Notational Velocity
Shares rank 28 of 33 note-taking apps by recommenders
Free, fast app for searching and organizing plain-text notes in a free-form way, and people say it still works well after many years. The most common caveat is that it is Mac only.
Free, fast app for searching and organizing plain-text notes in a free-form way, and people say it still works well after many years. The most common caveat is that it is Mac only.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Clean, brutalist design
“It's like notational velocity but done in a clean way”
Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Customer Update on Simplenote” “Mac only. :( But I love the brutalist site design!”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Modern Implementation of Notational Velocity”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Mac only
“Mac only. :( But I love the brutalist site design!”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Modern Implementation of Notational Velocity”
Other note-taking apps people recommend
The four most recommended other note-taking apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 33 note-taking apps, rankedWhat people said
All 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Still works like a charm 15 years and 14 macOS releases later.”
“Added some benchmarks for which I am quite proud of 5.6 Sol writing the performance improvements”
“Mac only. :( But I love the brutalist site design!”
“It's like notational velocity but done in a clean way”
“I always return back to pen and paper and live better with it”
“A rare gem of ergonomics.”
“I loved its free form approach to note taking and searching”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.