Notenik vs The Archive

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

The Archive

• Writers and researchers practicing the Zettelkasten method
• Mac users who want notes kept as plain text files
• People who liked nvALT and want a similar search-first app

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.

The Archive

• It is a Mac app only; the site lists no iPhone, iPad, Windows or web version.
• There is no sync service of its own: notes sync only by keeping the folder in a cloud storage service.
• The developers plan a paid version 2 and say version 1 owners will get a discount on it.
• It ignores Finder tags on purpose; a separate converter turns them into #hashtags for notes coming from nvALT or DEVONthink.

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.

The Archive

Plain text file storage

Every note is a plain text file in a folder you pick, so notes stay readable without the app and can sync through iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box or similar services.

Search-first navigation

One search field, the Omnibar, finds notes by their text and creates a new note from the search term. Saved searches switch between subsets of your notes.

Wiki-links and note IDs

Double-bracket wiki-links look up the target note by its ID, giving clickable links between notes without file paths or a proprietary format.

Markdown editor

Markdown highlighting, inline image preview, typewriter mode, hashtags, auto-completion of tags and links, and customizable themes.

Plug-ins

Plug-ins, added in version 1.8, automate tasks such as extracting a note from selected text or building a list of links. They cannot delete notes or reach the internet.

URL scheme

Links starting with thearchive:// let other apps such as Alfred and Keyboard Maestro open a matching note, run a search or launch a plug-in.

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.

The Archive

• The Archive$19.99

  one-time purchase

  A license for version 1 of the Mac app, with the features announced for version 1 shipped as free updates. The press kit also gives the price as 19.99 EUR.