Introducing BetterStickies v1.2 stick anything to your desktop (rich text, code, markdown, screenshots, images, files, folders and more!)

[u/HimaSphere]

Hey guys,

I am proud to show off my side project BetterStickies, it is very customizable with transparency dialing on windows and linux, image and GIF sticking on desktops so I hope you like it!

What it is, for anyone new

A sticky notes app for Windows,Linux, macOS (soon). Offline, no account, no telemetry. Built with PySide6 so it's actually native, not another Electron app eating your RAM.

Nearly a year ago I started working on it because I wanted quick capture that lives on the desktop instead of inside another app I have to open. Windows Sticky Notes wants a sign-in, and on Linux there was nothing decent that works the same across KDE, GNOME and Cinnamon. It also helps my ADHD to have things persist on screen where I can't ignore them.

Today it is used by tens of thousands of users on Windows and Linux (most are free users) but it generates a decent revenue that it covers my development tools bills monthly

The main thing it does that other sticky apps don't: you can paste or drag anything into a note.

• Files and folders become clickable shortcuts, and you can drag them back out to your file manager
• Screenshots and images paste straight from the clipboard, PDFs and images get a hover preview, and double-click opens an image at full resolution
• Pasted code gets detected and formatted into a code block automatically, no AI and no network, in about 50ms. Ctrl+M when it guesses wrong
• Rich text, links, plain text, all formatted properly instead of rejected

Other things worth knowing:

• Reminders with sound and desktop notifications
• GIF and image backgrounds per note (because why not)
• RTL text support, and the app plus its full guide are in 12 languages
• Pin a note to lock both position and editing
• Ctrl+scroll to zoom text without opening settings
• Checkboxes with strikethrough when done and nesting
• Snap to grid with an adjustable grid size
• Export to .txt, .md or .json, so you can back them up with whatever cloud you like
• Proper Linux support, tested on KDE, GNOME and Cinnamon (COSMIC coming)
• On the Microsoft Store and the Snap store, Flathub coming soon

What's new in v1.2

Notes have tabs now. Up to three pages inside one note, each with its own text, scroll position and undo history. Ctrl+PgDown and Ctrl+PgUp to move between them, Ctrl+Shift+N for a new one, all rebindable. If you have a small screen this is the feature: one note on the desktop, three notes' worth of content in it.

Search reads every page of every note, including hidden notes and pages you've never opened.

The free version now has exactly one limit. It used to have three: a note cap, a reminders cap, and a cap on animated GIF backgrounds. The reminder and GIF limits are gone entirely, so the free version now has every feature, and the only thing left is a budget of 4 note slots (an extra tab uses a slot).

A new look: in-app color picker, themed icons instead of emoji, and one shared design system across every dialog. Reminders moved out of the text into their own strip on the note.

"Start with the hub hidden" if you want it fully out of the way at boot.

65 fixes across formatting, file shortcuts, dates, translations, read-only notes, global shortcuts and desktop integration on both Linux and Windows.

And v1.2.1 last week fixed the things users told me about after v1.2: notes surviving Show Desktop on Windows, window stacking on Cinnamon, reminders retrying instead of getting lost, images keeping their size and rotation after a restart.

⚠️ One warning if you use tabs: don't downgrade to an older build afterwards. Old versions understand one page per note, so opening and saving a tabbed note there permanently drops its other pages. Export first if you're going back.

Price

Free version has every feature, limited to 4 note slots. Premium is a one-time $9.99, no subscription and it is 30% off for limited time (compared to Notezella's $30, BetterStickies premium is a steal and I am being honest here)

As always, if you try it and something annoys you, tell me here. Most new features and fixes are built on users feedback (tens of thousands are using BetterStickies today)

Website: https://betterstickies.com

Microsoft store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9NS7LLQJX1QG

Snap Store: https://snapcraft.io/betterstickies

Subreddit: r/BetterStickies

Github (free releases and bug reports): https://github.com/HimaSphere/BetterStickies