You wrote the note. You stuck it on the desktop. By 9am it's buried under a browser, two terminals, Slack, and a hundred other windows — and you're working on the wrong thing again. The problem was never writing the note. It's whether the note is the first thing you see.
Why Apple Stickies get buried
Stickies render on the desktop layer. Any app window you open sits on top of them, so the more you work, the more invisible your note becomes. There's no "always on top," no way to make a Sticky greet you when you sit back down, and no way to follow you across Spaces or full-screen apps.
What FloatyNote does differently
- Always on top. Pin the note and it floats above every window, on every Space, even over full-screen apps.
- Shows on screen wake. Every time your Mac wakes or you unlock it, the note pops to the front — before you can click the wrong window.
- Summon from anywhere with ⌥⌘N, hide it with Esc. No accessibility permissions needed.
- One note, plain text. No folders, no tags. A note you can't get lost organizing.
- Offline and private. A plain .txt on your disk. No account, no cloud, no network.
Stickies vs. FloatyNote, side by side
- Visibility: Stickies hide under windows · FloatyNote stays on top and pops up on wake.
- Scope: Stickies are pinned to one desktop · FloatyNote follows you to every Space.
- Focus: Stickies let you make dozens · FloatyNote is deliberately one note, for one handoff.
- Privacy: Both local — FloatyNote keeps it to a single grep-able .txt file.
Try it free for 14 days
Download FloatyNote, write two lines, and see it greet you tomorrow morning.
macOS 12+ · one-time $9 · no account, no cloud
Questions
Is FloatyNote a replacement for Apple Stickies?
It replaces the one job Stickies fails at: being seen. FloatyNote keeps a single note on top of every window and pops it up on each screen wake, so it never sinks under your open apps the way a desktop Sticky does.
Why do Apple Stickies disappear behind my windows?
Stickies live on the desktop layer, so any window you open covers them. FloatyNote uses a floating window level and an optional pin, so it stays above everything — including full-screen apps, across every Space.
Does FloatyNote sync or need an account?
No. It's fully offline. Your note is a plain .txt file in your Application Support folder. No account, no cloud, no analytics.
How much does it cost?
A one-time $9 license after a 14-day free trial. No subscription, and all 1.x updates are included.