How Octarine compares
Octarine is a markdown note-taking app. So are Obsidian, Notion, Bear, Typora, and a dozen others. Here's where Octarine sits among them.
What Octarine is
A lightweight (under 30MB) cross-platform (Mac, Windows and Linux) desktop app for working with markdown files in a folder. It opens fast, searches instantly, and doesn't require an account. The core product is free, with an optional one-time paid license to unlock advanced features and workflows.
There's no plugin system, no proprietary sync, no collaboration features. It's a tool for personal notes — research, journals, documentation, whatever you keep in plain text with images/videos.
What Octarine isn't
It's not a team workspace like Notion. It's not a knowledge graph like Roam. It's not extensible like Obsidian. If you need databases, real-time collaboration, or an ecosystem of community plugins, Octarine isn't trying to be that and would not be a good fit.
The tradeoffs I've made
Speed over features. Octarine is fast because it doesn't try to please everyone.
Simplicity over flexibility. There's no plugin API because I want the app to work well without requiring assembly. The downside is you can't customize it much beyond themes.
One-time purchase over subscription. You pay $60 and you're done. I don't see your notes, I don't run sync servers, I don't have recurring costs to cover. The tradeoff is that some features — like backing up notes or syncing amongst your devices — you bring your own (iCloud / Dropbox / Git).
Specific comparisons
Octarine and Apple Notes both aim to simplify digital note-taking, but the experience and features they offer differ significantly.
Why go with Octarine
You want cross-platform compatibility and control over your data. Octarine stores notes in markdown format, ensuring your notes are future-proof and easily portable — no need for tedious, note-by-note exporting. You appreciate advanced features: a tabbed interface for working on multiple notes at once, integrated AI chat to quickly search or generate content, a powerful datatable view to analyze your properties and frontmatter, and a graph view to visualize links between your notes.
Why stick with Apple Notes
You live within the Apple ecosystem and value seamless, instant sync across your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Apple Notes is tightly integrated with iCloud for automatic backup and device syncing with zero setup. Its strength lies in simplicity: a familiar, distraction-free editor for writing and organizing a single note at a time. Folders, checklists, document scanning, and drawing integration are built in. You don't need third-party plugins, markdown, or advanced data views — you just need reliable, easy-to-use notetaking that fits right into the Apple workflow. All features are free, with no need for extra subscriptions if you already have enough iCloud storage.
Ready to get started?
Been using Octarine as my daily driver for the past few days and I'm impressed. Seriously considering jumping from Noteplan.