# Understory

> Mac notes app for outlining and drafting essays, papers and books

Understory is a Mac app that combines a notes app with an outliner. Notes are written as ordinary Markdown text and nested under one another as subnotes, and the same note can sit in several outlines at once. A finished outline can be published as a PDF, Rich Text, Markdown or a website. Notes are kept in a folder of Markdown files or in the user's own iCloud account, with no Understory account.

- **Category:** Note-Taking Apps
- **Made by:** Allen Ussher (since 2026)
- **Website:** https://understory.ussherpress.com
- **Runs on:** macOS
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 9, 2026

## Pricing

Understory has a free plan. Paid plans start at $24.99 one-time purchase.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Every feature, with up to 100 notes in the Personal Notebook and 20 in each Project Notebook. At the cap, notes already written can still be read and edited.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. |

Read from https://understory.ussherpress.com/pricing/ on Oct 9, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Understory before buying.

## Mac App Store prices by country

"Understory Unlock", as each country's Mac App Store showed it on Oct 9, 2026. These are the app's prices, not the website's.

| Country | Price | In US dollars |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | $24.99 | |
| United Kingdom | £24.99 | about $33.04 (32% more) |
| Germany | 29,99 € | about $33.61 (34% more) |
| Canada | $34.99 | about $24.60 (about the same) |
| Australia | $39.99 | about $27.92 (12% more) |
| India | ₹ 2,499 | about $25.83 (about the same) |
| Brazil | R$ 149,90 | about $29.95 (20% more) |
| Mexico | $499.00 | about $27.42 (10% more) |
| Turkey | ₺1.299,99 | about $26.44 (6% more) |
| Indonesia | Rp 499ribu | about $27.91 (12% more) |
| Philippines | ₱ 1,490.00 | about $23.72 (5% less) |
| South Africa | R499.99 | about $30.24 (21% more) |

## Key features

- **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.

## Good for

- 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

## Worth knowing

- 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.

## Works with

iCloud

**Tags:** Notes, Markdown, Linked notes, Long-form writing, One-time purchase, Local-first, Works offline

## Alternatives

- [The Archive](https://toolgpa.com/tools/the-archive): Plain-text note-taking app for Mac built around Zettelkasten. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/the-archive-vs-understory)
- [Bike Outliner](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bike-outliner): Fast outliner and structured writing app for Mac. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bike-outliner-vs-understory)
- [Obsidian](https://toolgpa.com/tools/obsidian): Markdown note-taking app that keeps your files on your device. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/obsidian-vs-understory)
- [OmniOutliner](https://toolgpa.com/tools/omnioutliner): Outliner for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/omnioutliner-vs-understory)
- [Tinderbox](https://toolgpa.com/tools/tinderbox): Mac tool for mapping, analyzing and sharing notes. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/tinderbox-vs-understory)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 9, 2026:

- https://understory.ussherpress.com/pricing/
- https://understory.ussherpress.com/
- https://understory.ussherpress.com/how-it-works/
- https://understory.ussherpress.com/faq/
- https://understory.ussherpress.com/terms/
- https://understory.ussherpress.com/privacy/
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/understory-zettelkasten-notes/id6796801720

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/understory
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).