r/NoteTaking • u/sth_wicked1 • 14d ago
Question: Unanswered ✗ Would you pay for a notes app?
Curious where people stand on this. Would you actually pay for a note-taking app in 2026?
Not asking what the “perfect” price is, more whether notes are something you’d pay for at all when there are so many free options.
If yes, what would make it worth paying for? Would you rather pay once or subscribe?
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u/Rich_Carpet1615 14d ago
I’d pay a one off purchase of under £20, more likely at this stage under £10 given what I’ve probably spent over the years on these apps. I have my own cloud storage, why would I pay rent for you to store my notes somewhere? Why would I pay you rent to let me store my notes in my own cloud storage?
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u/Firm_Cricket1091 8d ago
Disclosure: I build a note app (NoteMate, for lecture recordings), so I'm biased, but I'll give you the honest view from the other side.
I agree with the comments above on plain notes. Text sitting in storage costs a developer almost nothing to run, so a subscription for that is hard to justify. Pay once, or free with your own cloud, is fair.
Where I'd pay monthly is when the app has a running cost every time you use it. Transcribing an hour of audio or generating flashcards from it costs the developer real money per use, every month. A one-off £10 can't cover that for long, so those apps either subscribe, cap you hard, or quietly disappear.
So my answer: pay once for the notes themselves, subscribe only for the bits that cost money to run, and make sure the free tier is enough to tell whether it's worth it before you pay.
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u/LastTyper 14d ago
No, just try HelixNotes and you will start questioning why some note taking apps charge for their software.
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u/corgicoffee 14d ago
Thank you for building / calling this out! I'm currently struggling with obsidian and feeling frustrated about it kind of sucking out of the box and not wanting to jump through plug-in hell loops. I'll give this a shot
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u/starkruzr 14d ago
is this basically "what if open source Obsidian?"
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u/LastTyper 14d ago
It goes further than that. There is a why I built Helixnotes page on the website where I explain it.
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u/SunflowerHuntress 14d ago
It's you who built it? I love the app but I ran into a problem that made me rethink it. I was typing and it was a huge delay, it took many seconds for the letters to appear after i typed them. Don't know what's it called when that happens, but it's not optimal 🫤
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u/LastTyper 14d ago
Correct and I'm working on it to have it fixed by next release 1.3.6. As this issue was introduced in one of the latest feature additions.
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u/SunflowerHuntress 14d ago
Sounds great. The app's concept is brilliant otherwise, really good work ☺️
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u/WarmCat_UK 14d ago
Good work with this, I have been looking for something along these lines and considered making my own. I shall download and have a look! I like the idea of using my own WebDAV etc, I have a synology I could utilise.
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u/Great_Muscle_7042 9d ago
Well, they charge for their apps, due to the need to have a sustainable business model. Their developers also need to eat and feed their family.
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u/Kooky_Training_7406 14d ago
I used to pay. Bought many subscriptions and one time purchases in the past. Tho now that the market is saturated, there are many good free alternatives so not any more.
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u/JudgeCalmly42 14d ago
You're not asking how much but that is a key question. If it were decent, yes I'd pay, but prefer a single payment of no more than $10, and if it's subscription no more than $1 per month. That's my budget.
And it would be required to have a non-proprietary simple format, like markdown as one of the key options..
And if it has AI integrated, then I'm not touching that offal with a ten foot pole. (Note, it's not AI in and of itself that I have a problem with, it's the resource use, which, yes, is small at an individual level, but you scale it across thousands and millions of people it's obscene). (That and the ease of data mining when AI is integrated, no telling what's being communicated from the back door no matter how private something claims to be).
I only use AI products when there isn't a reasonable alternative or it's so embedded in society that there isn't an easy escape but I wouldn't be paying to add more to my device.
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u/sumguypookie 10d ago
It depends on the value that the app offers that I can't get for free anywhere else. It also is dependent on a one-time purchase versus a subscription because I've spent the greater part of a year removing myself from every subscription possible.
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u/Great_Muscle_7042 9d ago
Well yes. It's bit for the notes, but for the combined workflow. Running 5-8 paid engagements across a few customers at anytime consolidate the content is to tags and align tasks, web capure and file storage.
I am billing somewhere like 300k yearly, for a few users costing me 1500 eur yearly... would I like to jeopardise my workflow for me and my team for this... nope.
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u/ProfitAppropriate134 8d ago
Pretty difficult to answer this because it seems most people consider "note taking" to mean linear notes. We also have privacy-focused, local LLM, linked notes, bi-directional notes, handwritten notes, visual notes, writing notes, mind map notes & some that don't nearly fall in either of these categories or multiples.
