What sticky notes app should you get for your MacBook?

For a MacBook, pick by what the notes are for: Apple Stickies is free and fine for quick, throwaway notes, Quick Note in Apple Notes suits notes you also want on your iPhone, and TackNote, which we make, is a sticky notes app whose notes attach to a window, tab or document and show only when that work is in front, so they do not crowd a small laptop screen.

The short answer for most people: try Stickies first, because it is already installed. If you find yourself hiding notes to see your work, or hunting for the note that went with a document, that is the point where a sticky notes app built around your work earns its place. The rest of this post explains why a laptop changes the choice, and the quiz below gives you a pick in three taps.

Why a MacBook changes the choice

Most sticky notes advice is written as if you had a big desktop monitor with spare room at the edges. A MacBook screen does not have that room. Every note you leave on screen sits on top of the document, the browser or the code you are working in, so you end up with two bad options: keep notes floating over your work, or tuck them away where you forget them.

Laptops also move around. One hour the MacBook is on a desk plugged into a bigger display, the next it is on the couch with just its own screen. And a lot of laptop work happens on calls, where a sticky note with a client name or a password reminder is the window you forget is visible when you share your screen.

So for a MacBook, three questions matter more than colors and fonts:

• Does a note take up room when you do not need it? On a 13 or 14 inch screen, a note you only need with one document should not be on top of everything else.
• Does a note stay with its work when windows move? If you drag a window to an external display, the note about that window should go with it.
• Can you keep notes off a shared screen? Worth checking before your next video call.

The three options, side by side

Apple Stickies: the free pick for quick notes

Stickies is already on every MacBook, needs no account and opens instantly. According to Apple's Stickies guide, you can keep a note in front of other windows with Window > Float on Top, make it semi-transparent with Window > Translucent, and collapse a note by double-clicking its title bar. Those last two are genuinely handy on a laptop screen.

Where it falls short: a Stickies note does not know what you are working on. It sits where you left it, whatever is in front. Apple's guide also notes that when Stickies is closed, notes do not appear on your desktop, which is the usual reason people think their Stickies vanished (we cover that in where Stickies are saved on a Mac). If your notes are a phone number for the next ten minutes, none of this matters, and Stickies is the right pick. Our free sticky notes for Mac post compares the free options in more detail.

Quick Note: when you want the note on your iPhone too

Quick Note is part of Apple Notes. Apple's guide says you start one by holding the Fn or Globe key and pressing Q, or by moving the pointer to the bottom right corner of the screen (the default hot corner). The note stays visible while it is open, and it is saved to the Quick Notes folder in Notes. Because it lives in Notes, it goes wherever your Notes go through iCloud, including your iPhone.

The tradeoff is that a Quick Note is a notes app window, not a sticky note. Once you close it, it is in a folder rather than in front of you, so it will not remind you of anything until you go looking. If you mostly need to capture a thought on your MacBook and read it later on your phone, that is fine, and Quick Note is the better choice for you than TackNote.

TackNote: notes tied to the work on your MacBook

TackNote is the one we make, and it was built for the laptop problem above. Instead of floating over everything, a note is stuck to a window, an app, a browser tab, a document or a Finder folder. It shows up when that work is in front and steps aside when you switch to something else, so a 13 inch screen holds only the notes about what you are doing right now.

• Notes move with their window. A stuck note keeps its position relative to the window it belongs to. Drag the window to an external display and the note follows, and it is kept fully on one display rather than split across the seam between two.
• A small pill marks hidden notes. When a window with notes is behind something else, a small pill on its title bar shows it has notes. Clicking it brings that window forward and the notes come back. You can turn the pills off in Settings.
• Keyboard shortcuts, no mouse hunting. On a trackpad, shortcuts help. Control Option Command N sticks a new note to the current window and Control Option Command F makes a floating note. You can change both.
• Hide notes when sharing your screen. A setting keeps notes out of screenshots and out of screen shares that use the macOS capture system. In our tests that included whole-screen shares in Zoom and Google Meet. Some screen recorders can still capture them, so check yours if it matters.
• Desktops and fullscreen apps. A free note on the desktop can be kept to one desktop (Space), and notes can appear over fullscreen apps. Our post on sticky notes over fullscreen apps on Mac goes through it.
• Private by default. Notes are encrypted on your Mac with AES-256, and no account is needed. You can also bring your old notes over: TackNote imports from Apple Stickies.

Where TackNote falls short: it is not free after the 7-day trial, notes do not sync to Apple Notes, and there is no Linux app. If you just want a note on screen for a few minutes, it is more than you need. If you want a fuller comparison with more apps, see our best sticky notes app for Mac guide, or TackNote vs Apple Stickies for a head to head.

Which one to get

• Quick, throwaway notes: Apple Stickies. Free, already installed.
• Notes you want on your iPhone: Quick Note in Apple Notes.
• Notes about a document, tab or app you keep coming back to: TackNote, so the note shows up with that work and stays out of the way the rest of the time.

Questions

What sticky notes app should you get for a MacBook?

Start with what the notes are for. For quick, throwaway notes, Apple Stickies is free and already on your MacBook. For notes you also want on your iPhone, use Quick Note in Apple Notes. For notes about a specific document, tab or app you keep coming back to, TackNote attaches each note to that work so it shows only when that work is in front, which saves space on a laptop screen.

Is there a free sticky notes app on a MacBook?

Yes. Apple Stickies comes with macOS. Apple's guide says you can keep a note in front of other windows with Window > Float on Top, make it semi-transparent with Window > Translucent, and collapse it by double-clicking its title bar.

Can a sticky note stay on screen while you use another app on a MacBook?

Yes. In Stickies, choose Window > Float on Top. A Quick Note also stays visible while it is open. TackNote has floating notes too, and it can stick a note to one window so it moves with that window and steps aside when you switch to something else. More in always on top notes for Mac.

Can you hide sticky notes when you share your MacBook screen?

With TackNote, yes: a setting in General settings hides notes while you share your screen. It keeps notes out of screenshots and out of screen shares that use the macOS capture system, which in our tests included whole-screen shares in Zoom and Google Meet. Some screen recorders can still capture them.