The Archive vs Understory

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

Understory

• Students and researchers turning reading notes into a paper
• Writers who outline before drafting an essay, script or book
• Mac users who want notes kept as plain Markdown files

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.

Understory

• It is a Mac app only, requiring macOS 14.8 or later; the FAQ says there is no iPhone or iPad version yet.
• The free version stops at 100 notes in the Personal Notebook and 20 in each Project Notebook.
• Sync between Macs covers only the Personal Notebook and needs an iCloud account; Project Notebooks are local folders.
• The App Store release notes for version 1.1 (October 2026) describe the Publish feature as experimental.

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.

Understory

Notes and subnotes

A note is plain text and needs no title or filename. Any note can hold subnotes, each a full note with its own text, links and attachments, so a note grows into a tree.

One note in several outlines

The same note can appear in more than one tree without being copied. An edit in one place shows up in the others, and shared notes are shown in italics.

Two-way links

Wiki-style links connect notes in the text, and the linked note shows a backlink automatically. Anchors can point to a specific place inside another note.

Publishing

Selected notes or a whole outline can be published in their arranged order as a PDF with bookmarks and page numbers, Rich Text, Markdown or a website, or printed.

Markdown folders or iCloud

A Project Notebook is a folder on the Mac holding one Markdown file per note. A Personal Notebook lives in the user's own iCloud account and syncs between Macs.

Version history

Every version of a note is kept, so an earlier draft can be read again and brought back. Deleted notes go to a trash.

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.

Understory

• Free$0

  Up to 100 notes in the Personal Notebook and 20 in each Project Notebook, with every feature included, from publishing to iCloud sync.

• One-Time Payment$24.99

  one-time purchase (US Mac App Store)

  Removes the note caps and opens shared notebooks of any size for editing. The vendor notes that the App Store sets a different price in each region.