Bike Outliner vs Notenik

Bike Outliner

• Mac users who want a fast, minimal outliner
• Writers who draft in outline form with focus and typewriter modes
• People who want outlines kept as open HTML, OPML or text files

Notenik

• Mac users who want notes kept as plain text files they control
• Structured collections such as quotations, bookmarks or to-do lists
• Publishing a website or web book from a folder of notes

Bike Outliner

• It is a Mac app only; the site lists no iPhone, iPad, Windows or web version.
• Rich text, row types, focus and typewriter modes, Shortcuts actions and AppleScript are locked in free mode.
• The one-time license covers one year of updates; later updates need a renewal, offered at half price.
• Copies from the Mac App Store or Setapp are unlocked by subscription only, not by the one-time license.

Notenik

• Mac only: the developer says Notenik runs solely on the Mac and is available exclusively through the Mac App Store.
• There is no iPhone, iPad, Windows or web version. On other devices the notes are plain text files to open in another editor.
• The app has no sync service of its own. The store listing suggests keeping collections in iCloud Drive or a Dropbox folder.
• Notenik is written and supported by a single developer, with questions and requests handled on a Discourse forum.

Bike Outliner

Outlining built for speed

Designed to handle very large outlines and to stay quick at basics such as opening files, scrolling and resizing windows.

Rich text and row types

Format text as bold, italic or links, and mark rows as headings, ordered lists, task lists and more. Both are unlocked by a license.

Distraction-free writing modes

Full screen, typewriter and focus modes, with live word counts and other text statistics in the status bar. Focus and typewriter modes need a license.

Open file formats

The native .bike format is HTML that can be viewed in a web browser, and Bike also reads and writes OPML and plain text files directly.

Links and navigation

Deep links into an outline keep working when the file is renamed or moved, and a navigation bar offers back and forward controls and a breadcrumb trail.

Scripts and Shortcuts

AppleScript and Shortcuts actions let other applications control Bike and fit it into existing workflows. Both need a license.

Notenik

Plain text notes in collections

Each note is its own plain text file and a folder of notes is a collection. Collections can be stored anywhere, including iCloud Drive or a Dropbox folder, and open in any text editor.

Custom fields per collection

Beyond a Title and a Body, a collection can add fields such as Tags, Link, Date, Status, Seq and Author, each with its own type, and notes can be sorted by any of them.

Markdown with extras

The body is formatted in Markdown with footnotes, citations, definition lists and MathJax. Double-bracket wiki links connect notes, and a table of contents can be generated.

To-do lists, outlines and bookmarks

Date, Status and Recurs fields turn a collection into a to-do list, Seq and Level fields make it an outline, and a Link field makes it a set of bookmarks.

Merge templates and scripts

Merge templates write note fields out as HTML, XML, JSON or other text. Script files select, sort and filter the notes first, which lets Notenik act as a static website generator.

Hooks for other Mac apps

A custom URL scheme, custom actions for Apple's Shortcuts app and APIs for Hookmark let other apps link to notes, add notes from text and run script files.

Bike Outliner

• Free mode$0

  Core outlining with no time limit: read, write and edit outlines saved as .bike, OPML or plain text files.

• Bike License – Monthly$2.99

  per month, Mac App Store subscription

  Unlocks all features in the Mac App Store copy for as long as the subscription is active.

• Bike License – Yearly$19.99

  per year, Mac App Store subscription

  The same Mac App Store subscription billed once a year.

• One-Time Purchase License$29.99

  one-time, includes one year of updates

  Sold on the Hog Bay Software site. Unlocks all features; updates released within the year keep working unlocked afterwards.

Notenik

• Notenik$0

  The full app with all features enabled, downloaded from the Mac App Store. The store listing requires macOS 13.5 or later.

Bike Outliner

• Other savings

  License renewal at 50% off

  After the first year, a one-time license can be renewed for another year of updates at half price; the renewal is listed at $14.99 in the vendor's checkout.

• Annual discount

  Yearly subscription costs about 44% less

  On the Mac App Store the yearly Bike License is $19.99 against $2.99 a month, which works out to about 44% less over twelve months.

Notenik

No public discounts listed.