are no ongoing fees or subscription required. Another bonus is that a voice note function is built right into the app so that I don’t lose any of my ideas before I have a change to type them up. I’m so happy with every aspect of this app - game changer for sure!!! THANK YOU.
An incredible app that stops the search for the perfect app!
gibby.z
This app is incredible, it supports markdown, all sorts of file types, and no subscription! Its simplicity prevents me from spiraling down the rabbit hole of customization, and I can keep everything in iCloud. My only real complaint about this app isn’t even about the Mac or iOS app, it’s the windows app. It isn’t up to par features wise, which honestly isn’t a dealbreaker since its just stored in iCloud and I can move whatever files, images, or documents from my windows computer into the Notebooks folder in my iCloud. Much thanks for this incredible app!
This update focuses on refinements, reliability, and visual consistency across the app. Several improvements enhance everyday editing, task extraction works more consistently, typing performance has been improved, the outline and document list have been refined to behave more predictably, working with PDFs is more convenient, and much more.
This update also enhances Liquid Glass support, introduces a new app icons, and resolves interface inconsistencies.
Overall, this release is about making Notebooks feel more solid, more predictable, and more polished.
You find more details on our website.
Version 4
The developer, Alfons Schmid, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More