Jot vs Apple Notes Quick Note, Drafts and Raycast Notes

Checked against each app's own site, help pages and docs on 22 October 2026. Numbers in brackets link to the source.

All four let you write a thought down without hunting for the right window first. Apple Notes comes with your Mac. Drafts is a capture app that sends text on to other apps. Raycast Notes lives inside the Raycast launcher. Jot is a small menu bar app that keeps everything in one plain log on your Mac.

Swipe the table sideways to see all four apps.

	Jot	Apple Notes Quick Note	Drafts	Raycast Notes
What it is	A menu bar app that saves quick notes to one searchable log	Apple's built-in Notes app; Quick Note opens a note from any app ^[1]	An app for capturing text and sending it on to other apps ^[12]	A floating Markdown notes window inside the Raycast launcher ^[14]
How you open it	`⌥Space` in any app; you can pick another shortcut	Hold Fn or Globe and press Q, or move the pointer to the bottom-right corner ^[1]	A capture window on `⇧⌘2` by default; Drafts has to be running ^[7]	A shortcut you set yourself (there is none by default), or "Create Note" in Raycast ^[15]
Saving	`⌘↵` adds the note to the log	Quick Notes go to their own folder; by default the shortcut reopens your last Quick Note ^[1]	`⌘↵` saves, and unsaved text is kept ^[7]	You type into the floating window ^[15]
Where notes are kept	One plain JSON file on your Mac	iCloud, or the "On My Mac" account on your Mac ^[2]	The app's own database, synced with iCloud ^[8]	An encrypted database; Cloud Sync goes through a Raycast account ^{[14] [18]}
Account	None	None for On My Mac notes; iCloud notes need iCloud ^[2]	No Drafts account; sync uses iCloud ^[8]	None for up to 5 notes; sync needs a signed-in Pro account ^{[14] [15]}
System permissions	None	Built into macOS	Not stated in its docs	Accessibility, which every Raycast shortcut needs ^[16]
Search	Yes	Yes ^[3]	Yes, including advanced queries ^[9]	Yes, titles and content ^[15]
Export to Markdown	The whole log in one Markdown file	On macOS 26 and later, one note at a time ^[4]; not on macOS 15 ^[5]	Backups are JSON ^[10]; actions can write drafts to files ^[11]	Plain text, Markdown or HTML ^[14]
Runs on	Mac only: macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel	Mac, iPhone, iPad and iCloud.com ^[2]	Mac (macOS 12.7 or later), iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch ^{[6] [12]}	Mac, Windows and iPhone ^[15]
Price	$4.99 once (launch price; normally $9), on up to 3 Macs. The same price on the Mac App Store	Free with macOS	Free; Drafts Pro is $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year ^[13]	Free for up to 5 notes; unlimited notes with Pro, $10 a month ^[17]

Where the others do better

Apple Notes is free and already on your Mac. It syncs to your iPhone, iPad and iCloud.com, handles rich text and attachments, and Safari can add links and highlights to a Quick Note ^[1]. On macOS 26 and later it also exports notes as Markdown.

Drafts lets you create, edit and sync as many drafts as you like on its free tier ^[13]. It has iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch apps, actions that send text to other apps, and it runs on older Macs.

Raycast Notes formats Markdown, keeps several notes at hand, lets you recover deleted notes, and on Pro syncs your notes to Windows and iPhone ^{[14] [15]}.

Where Jot is different

Jot asks for no system permissions and no account, and costs one payment rather than a subscription. Everything you capture goes into one plain file on your Mac, and the whole log exports to a single Markdown file on macOS 14 and 15 as well as newer versions. It does nothing else: if you want sync, phone apps or rich text, one of the apps above will suit you better.

Get Jot for $4.99 See how it works

Sources

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