When comparing Unclutter vs Notebooks, the Slant community recommends Unclutter for most people. In the question“What is the best note taking app for Mac?” Unclutter is ranked 17th while Notebooks is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose Unclutter is:
Unclutter lives in the navbar at the top of your screen, and is always accessible. Any files and notes stored in Unclutter can be quickly accessed from anywhere, with just a mouse movement and scrolling down.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Convenient and fast access to files and notes
Unclutter lives in the navbar at the top of your screen, and is always accessible. Any files and notes stored in Unclutter can be quickly accessed from anywhere, with just a mouse movement and scrolling down.
Pro Keep desktop clean(er)
Instead of keeping commonly used files on the desktop, you can tuck them away to the top of the screen. This can unclutter your screen, or create more room for more icons if you like quick access to everything.
Pro You control how to sync the data - better privacy
Services like Paper (Dropbox), Evernote, Google, OneNote (Microsoft)... and many others, keep your data in format they can read when it syncs with their servers. That means their admins can read your data (see recent scandal with Evernote privacy policy), they can be compelled to give it to law-enforcement and, if hackers manage to breach their servers, the hackers can read it too.
With Notebooks, you choose how to sync your data, which means that you can do it using a privacy-friendly service, such as SpiderOak, Tresorit, Sync.com or iDrive, which sync your data using end-to-end encryption. This means that although they use their servers to sync your data, their servers store an encrypted version to which the service does not hold the key. Your data stays private.
Pro Powerful and grows according to your needs
Notebooks have many features including WYSIWYG editing and Markdown support. While these may be considered power-user features, they are there if the user ever needs them. This makes the app versatile, as it can appeal to the user who just wants to take notes just as much as the user who needs to edit complicated documents.
Pro No recurring fees
There are no reoccurring fees connected to this app: pay once for the platform you would like to use it on, and that's it.
Pro Available on multiple platforms
As an Evernote alternative, Notebooks is available on iOS as well as OS X and Windows operating systems. This makes for a convenient way to manage one's notes or tasks on multiple devices
Cons
Con Can't keep visor open when typing in other applications
The unclutter visor will not stay open when working/typing in other apps. Sometimes it is desirable to use the visor to re-type things, it's not possible outside of copying and pasting, or opening and re-closing the visor.
Con $10 seems a bit much for what it does
Con No Linux support
Not able to install on any Linux-based OS.
Con Each platform app has an individual cost
Say if you want to use the desktop app on OSX, that will have an individual cost. This cost does not carry over if the Windows app needs to be used as that has its own cost as well. Basically you have to pay for each platform you want to use this app on. While there are no recurring fees, the individual cost for each platform can add up.
Con Cloud sharing has to be done with a third party
Notebooks does not provide its own synchronizing and back-up. The user will therefore need to use a service (such as Dropbox) which has built-in support, but which is a service not connected with the creators of this app.
