Obsidian became mine keynotes program for ages and I’ve written a lot about it. The reason has always been the cash register, not really the software on top of it. A straight markup files folder I can unlock everything, which makes it so attractive. The UI is good, not great, not bad, just good. Linen and Bases are great additions I reach out sometimes, but if I woke up tomorrow and the whole interface looked different, I honestly wouldn’t mind.
That’s why I haven’t been looking at other recording software lately. My setup these days is mostly folders, whatever editor I have in front of me. Then someone recommended UpNote and I thought I’d give it a go – turns out it’s a pretty cool note-taking app that I dismissed for no reason.
No account needed
And logs live locally by default
I expected to have to create an account after downloading UpNote, but you can use it without one. In this day and age, this is something I appreciate because every tool now requires your email. So you can start writing in UpNote right away.
Access is available if you want to sync between devices, and it works through Firebase on Google’s end with encryption in transit and at rest. I don’t use sync myself, so my notes sit locally on my machine, which is what I want anyway. An account is more of a feature than a requirement, which is refreshing when you’re used to apps that don’t even let you see the editor before handing off an email.
Skipping the account means the recordings stay on your device, which is my preferred setup. UpNote also runs automatic local backups on the desktop daily by default and keeps them for 50 days with the option to direct the backup folder to Dropbox or Google Drive for additional cloud backup on top of the local backups. This is a different philosophy than Obsidian’s approach of keeping the log files folder in plain view, but the practical result is similar: your logs are on your device either way.
Version history
Obsidian requires a plugin
Then there’s version history, which builds on the same idea. Every time you edit a note, UpNote saves the old version, and you can pull up the full list from the top bar of the editor to preview and restore any of them. The default header is 50 versions per note per device, but you can change this in the settings. This is also a free feature; No premium door.
Obsidian doesn’t have anything like this natively, so you either install a community plugin like File Recovery or pull git on top of your repository, which many people do, but it’s also a lot of setup for something that should ship with a good logging program.
UpNote is built around hierarchy
Joplin energy with a nicer editor on top
UpNote’s organizational structure is really well implemented. You have spaces above that are completely separate jobs, so my article research doesn’t match my personal notes or design briefs. Then the notebooks sit inside the spaces, and they can fit inside other notebooks, and the notes go inside them. It’s like Joplin did it.
Quick Access is a pinning system that lets you grab your frequently accessed notes, no matter where they are in the hierarchy, which is useful when your most-used note is buried four notebooks deep. Tags are also here as a separate organizational tool written inline using hashtags.
Focus mode hides sidebars and chrome so you’ve just seen the page in front of you—always a nice touch in note-taking apps. There is also a password lock option, but unfortunately this is behind a paywall. The editor itself is rich text, but you can type in markdown and it converts as you type. Overall, it feels a bit more developed than Obsidian’s more raw nature.
Speaking of Markdown…
A little explanation is needed
Markdown state needs to be unlocked, as this is not the discount installation that Obsidian users have come to expect. UpNote treats markup as shortcut input, but instantly converts it to rich text. For example, the moment you type a hash, it becomes a header and the syntax disappears. So you’re not sitting raw markup As in Obsidian. Pasting from Markdown source also has its own shortcut, Cmd+Opt+V on Mac or Ctrl+Alt+V on Windows and the conversion is clean.
As for where the notes live, UpNote stores them in a managed local database, not in a folder of .md files that you can mash up in any text editor. It feels like a download until you remember the export options. You can extract notes at any time individually or as a batch markup, and there is also an option to backup directly to note files in the settings.
Even if you’re already settled on Obsidian, it’s worth a try
UpNote’s structure makes a lot of sense, the editor is comfortable to write, and trading around databases is something I can live with given how flexible the export side is. I don’t think it completely replaces Obsidian for me; The vault still has room for larger items. But for quick notes that don’t need to live in portable plain text files, I think UpNote is a better experience.
