Comparison · 2026
ClickyDots vs Apple Stickies
Apple Stickies has been on the Mac for decades, and for a throwaway note you'll close in five minutes, it's genuinely fine. But if your notes stick around, multiply, and become part of how you actually work, you run into its ceiling fast: no search, no plain-text files, and they vanish the moment you go fullscreen. Here's how the two stack up.
| Feature | Apple Stickies | ClickyDots |
|---|---|---|
| Floating notes on your desktop | ✓ | ✓ |
| Note colors | ✓ | ✓ |
| Works offline, no account | ✓ | ✓ |
| Collapse a note to its title | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stays above fullscreen apps | ✗ | ✓ |
| Follows you across Spaces | ✗ | ✓ |
| Search across every note | ✗ | ✓ command palette: fuzzy + grep |
| Magnetic snap & group-drag | ✗ | ✓ |
| Markdown, live-rendered | ✗ | ✓ |
| Notes are plain files you own | ✗ opaque database |
✓
.md in your folder
|
| Reminders & alarms | ✗ | ✓ |
| Global quick-capture hotkey | ✗ | ✓ |
| Price | Free | One-time no subscription |
In fairness to Stickies: it's free, built into macOS, and perfect when you just need to jot one thing and move on. If that's all you ever need, it's a fine tool. ClickyDots is built for the other case, when notes accumulate and you need to find, organize, and trust them.
Your notes are files, not a database
Stickies keeps everything in one opaque database buried in your
Library folder. You can't open a note in another editor, sync it
selectively, or grep it from the terminal. In ClickyDots every note
is a plain .md file with YAML frontmatter, in a folder
on your Mac, or in your own iCloud Drive. Uninstall ClickyDots and
your notes are still just files, right where you left them. No
lock-in, ever.
Find any note by typing
Stickies has no search at all. Once you have more than a handful of
notes, you're hunting by eye. ClickyDots gives you a command palette
(⌥Space) that fuzzy-searches titles and greps the full
text of every note. Hit Enter to jump straight to the match. The
note itself, right where you left it.
They stay put, even in fullscreen
Apple Stickies disappear the moment you enter a fullscreen app, which is exactly when a reference note is most useful. ClickyDots notes float above everything, follow you across Spaces, and hide on a single shortcut when you want a clean screen.
Notes that snap together
Drag two ClickyDots notes close and they leap together with a soft, tactile click, then move as one block, something no other sticky notes app on the Mac does. Spread related notes across your screen, snap the ones that belong together, and each one waits exactly where you left it.