Owl Notes
Take control of your notes.
Only for Mac
Free
A simple, open, and powerful way to organize your ideas.
What makes us different?
Your Data is Yours
* Owl notes are just files formatted in the open Markdown standard, so they are easy to read and compatible with a large number of apps.
* You are never locked in—migrating to a different note-taking app can be as simple as moving your library folder to a new location.
Local = Private & Fast
* All your data is stored locally; we don’t send it to our servers, so only you can access your information.
* This also translates into super-fast loading times.
Simple is Better
* Owl provides a frictionless note-taking experience with a clean UI that allows you to just focus on writing down and organizing your ideas.
Native All the Way
* Owl feels at home in your Mac, using commonplace concepts and following system design standards that makes it familiar and easy to learn.
more This is a really good Notes App that just works! If you don’t need an AI assistant or all of the other stuff that every notes app is trying to make then this is great for the Mac. It’s Mac only but if it goes to IOS as well, I’ll bump it up to 5 stars.
This is a really good Notes App that just works! If you don’t need an AI assistant or all of the other stuff that every notes app is trying to make then this is great for the Mac. It’s Mac only but if it goes to IOS as well, I’ll bump it up to 5 stars.
Only issue is not able to put the app in Mac menubar. So won’t be useful. Because for the regular use I can use apple notes. Why this one if it can’t be accessed from eh menubar.
Only issue is not able to put the app in Mac menubar. So won’t be useful. Because for the regular use I can use apple notes. Why this one if it can’t be accessed from eh menubar.
New:
- Markdown shortcuts: format text as you type using Markdown-style shortcuts. For example, type '-' or '*' at the start of a line to create a list, '#' for headings, '**text**' for bold, and more. A complete list of shortcuts and customization options can be found in the new Text Shortcuts tab in app settings.
- Code blocks and inline code formatting options: add code to your notes with a monospaced font and background. Set these formats using the toolbar button, context menu, menu bar, keyboard shortcuts, or Markdown shortcuts.
- Dividers: visually separate sections of a note with dividers. Insert them with the menu bar or context menu action, keyboard shortcut (⌥⌘S), or Markdown shortcut (type '---' at the start of a line).
- Paste and Match Style: this new option in the Edit menu (⇧⌥⌘V) pastes copied text without formatting, matching the style at the insertion point.
Improvements:
- Settings window is now organized into tabs: General and Text Shortcuts.
- Consolidated formatting options inside a 'Format' submenu within the editor context menu.
1.8.0 Mar 4
Bug fixes:
- Fixed text copied from Owl not pasting correctly into some apps.
1.7.4 Feb 9
Bug fixes:
- Italic and strikethrough formatting is now maintained when changing text style to heading.
- Fixed navigation buttons overlapping with the nav bar title on macOS 15.
1.7.3 Feb 4
Fixed note list animations.
1.7.2 Jan 14
New:
- Swipe left or right in the notes list to quickly pin or delete a note.
Improvements:
- Various small UI refinements throughout the app.
1.7.1 12/17/2025
New:
- Pin notes to the top of a folder with the new pin action in the context menu and menu bar. Pinned notes remain at the top regardless of the sort order.
- Set custom note sorting for individual folders from the notes list header, context menu, or menu bar. Each folder can have its own sort order independent of the global default.
- Choose whether to include subfolder notes for individual folders from the context menu or menu bar. Each folder can override the global default setting.
- Configure default folder settings in the app settings: set the default note sorting and whether to include subfolder notes for folders that don't have custom values.
Improvements:
- New All Notes group icon.
Bug fixes:
- Fixed note list separator alignment when folder names are shown.
1.7.0 11/26/2025
Improvements:
- Cloud sync behavior is greatly improved when syncing note content changes, reducing unexpected content merges.
Bug fixes:
- Text editor changes are now properly saved even when a note is moved immediately after editing.
1.6.1 11/05/2025
New:
- Navigate back and forward with new toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts: ⌃⌘◁ (back) and ⌃⌘▷ (forward).
- Navigate with keyboard shortcuts to All Notes (⌘1) and Trash (⌘9).
- Note editor scroll position is now restored when reopening a previous note.
- Open a folder with the new context menu by left or right-clicking the folder name in the toolbar.
- Search for an exact phrase by using double quotes in the search box.
Improvements:
- “Move to” context menu action now shows folders in a hierarchy, with subfolders as submenus.
- Set custom folder icon directly from the folder creation view by clicking on the icon.
- Updated icons for context menu actions on macOS 26.
- New notes are not synced to the cloud until renamed or some content is added, to avoid unnecessary networking traffic.
1.6 10/23/2025
New:
- iCloud sync keeps your library synced across devices. This is an opt-in feature currently in beta.
- Deleted notes are moved to a new Trash folder, where they can be recovered from.
Improvements:
- After a new note is created, another new note may be created even if the current one is empty, as long as the title has been edited (even if not committed yet).
Bug fixes:
- Text link editor is no longer presented unfocused in some cases.
1.5 10/10/2025
Enable new Liquid Glass UI on macOS 26.
1.4.5 09/17/2025
Improvements:
- Improved compatibility with macOS 26 (Tahoe).
- Introduced new keyboard shortcuts for switching focus between the notes list and the note editor:
- Press `return` to start editing a note selected in the list.
- Press `⌘ + return` to return focus to the list.
1.4.4 09/09/2025
Improvements:
- Refined copy-paste behavior of indented list items.
- Notes list updates note date texts automatically as needed when the day changes.
- Images at the beginning of a note no longer have a selection ring drawn before the note editor is focused.
Bug fixes:
- Fixed folder picker layout for libraries with folders that have very long names.
