How to pick a sticky notes Chrome extension

The right sticky notes Chrome extension depends on one question: where should the note show up? If you want it on the web page it is about, so it is there every time you open that page, you want a page-note extension. If you want your notes in one list that follows you to your phone, you want a notes app with a Chrome extension, such as Google Keep.

Most of the choice follows from that. After it come four practical checks: what the extension can access, where it keeps your notes, what it costs, and how you get your notes out. Below we go through each one, compare the main kinds of extension in a table, and say where our own extension, TackNote Lite, fits and where it does not. If you are short on time, answer two questions here:

The four kinds of sticky notes extension

Search the Chrome Web Store for "sticky notes" and you get a long list that looks alike in the thumbnails. In practice the extensions fall into a few kinds, and each suits a different job.

Page notes: the note lives on the page

A page-note extension draws the note on top of the web page and remembers which page it belongs to. Leave the page and the note steps aside; come back next week and it is waiting. This is the closest thing to a paper sticky note on a document, and Chrome cannot do it by itself, as we showed in how to put a sticky note on a web page in Chrome.

A notes app with an extension: Google Keep

Google Keep is a full notes app with lists, labels, colors, pins and reminders, as Google's Keep help describes. It runs on computers, Android phones and iPhones, and Google's Keep troubleshooting help covers editing the same note on different devices. Its Chrome extension saves website details into a note: select text and choose Save selection to Keep, or click the Keep icon to save the page. Google says notes associated with a page are opened and edited at keep.google.com, and that since December 5, 2022, notes created in the extension do not save automatically. It is the right pick when the note needs to follow you to your phone, not when it needs to sit on the page.

New tab and side panel notepads

Some extensions turn the new tab page or Chrome's side panel into a notepad. You see the notes whenever you open that surface, whatever page you are on. That suits a running to-do list or a scratch pad. It does not connect a note to the page it is about, so it will not remind you of anything when you return to that page.

What to check before you install

1. What it can access

Before you add an extension, Chrome shows what it can access. Google's Web Store help explains that a warning such as "Your data on all the websites you visit" means the extension can read, request or change data on every page you visit, and that this "doesn't mean the app is dangerous, just that it can be." A page-note extension does need to run on a page to draw a note there, so some site access is expected. What matters is how much, and whether you choose the sites.

TackNote Lite asks the first time you tack a note on a new site, and runs only on the sites you have allowed. Its settings list every allowed site, and you can remove any of them.

2. Where your notes are kept

Some extensions keep notes in an account on their own servers so they can sync; others keep them in Chrome on your computer. Neither is wrong. Account storage is what you want for notes on several devices. Local storage means no sign-up, and nothing to trust beyond your own computer, but the notes stay on that computer unless you move them yourself.

3. What it costs

Look for three things: whether the free version has a limit, whether paying is a subscription or a one-time price, and what happens to notes you already have if you stop paying or hit the limit. The listing or the developer's site should say.

4. How you get your notes out

If you reinstall Chrome or move to a new computer, can you take your notes with you? An account-based app does this through sync. A local extension needs a backup or export. Check before you have 200 notes in it.

5. On a Chromebook, or a work or school computer

A Chrome extension runs in Chrome on ChromeOS the same as anywhere else. On a managed Chromebook or work computer, though, Google notes that your organization might block some extensions. For the note tools built into ChromeOS, see sticky notes on a Chromebook.

Where TackNote Lite fits

TackNote Lite is the page-note extension we make. Here is how it answers each check above.

• Where the note shows. On the page you tacked it to. Choose Whole site on a note to show it on every page of that website, or Just this page to tie it back to one. In web apps, each view with its own address gets its own note.
• How you add one. Right-click any page and choose Tack a note to this page, or click the toolbar icon and choose + Note on this page. The shortcut is Option + Shift + N on a Mac and Alt + Shift + K on Windows and Linux. On a Chromebook, use right-click or set your own key in its settings with Change the shortcut.
• Finding notes again. The toolbar icon shows how many notes the page you are on has. Click it for the board: the notes on this page, the notes waiting in your other open tabs, then every note grouped by site. Search every note looks through note text, page titles and addresses, and clicking a note takes you back to its page.
• The basics. Five colors (yellow, pink, blue, green, purple), and any note can become a checklist.
• Where notes are kept. In Chrome on your computer. There is no account, and your unlock key is checked on your computer, offline.
• Getting notes out. In its settings, Save a backup writes every note to a file, and Restore a backup brings them back on another computer.
• What it costs. Your first 25 notes are free, for life. Unlimited notes are $4.99 once. Past the free limit, the notes you have keep working; only the next new note asks you to unlock.

Where it falls short

• No sync. Notes do not move between computers on their own. A backup file is the way to carry them across.
• No phone app. TackNote Lite lives in Chrome on a computer. If you need the note on your phone, Google Keep is the better fit.
• Not in Incognito windows. It does not run there.
• Not on Chrome's own pages. Chrome does not let extensions add notes on the Chrome Web Store, its settings pages or the new tab page. Any ordinary website works.
• A separate purchase. TackNote Lite has its own $4.99 unlock. A TackNote for Mac or Windows license does not unlock it.

If you want notes on apps, files and folders as well as browser tabs, that is our desktop app, TackNote for Mac and Windows, which is a different product with its own price. We explain its browser side in how to pin a note to a browser tab on a Mac.

Which one to choose

• A note about a page, that shows when you open that page: a page-note extension such as TackNote Lite.
• Notes and lists you also want on your phone: Google Keep and its Chrome extension.
• A running scratch pad, not tied to any page: a new tab or side panel notepad.
• Just a page to come back to: Chrome's bookmarks or reading list, no extension needed.

Questions

Is there a sticky notes extension for Chrome that puts notes on the web page?

Yes. Page-note extensions such as TackNote Lite stick a note to a web page, or to a whole site, and show it again when you open that page. Chrome itself has no way to attach your own note to an ordinary web page.

Do sticky notes Chrome extensions work on a Chromebook?

A Chrome extension runs in Chrome on ChromeOS like anywhere else. On a school or work Chromebook, your administrator decides which extensions you can add.

Why does a sticky notes extension ask for access to websites?

An extension that shows notes on a page has to be allowed to run on that page. Chrome shows what an extension can access before you install it. TackNote Lite asks for each site the first time you tack a note there.

Is TackNote Lite free?

Your first 25 notes are free, for life. Unlimited notes are $4.99 once, with no subscription. A TackNote for Mac or Windows license does not unlock TackNote Lite; it has its own key.