Note Taking is the bridge between thinking and crafting text. Take it seriously. You will be pleased how much your creative work will improve.
60 Day Free Trial
Requires at least macOS 10.13 High Sierra and is ready for macOS 14 Sonoma.
You want your notes to be robust and made for eternity. Plain Text is the way to go. It’s the most robust and durable file format. It allows you to use Markdown which makes your life infinitely better. Sync with any cloud storage: iCloud, Dropbox, GDrive, Box, …
In a distracted world, deep concentration becomes scarce and incredibly valuable. A clean and simple user interface is our small contribution to the value of your creative life.
Note-taking is writing. A big part of the life of a creative person is taking notes. A bit of beauty is not only nice to have but mandatory.
A tool should serve you, not the other way around. Use The Archive your own way and don’t be forced into unnatural habits. Note-taking, Getting Things Done, a thinking environment, or even as a database for entomology (scientific study of insects) – The Archive will do the job.
60 Day Free Trial
Requires at least macOS 10.13 High Sierra and is ready for macOS 14 Sonoma.
Update Policy: We have a vision of the first version of The Archive. We are very up front about the features that will be included in version 1 of The Archive. You can expect we implement all the features we announce for v1 and ship them as free updates. And we are bug hunters: we do our best to squash them all. Find out what we plan for version 1!
Version Policy: We don’t like the thought of selling a paid version 2 upgrade just because we need cash. We believe in being open and clear about our promises from the beginning. After the v1 is completed we will continue to ship stability updates and begin work on The Archive v2.
We value loyalty a lot! If you are a proud owner of this first release, you are part of the club. v2 will come with a nice discount for you. You will pay less for v1 + v2 combined than those who join in v2.
Chaos is lurking. Being overwhelmed with information, projects and deadlines means chaos. Many don’t take note taking seriously. But good note taking is the antidote to chaos. With a good tool you can tame the chaos and impose your will. Not any longer overwhelmed by the problem but with a clear vision of the path, you will tackle blogposts, books, scientific articles, and research with grace and stay in command, rather than react to the chaos surrounding you.
The Archive will be a powerful yet very clean tool to take notes. You no longer will be overwhelmed but impose your order on the chaos of information. The Archive will enrich your workflow with competent note taking: Access knowledge in an instant and in order.
Take it seriously. Take notes. Take them well. Use The Archive, the weapon of the gods.
— Christian & Sascha
Authors at Zettelkasten.de
Our forums host cutting-edge discussion on the very nature of knowledge management. Join the fun and tell others about your journey, get feedback, and become part of a community of productive learners!
Here’s a couple of voices from around the Internet describing The Archive.
—Claude Bolduc, translator from Gatineau in Quebec, Canada (Twitter)It just shows how wise your decision to keep the data as simple as possible was in retrospect: in my other tool for thinking and research, implementing an overview of tags with a usage count would be impossible due to the proprietary maze of opaquely-named folders and subfolders this program creates.
—Michael Grant, ConsultantOnce you’ve built up a critical mass of interlinked notes, you’ll discover you know things you didn’t even know you know!
—Dr. Martin Boycott-Brown, Historian, Scholar, Counsellor, PolymathI’m finding the simplicity and flexibility of The Archive are very attractive. Of those two, perhaps simplicity is the crucial factor at the moment (though I believe the two interact, and the one would not really work without the other). It has become obvious to me in only a couple of weeks of proper use of The Archive that the only thing to do is work on the actual text of your material. You could say that with other applications I have been suffering from “too many features” – called “distractions” in other kinds of discourse. For the first time in a long time, I’ve been looking at the actual words, because there isn’t anything else to play with, and realising that a lot of them are totally unnecessary, and are adding nothing. This is particularly the case with quotes I have extracted from various places. Often, if I break them down into single ideas, which I’m finding easier here, they are fairly unilluminating.
—Gabe Weatherhead in a post at MacdrifterIt’s not just a blunt tool to mash words. It’s beautiful. It’s a pleasure to write words in such a well designed, and simple, interface. It’s fast and enjoyable to use. Now, excuse me while I go obsess over what a Zettelkasten is.
—Leonardo WolffThe Archive will be the perfect tool for this lifelong decision, following the path of the text… :)
—Galen MenzelThe Archive is relatively fiddle-proof, which is one of the reasons I find working with it productive, even if it doesn’t have all the features I want.
—Richard Guay, Custom Computer ToolsI have used many different editors for keeping up with my notes. Being a missionary, freelance programmer, and a tech-writer means I have all kinds of notes. The Archive does a great job and I use it all the time. Thanks for such a great product!
—Peter Witham, Developer and DesignerAs a lead developer and team member, I constantly take notes on the fly. The Archive gives me the ability to quickly make a note using markdown thanks to the clean interface. When I need to refer back to my notes the fast search gives me quick access to my library.
—macosxguru, in a review at Bicycle For Your MindThe Archive blends the power and simplicity of nvALT with the elegance and efficacy of a digital Zettelkasten system to bring order and clarity to your note-taking system.
—Jai, in a blog post at The AppademicThe Archive is exactly what it needs to be, lean, purposeful, and fast. A wonderfully native app built on plain text purism.
—Padraic Renaghan, on his blogThe Archive has great UI, themes, and full-text search. So I can quickly find notes.
60 Day Free Trial
Requires at least macOS 10.13 High Sierra and is ready for macOS 14 Sonoma.