- Search results now update ordering as needed when notes within them are edited.
- Editing a link twice no longer pre-fills the link editor with the original URL.
- Adding a link excludes leading and trailing whitespace.
1.4.3 03/26/2025
Bug fixes:
- Fixed an issue with note auto-saving, where changes wouldn’t get persisted when editing a note after closing and reopening the app window until the note selection was changed.
1.4.2 01/16/2025
New:
- A note’s containing folder is always displayed when listing notes from multiple folders. The menu bar option to show or hide the containing folder has been removed.
- Added a ‘Library’ action to the Dock context menu.
Improvements:
- Note editor search starts with the current global search text if none other is available from previous searches.
- Reduced the intensity of the focus ring for selected images in light mode.
- Cutting a whole checklist item now removes the checklist marker from that line.
- Fixed controls alignment in the New Folder dialog when folders in the Library have long names.
- Adjusted dialog buttons to be wider and have consistent width.
- Changing text format to list now maintains the current indentation level.
Bug fixes:
- Link panel no longer reappears at a later point after being dismissed on some OS versions.
- Selected image focus ring is no longer clipped for images at the top of the note.
- Pasting text works properly now when copying from PDFs with a certain formatting.
- 'Show In Finder' context menu option no longer hidden when an image is selected.
- ‘Library’ menu bar action now works reliably.
- Fixed minor Markdown parsing issues.
1.4.1 12/26/2024
New:
- Search results are highlighted in the notes list and in the note editor.
- Note editor uses incremental search.
- Search in all notes matches words independently rather than exact phrases.
- Search in the selected note with ⌘F.
- Search in all notes with ⇧⌘F.
- Menu bar Find actions allow to start a note search (⌘F), jump to the next (⌘G) and previous result (⇧⌘G).
- Added option in Settings to use a light background in the note editor even when on dark mode.
Improvements:
- Loading indicator is displayed for long search operations.
- Note editor search bar is displayed at the top of the editor.
- Note renames, moves, and deletions, are reflected in the search results.
- Previous note selection is restored when exiting a search, unless selection changed by the user during search.
- Search results are now sorted by modification date.
- Note editor scrolls to make search result matches visible.
Bug fixes:
- Selection is updated when going from no search results to some search results.
- Hitting spacebar when an image is selected opens QuickLook.
- Undo pasting text on the last line no longer results in a wrong text style applied in some cases.
- Disabled AI writing tools until we add proper support.
1.4 11/27/2024
Improvements:
- Checklists: use the new toolbar button, context menu, menu bar, or the keyboard shortcut (⇧⌘L) to create a checklist, then check off items as you complete them.
Bug fixes:
- Pasting text copied from another app properly formats the last list line if not ended in a line break.
1.3 10/25/2024
Improvements:
- Added Link toolbar button.
- Added Emoji toolbar button.
- Added support for standard spell-checking and text substitution options.
- Added tooltips for all buttons.
- Added Contact Support option to the Help menu.
- Limit sidebar and notes list column width so toolbar buttons can’t be hidden.
- Copy-pasting refinements related to empty list items and trailing line breaks.
Bug fixes:
- Unsaved note changes are persisted when terminating the app.
- Renaming or moving an ancestor of the default folder does not reset the default folder.
- Default folder and folder collapsed states are maintained when moving/renaming ancestor folders.
- Default folder and folder collapsed states are maintained when undoing/redoing changes to ancestor folders.
- Special markdown characters are properly escaped when followed by a line break.
- Splitting of pasted text into title and content for empty notes properly handles leading line breaks.
- Containing folder names displayed in note list rows are limited to one line.
- Fix scrolling issue on long notes when performing multiple consecutive scroll gestures.
1.2 10/11/2024
Fixed bugs introduced with the new macOS 15 Sequoia:
- Fixed folder renaming where text field wouldn't become editable.
- Fixed changing of note and folder selection with one click even if the corresponding list is unfocused.
- Fixed visual glitch where scrollbar would become partially covered by the note title after doing a text search within the editor.
- Fixed list selection bug where trying to select a note would randomly not work and immediately reset selection to the previous note.
- Fixed File menu not visible in the menu bar.
- Fixed visual glitch where note toolbar buttons would oddly animate and fade out when changing notes.
- Fixed "Hide Sidebar" toolbar button getting collapsed when the sidebar width is too small.
Known issues:
- Changes to a folder list of notes (e.g. creating a new note, deleting it, etc.) are no longer animated, due to what seems to be a bug in macOS 15.0 affecting SwiftUI Lists.
1.1.1 09/26/2024
- Added image support.
- Reduced prominence of note count badges in sidebar.
- Minor improvements and bug fixes.
1.1 09/12/2024
New:
- Markdown shortcuts: format text as you type using Markdown-style shortcuts. For example, type '-' or '*' at the start of a line to create a list, '#' for headings, '**text**' for bold, and more. A complete list of shortcuts and customization options can be found in the new Text Shortcuts tab in app settings.
- Code blocks and inline code formatting options: add code to your notes with a monospaced font and background. Set these formats using the toolbar button, context menu, menu bar, keyboard shortcuts, or Markdown shortcuts.
- Dividers: visually separate sections of a note with dividers. Insert them with the menu bar or context menu action, keyboard shortcut (⌥⌘S), or Markdown shortcut (type '---' at the start of a line).
- Paste and Match Style: this new option in the Edit menu (⇧⌥⌘V) pastes copied text without formatting, matching the style at the insertion point.
Improvements:
- Settings window is now organized into tabs: General and Text Shortcuts.
- Consolidated formatting options inside a 'Format' submenu within the editor context menu.
more Version 1.8.0 Mar 4
Data Not Collected The developer does not collect any data from this app.