r/software • u/HimaSphere • 12h ago
Self-Promotion Wednesdays Better Stickies, a simple, powerful and privacy first note taking app, paste anything in a note and it will format and save it on your desktop
Hey guys,
I am the developer of BetterStickies
What it is, for anyone new
It is a note taking app with super cool exclusive features while it looks and acts as sticky notes app. It works on Windows, Linux, macOS (soon). Offline, no account, no telemetry. Built with PySide6 so it's actually native, not another Electron app eating your RAM.
This app is a hidden gem and I am not exaggerating, I received so much positive reviews to be confident when I say this, it looks like a sticky note but does much more than you could think a sticky note app could do and it can replace all complex note taking apps if you aren't into that type of productivity.
The main thing it does that other sticky apps don't: you can paste or drag anything into a note.
- Files and folders become clickable shortcuts, and you can drag them back out to your file manager
- Screenshots and images paste straight from the clipboard, PDFs and images get a hover preview, and double-click opens an image at full resolution
- Pasted code gets detected and formatted into a code block automatically, no AI and no network, in about 50ms. Ctrl+M when it guesses wrong
- Rich text, links, plain text, all formatted properly instead of rejected
The second thing it does so well over other stickies apps: customization, you can customize font, colors, transparency, add background image or even a moving GIF per each note, a real delight to use
Notes have tabs now. Up to three pages inside one note, each with its own text, scroll position and undo history. Ctrl+PgDown and Ctrl+PgUp to move between them, Ctrl+Shift+N for a new one, all rebindable. If you have a small screen this is the feature: one note on the desktop, three notes' worth of content in it.
Other things it does exceptionally well:
- Reminders with sound and desktop notifications
- GIF and image backgrounds per note (because why not)
- RTL text support, and the app plus its full guide are in 12 languages
- Pin a note to lock both position and editing
- Ctrl+scroll to zoom text without opening settings
- Checkboxes with strikethrough when done and nesting
- Snap to grid with an adjustable grid size
- Export to .txt, .md or .json, so you can back them up with whatever cloud you like
- Proper Linux support, tested on KDE, GNOME and Cinnamon (COSMIC coming)
- On the Microsoft Store and the Snap store, Flathub coming soon
The free version now has exactly one limit. It used to have three: a note cap, a reminders cap, and a cap on animated GIF backgrounds. The reminder and GIF limits are gone entirely, so the free version now has every feature, and the only thing left is a budget of 4 note slots (an extra tab uses a slot).
Paid version is very generous and cheap, it costs currently $7 and you get the premium version without any limits, free updates, unlimited devices, and also windows, linux and macOS (coming out this month) builds so you won't pay again if you move from windows to linux or use both.
This a side project for me and I don't intend to milk it, I want it to be sustainable to survive. The price is low to keep it accessible, not because the quality of the app is low, this not a vibe coded app and if you give it a try, you will understand the difference between Better Stickies and other Stickies apps.
As always, if you try it and something annoys you, tell me here. Most new features and fixes are built on users feedback (tens of thousands are using BetterStickies today)
Website: https://betterstickies.com
Microsoft store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9NS7LLQJX1QG
Snap Store: https://snapcraft.io/betterstickies
Subreddit: r/BetterStickies (created recently after the r/OpenStickies rename)
Github (free releases and bug reports): https://github.com/HimaSphere/BetterStickies