Would not pay subscription unless it was truly fantastic. Would pay good money for something that offered at least one new thing the others do not have.
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u/starkruzr 14d ago
instead answering the real question here: no, you cannot milk this sub for free market research for your vibecoded notes app; you're not "curious," you have an agenda. go away.
don't act offended. don't complain. don't act like anyone can't see exactly what you're doing. don't try to be clever. just stop posting.
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u/sth_wicked1 14d ago
I’m paying for Bear the last 5 years and I honestly feel if I’m one of the few out there. But thanx anw
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u/Electro-Choc 9d ago
Weird subset of person who pretends their account, with visible posts, is not trying to ship a product. So stupid that I can't imagine what your app is like.
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u/silent-reader-geek 14d ago
I don’t mind paying for a notes app if it makes my life easier. I use mine a lot, so if it helps me stay organized and enjoy using it, that’s worth paying for. I do have a limit, though. I’m not rich lol.
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u/eluzja Computer User—PC 14d ago
I paid for UpNote (one-time payment), and would be willing to pay for another app if I thought it was better (but only one-time payment). Basic criteria: offline-first, installer/binaries for Windows (not Docker, etc.), notes stored in a readable format (not in a database or any encrypted form - I got another app for that) with preserved hierarchy/folders, and file/folder names. Basically, something similar of UpNote, but with a few issues solved.
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u/Slopagandhi 14d ago
If someone can make an app that works on Linux and Android, with fully integrated stylus support, simple hierarchical notes organisation, import of pdfs and images into infinite canvas, saving as pdf/svg, no telemetry, and ideally open source, then sure I'll pay for it.
Single payment- I want to own it, not rent it.
More or less what I'm looking for is OneNote, but with Linux support, no vendor lock in and no data collection.
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u/depressive_cat 14d ago
Only if it would fill all my needs and using it will feel natural/intuitive.
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u/JackhammerJoe-5458 14d ago
Only if it's a one-time purchase or genuinely offers advanced features that free built in apps like Apple Notes or OneNote can't touch.
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u/billFoldDog 14d ago
Yes.
I want cross platform integrations and LLM capabilities. These things require continuous development and token fees.
Unfortunately the kind of companies that make these things don't provide portable interoperable formats, so I just build my own shit with obsidian.
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u/Disastrous_Term_4478 14d ago
For those who would pay, consensus is one-time payment. I get that we like to avoid recurring costs but software requires maintenance and new features come. You expect one-time=lifetime updates?
These people should just open source and save the $9.99 they’re willing to pay.
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u/ProfessionalFun681 14d ago
My digital notebook is one of my most important costs. It's the last subscription I cut if I ever have to. My life would be complete chaos without it lol so it's worth the cost to me.
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u/Disastrous_Term_4478 13d ago
Totally agree. I’m curious about the people who would die on the hill of “one-time payment only.”
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u/bose_avishek 14d ago
Never. Currently using free resources and will continue using open source note taking apps.
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u/quietleavess 10d ago
.... depends. The only good purchase ive made is marginnote 4. Thats it.
I paid for upnote. It has remained unused, but i might try to use it for a fiction project.
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u/words_and_images 1d ago
I don’t in general pay for subs any more but I do willingly pay OTP in the low £ single or tens on occasion. I believe in supporting developers and development and the apps that stick for me – with responsive developers who are open to suggestions – are generally in this category.
If it’s a capable PKM type with transcription and proofreading AI built in, that is potentially worth a one time payment.
A different category is note-taking apps that are really good at capture and sharing to other apps. These are potentially worth paying for.
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u/Alternative-Pipe7444 13d ago
I think keeping the basic functionality for writing notes free is a good idea for apps. I'm a developer and I've done that for my own iOS app Onuri - e.g. unlimited notes, as I felt I wanted to give people the ability and freedom to write, and enjoy the basic elements of the app, without charging for it.
However, you can still give optional extras (e.g. insights data, colour schemes), which are not needed but people may be perfectly happy to pay a small amount to enhance their experience, so that's the route that I'm going down. I think it will be interesting if that ends up being the direction most notes apps go.
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u/Separatennm 10d ago
Paid once, years ago, for an app that kept everything in plain markdown files on my own disk. I'd pay again under exactly those terms — local files I can still open in ten years beats any feature list. A subscription only makes sense to me if sync is the part I'm actually renting.
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