← All Apple listings

Normal Notes

by Thomas McKenzie more by this developer →

View in the Apple store ↗

Compare with another extension

Category: Productivity

Description

Normal Notes is the fastest and easiest way to keep a daily journal and a personal knowledge base.

Built on plain Markdown and compatible with Obsidian vaults, it opens straight to Today's Note with heading pre-filled. Supports tags, suggests older notes worth attention, view vault pins on a map. Share anything from anywhere so you don't lose it. No account or subscription, and no tracking. No lock-in — your notes stay as ordinary .md files you own.

DAILY JOURNALING
• One tap to today's note. Yesterday and tomorrow are a swipe away.
• Auto-headings with date, place, and journaling prompts.
• Capture by voice — record a memo and it's transcribed straight into today.

A KNOWLEDGE BASE THAT CONNECTS
• [[Wikilinks]] and live backlinks, so notes link themselves together.
• Related notes surfaced automatically.
• Pin places to notes and see them all on a map.

FAST AND NATIVE
• Best-in-class Markdown editor experience — headings, checklists, formatting — that stays out of your way.
• Instant search across your whole vault.
• Share text and images into today from any app.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
• Your notes sync through your own iCloud. Nothing is collected. No trackers, no ads, no analytics.

If you've wanted Obsidian's plain-text freedom with the speed and polish of Apple Notes, Normal Notes is it.

Alternatives to Normal Notes

Name	Ratings	Rating
Notes by Apple Inc.	642,361	4.8	compare
Notability: AI Notes & Planner by Ginger Labs, Inc.	456,536	4.8	compare
Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF by Goodnotes Limited	454,069	4.7	compare
Notion: Notes, Tasks, AI by Notion Labs, Incorporated	90,133	4.8	compare
Otter Transcribe Voice Notes by Otter.ai, Inc.	79,875	4.8	compare
Evernote: AI Notes & Notebook by Evernote Corporation	77,664	4.4	compare
Freenotes®: AI Notes Taking by FREENOTES AI PTE. LTD.	60,862	4.7	compare
Penbook: Paper Planner & Notes by User Camp Inc.	45,196	4.6	compare
MyScript Notes: AI Handwriting by MyScript	38,581	4.7	compare
Google Keep - Notes and lists by Google LLC	28,984	4.6	compare

Growth

Change in ratings, scaled to each window from the real gap between crawls. A window needs a full period of history before it reports anything.

History

Tracking since 09/05/2026. History accumulates as changes are observed — check back soon.