Pricing

Pay for the app. Never for your notes.

The basics are free forever, and every install starts with 14 days of the full app. Your notes are plain markdown files on your own disk — whatever you decide later, they're already yours.

Free

A complete basic notepad. Yours forever.

Free forever
  • The shade gesture, full markdown editor, tables, checkboxes
  • Your whole vault — unlimited notes, search, tabs
  • Plain .md files, Obsidian-compatible — no lock-in
  • 3 themes (Dark, Light, Nord)
  • Starts as a 14-day trial of everything
  • No account or card to start — the basics never phone home
Download free

The free tier is a genuinely good notepad because your notes should never be hostage. The first 14 days unlock everything so you can feel the full app in your own workflow — then it gently drops to Free.

Most popular

Personal

The full system. Every note, one scroll away.

$4 per month
  • Everything in Free, plus:
  • Every theme, light and dark
  • Plugins: Daily Notes, Kanban, Tasks — plus build your own
  • Revision history — snapshots of every note, browse and restore
  • All updates while subscribed

Subscribe on the web with Clerk Billing — opens when Shady Notes launches.

Personal pays for sustained, careful development of a native app — no Electron, no dependencies, just Swift. The basics stay free; what you pay for is the system on top: plugins, history, theming. Cancel anytime — your notes keep working everywhere, they were never trapped.

Supporter

For people who want this app to exist for a decade.

$8 per month
  • Everything in Personal
  • Priority support, one-business-day response
  • Early builds before general release
  • A direct line on the roadmap — your votes weigh double
  • Your name in the credits (optional)

Subscribe on the web with Clerk Billing — opens when Shady Notes launches.

Supporter is Personal plus patronage. Same app — the extra buys early builds, a louder voice on what gets built next, and the warm feeling of keeping an independent Mac app independent.

Common questions.

How does the free trial work?
Download the app and use everything for 14 days — no card, no account. When the trial ends, the app drops to the Free tier: your notes, the editor, and the shade keep working exactly as before; premium features (extra themes, plugins, revision history) lock until you subscribe. To unlock, you subscribe on the web and then sign in from the app's Preferences.
My notes are plain files — what happens if I cancel?
Everything keeps working — the app drops back to the Free tier, and your notes are ordinary .md files in a folder you chose (default ~/Documents/ShadyNotes/). Open them in Obsidian, VS Code, or anything else, forever. We can't hold your notes hostage; that's the point of plain files.
Is this a subscription for my notes or for the app?
For the app — specifically its premium layer. Shady Notes never stores your notes anywhere but your own disk — there's no sync service, no server, no account holding your data. The subscription funds development of a native, dependency-free Mac app.
How does unlocking premium work — does the app phone home?
Premium is tied to your account. You subscribe on the web, then click Sign In in the app's Preferences — that opens your browser, signs you in, and hands the app a token. The app checks your subscription online, then works offline for two weeks before a quiet background re-check. The only thing that ever leaves your Mac is that account token — never a single note. The free tier and the trial need no account at all.
Is it a subscription, or can I pay once?
It's a subscription — monthly or yearly. Cancel anytime; premium keeps working until the period ends, then the app drops back to Free with all your notes intact.
What's your refund policy?
14 days, no questions. If you subscribe and decide it isn't for you, email hello@shadynotes.app from the address on your receipt and we'll refund in full. After that, the standard cancellation flow applies — keep using it until the period ends, then it stops renewing.
Which payment provider do you use?
Checkout and subscriptions run through Clerk Billing, with Stripe as the payment processor — every major card is accepted. Round Rect is the seller of record. You manage or cancel your subscription anytime from your account. Details confirmed at launch.
Is it on the Mac App Store?
No — Shady Notes ships as a signed, notarised direct download (Developer ID). Same Gatekeeper protections, no App Store sandbox compromises for a menu-bar app that watches scroll gestures.

Free to use. 14 days of everything.

No card, no account — download and write. The basics are free forever; subscribe only once the shade has earned its place above your screen.

Download Shady Notes