A sticky note only works if you see it. The paper kind works because it's stuck to your monitor, in the way, impossible to miss. Most sticky-note apps on the Mac lose that one property the instant you open an app — the note drops behind your browser, your editor, your calls, and the reminder you carefully wrote is gone until you go looking for it. FloatyNote keeps the one thing that made the paper note work: it stays in front.
Why most Mac sticky notes get buried
Apple's built-in Stickies, and most third-party clones, render on the desktop layer. That means every window you open sits on top of them. The more you work, the less visible your note becomes — the exact opposite of what a sticky note is for. There's no "always on top," and nothing brings the note back to your attention when you sit down at your Mac again.
How FloatyNote does it differently
- Stays on top. Pin the note and it floats above every window, on every Space, even over full-screen apps.
- Pops up on screen wake. Each time your Mac wakes or you unlock it, the note comes to the front — before you click into the wrong window.
- Summon it anywhere with ⌥⌘N, tuck it away with Esc. No Dock icon, no accessibility permissions.
- One note, plain text. No folders, no tags, no markdown. A sticky note you can't get lost organizing.
- Offline and private. Your note is a plain .txt on your own disk. No account, no cloud, no analytics.
One sticky note, on purpose
FloatyNote holds a single note — not a board of them. A hundred sticky notes is just a cluttered desktop you learn to ignore; one note, always in front, is a thing you actually read. If you need a full notes database this isn't it, and that's the point. It pairs that focus with the two tricks Apple's Stickies skip: it stays on top and it greets you when your screen wakes.
Featherweight and native
FloatyNote is a single-file native AppKit app with zero dependencies. It launches instantly, uses almost nothing, and lives in your menu bar instead of your Dock. It autosaves as you type and remembers your window position, size and pin state across launches.
Try it free for 14 days
Download FloatyNote, write two lines, and watch it greet you tomorrow morning.
macOS 12+ · one-time $9 · no account, no cloud
Questions
What is the best sticky notes app for Mac?
It depends on what you want it for. If you want a wall of colorful notes, macOS Stickies is fine. If you want one note you actually see — one that stays on top of every window and greets you on screen wake — FloatyNote is built for exactly that: a single plain-text sticky note that never gets buried.
Do Mac sticky notes stay on top of other windows?
Apple's built-in Stickies don't — they sit on the desktop layer, so any window you open covers them. FloatyNote uses a floating window level with an optional pin, so your note stays above everything, including full-screen apps, across every Space.
Where are my Mac sticky notes saved?
FloatyNote saves your note as a plain .txt file in your Application Support folder. It autosaves as you type, and you can grep it, back it up, or put it in a git repo. No account, no cloud, no network.
Are FloatyNote's sticky notes free?
There's a 14-day free trial, then a one-time $9 license — no subscription. Your note stays readable forever; only editing pauses until you enter a license key.