I tried a $5 scratchpad app for the Mac. I'll never go back to Apple Notes

Digital Trends

12-05-2025

Table of Contents
Table of Contents It just makes things… easy You are firmly in command Simplicity with functional depth It keeps on surprising
I have missed more transitory ideas than I can count while absorbed in work. Or missed deadlines. Or forgot minor chores. On a few occasions, I was just too lazy to reach out for my iPhone, open a to-do app, create a new page, and type in. You feel the flow here, right?
On other occasions, I just lost my train of thought mid-way through it all. Often, an app just doesn't have the functions I need for that fleeting, low-stakes note-taking job. Then there's the load of 'yet another app' taking up precious screen space.
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Over the past few years, I've tried a bunch of apps for my transient note-taking, but clunky UI, poor design, or lack of features have always pushed me back to Apple Notes or Google Keep. That's until I discovered Antinote. It's the best $5 I have ever spent on an app. By a far margin.
It just makes things… easy
At the fundamental level, Antinote is a, well, note-taking app. But it can do calculations. And unit conversions. And set timers. And even scan text from your images. All using words. You don't need to memorize a shortcut or dig into some multi-step menu list.
Above all, it looks stunning. Think of digital sticky notes, but a lot more customizable and surprisingly functional. Some people would even call it a scratch pad for the Mac, and it won't be out of character.
With a customizable keyboard shortcut — option+A for me — you can open a new sticky note. It just pops into the foreground, atop whatever app you are running, with a slick animated effect.
But it does a lot more than just taking plain text notes. For example, if you want to jot down a list, simply type the '/' command, and you will see a list of formats. Just type the number for whatever it is you want, and the app will switch to the appropriate layout.
That's the hard way, and not as fun as shortcuts. To start a list, simply type 'list' or 'todo' in the text field, and all entries will be added with a checkbox. Want to sign off a particular item as completed? Just type 'done.'
You are firmly in command
Here's the most fun part. You can pick up any hotword you like, or just invent a new word. Being a fan of spy films, I prefer the term 'mission.' For all my to-do lists that include stuff like buying onions and cleaning the room, I start my journey by typing mission in the 'Antinote' sticker.
Want to check off finished tasks. Why not go with 'Poof' instead of clicking with the cursor or typing 'done?' Yeah, you can do that, too. It's quite fun, or adds some energy to otherwise mundane chores.
And don't worry about capitalization rules, as no commands are case sensitive in Antinote, custom or default. In the meantime, you can switch between new and old notes with a swipe gesture, and there's also a reliable search system baked at the heart of the app.
Likewise, you can add up or average things out in a natural language statement instead of pulling up a calculator app. All you need to do is type the '=' operator, and you will get the answer. Just take a look at the image below, and you will get the whole gist.
On a similar note, you can perform distance, volume, and currency conversions by simply typing them. I have never experienced such functional ease in an app like this. Everything works like a charm in Antinote.
My favorite part is the automatic paste function. All you need to do is copy content from any app, and it will be automatically added to the note. You just have to activate the paste function by literally typing the word 'paste' atop the scratch pad, and every copied item will start appearing there. No more dealing with clipboard apps.
You don't have to juggle between a source and destination app, nor do you have to hit the paste command for every entry. Another fantastic tool is the OCR facility. Just copy or drag any screenshot, and Antinote will automatically extract and paste it on the scratchpad.
Simplicity with functional depth
One of the most joyous aspects of using Antinote is that the app has a relatively clean user interface, and it delivers simplicity by heap. Yet, if you dig into the Settings menu, you will be taken aback by the sheer level of customizability that it has to offer.
Starting with access controls, you can choose to put it in the dock, have it appear in the menu bar (hidden behind a click), combine both, or make it invisible and summon it via a keyboard shortcut.
You can customize this hotkey combination, by the way. Next, you can pick from over a dozen themes with zesty color combinations, adjust the paper's looks, change font size, and even tweak translucence effects for the sticky notes.
I customized it to launch a new note page every time I opened the app, and followed it by setting an auto-delete protocol worth one week. You can go with daily, monthly, and annual cadences, as well.
Alternatively, you can also batch-delete untouched notes dating back to a certain point in the past. I also love the fact that you can force the language layout to an RTL (right-to-left) format, which came in handy for saving snippets from my favorite Urdu and Persian literary pieces.
As I mentioned above, customizability is at the heart of AntiNote, and to that end, you can adjust the shortcuts for all the quick actions. From opening a new note, moving one to the front, deleting it, and searching through the library to pinning them and adjusting text size, you can change all of it to your liking.
The app digs even further and lets you adjust the granular side of pasting content on a sticky note. You can even specify whether you want to retain the empty lines while pasting content, automatically remove leading spaces, and wipe formatting remnants such as bullets.
It keeps on surprising
One of the best parts? You can directly export your notes as a .txt file or in markdown format. There are built-in options for exporting them to your specified Obsidian vault, as well. Or, you can export them all in one go as a bundled zip package.
The best route, however, is the Apple Notes option, for a couple of reasons. First, since Antinote saves all your data locally, you can't access it on your iPhone, iPad, or any other Apple device. Exporting them to Apple's app enables cloud sync, which means you see the contents on all your synced gadgets.
Second, there's a neat integration that relies on a shortcut to export your Antinotes content to Apple Notes in a jiffy. You don't have to create the shortcut manually, as enabling the integration automatically saves it your Shortcuts app library. Neat!
The app is also fairly transparent about the privacy aspect, and lets users disable whatever terms they aren't at ease with. For example, you can separately choose to disable sharing of anonymized usage data, crash reports, and feature update calls.
Overall, Antinote is an absolute powerhouse that keeps things visually minimal and serves just the right dose of functional depth. The real gem, however, is the simplification of tasks that would otherwise require users to jump across multiple apps.
For $5, this app is a steal. If you are someone who loves research, writes down more notes than you can count, and appreciates a beautiful design, Antinote is as good as it gets. Personally, I've never made a more satisfying software purchase in my life than Antinote for the Mac.