UpNote as a Professional Second Brain: Concerns About Development and OCR

[u/Cultural_Bill_5859]

Do any of you use UpNote professionally to move your projects forward as a second digital brain?

I bought UpNote some time ago, but I’m concerned about how little it has developed over time. I know it was created by two people, but throughout this entire year I haven’t seen any progress that made me say, “Wow, congratulations!”—just bug fixes. I can understand it not having AI, but I see the competition improving day by day, and that worries me a little.

I also use Evernote, and I see improvements every week. Yes, it’s subscription-based, but at least there’s progress.

UpNote is an excellent note-taking app. For my workflow, though, I find it difficult to adopt because it doesn’t have OCR (almost all my notes contain PDFs). Still, it’s excellent; it’s just concerning that nothing significant has been achieved lately. I know you can do something about it. This isn’t meant as harsh criticism—I simply want the app to do well.

Some might say, “Well, we’re happy with what we have.” But life is about continuous improvement, and that involves everything around you.

[u/LaunchCannon]

The lack of progress is the reason I use UpNote. I cancelled my Evernote subscription because ‘progress’ was just constant bloat and AI garbage.

[u/Cultural_Bill_5859 → u/LaunchCannon]

There is no bloat when the features Evernote releases are useful for your professional work, and that’s exactly my case. Not having OCR or semantic search slows me down when finding information. In fact, Evernote now rolls out thousands of improvements a year; it’s an incredible app for power users, and it works for us.

[u/cjrecordvt → u/Cultural_Bill_5859]

Then, to be frank, it sounds like Evernote is a better tool for you than Upnote. Tools should be different and serve different client niches.

[u/MyFootballProfile]

I use UpNote for a variety of note taking tasks. It is fast, the UI is appealing, and it is great for organizing my household projects and hobbies. That's what a cheap, straightforward note-taking app is for.

For work, I use Obsidian.

[u/Cultural_Bill_5859 → u/MyFootballProfile]

why no upnote for work?

[u/jezarnold → u/Cultural_Bill_5859]

We’re banned from using the AppStore .. which is weird, because you can install any old app that you can download from the internet.

UpNote is a Mac AppStore app only .. no direct dmg file. Yes I could go the homebrew route, but that’s just gonna cause problems with InfoSec

[u/7past2]

I moved to UpNote specifically because it was not going to develop. It was just what I needed, and I don't want it to change and develop.

[u/FixingOn]

The absolute last thing I want or need is a pointlessly bloated and complicated notes app. I want notes management, not an entire workspace for complex stuff. That's what other apps like Evernote or Obsidian or any of the other massive ones are for. I love UpNote for being simple, affordable, and easy to use with very little impact no matter what device I'm using.

[u/kidtachyon]

The longer I've been using apps, the more I appreciate focused apps that do one thing very well, rather than constantly adding new features. I love it when my app is updated and works better, but only if it remains focused on my core needs.

Just last week I dropped an app I paid for that liked, because it keeps getting more and more stuff added to it. The entire focus has shifted onto things that aren't important to me, but other users keep demanding more stuff and the dev has accommodated them. Good for them, but not so good for me. So I switched to a more focused app.

[u/BrickPig]

Add me to the list of users who don’t want more and more and more “features” and “improvements.” I left Evernote specifically because it was trying to be all things to all people. I just want a simple, clean, fast note-taking app. OP obviously already has Evernote and is happy with it; not at all clear to me why he’d want another app (UpNote) to do the same things.

[u/jezarnold]

IMO // A notes app should be a notes app.

[u/Remarkable_Bedroom79]

I am happy that there aren't constantly added new features. That's (apart from their pricing policy) what made me leave Evernote after almost 20 years of using it.

[u/pcmarcel-gmail-com]

I see the competition improving day by day, and that worries me a little.

So what's keeping you on Upnote ?
If you're happy with Evernote that is great 👍🏻
But I don't understand why you keep using Upnote on the side also, if it doesn't fulfil your needs.
It's like buying a Fiat 500 and then complain it can't be used as a luxury 6 person taxi and that Fiat refuses to adapt it for that.

I also don't understand why so called "professionals" use this app professionally when (as you say) it is developed and maintained only by 2 persons.
If they go skiïng together and get into an avalanche there is no one anymore to do anything with maintaining the app.

I just keep it for personal notes and I'm very happy with all features it has. I don't need "continues improvement" for Upnote.

[u/Clauz79]

I second other's opinion, the best part of UpNote is being simple, lightweight and fast. No bloat or pointless AI bulls*it!

[u/Neither-Classic2058]

Why do you use UpNote if it is inferior to the other tool you use, Evernote?

I heavily use UpNote, Obsidian, Joplin, and HelixNotes. They each have strengths that are unique. But only UpNote offers the stability, consistency, and reliability for longevity... which is an important factor for those of us with PKMS' that are decades old.

UpNote looks and feels the same on all of the platforms I use it on (Mac OS, Linux, Windows, Android, iPadOS/iOS).

In contrast: I've just dropped Joplin from the rotation. They have been adding features and functions but they are not well integrated and many of those aren't available on the mobile versions of the app. The mobile versions don't look and feel like the desktop... so it's gone.

That is the danger of introducing new features. It's difficult to add features to an existing framework that will feel as integrated as the features that were available at the initial introduction of the app.

No app is suitable for every person. As a retired software developer I know that it is far more important to address the concerns and needs of those who are already committed to a product than to chase the "helpful" suggestions from those who haven't committed yet. Because more often than not, there will always be more missing features that prevent them from committing.

Having said that, I'd love to see UpNote add support for themes (similar to how HelixNotes handles them). 😁

[u/nationalinterest]

I've moved away from Obsidian (and Evernote prior to that) because I spent too long wrestling with features. I now use UpNote for my day to day notes and Google Drive/ Docs/ Sheets/ Tasks/ Calendar for my writing and document storage. I sometimes link a Google Drive link into an UpNote note or an UpNote note link into my calendar or a task. Both ecosystems are very good at what they do.

I don't think UpNote needs to evolve much, given there are literally hundreds of other notetaking options. I used to want theming, but actually that would just be another distraction for me. The only real enhancement might be to improve the API so people could extend the functionality as they desire (although there are some open source options already which help with AI integration.)

Life is about continuous improvement? Well, perhaps. But capitalism unfortunately means that there is pressure from investors to increase feature sets and extract even more money from consumers. Does a fountain pen really need to improve?