Saturn
Markdown notes for Mac, in files you own. A fast, native notes app over a folder of plain text — no account, no database, nothing to lock you in.
Free for 14 days, no card needed. Requires macOS 15 (Sequoia) or later.
Universal — Apple silicon and Intel. Notarized by Apple. Updates itself.
Five ways to look at a space. The same folder of notes as a list, a grid, a gallery, a board, or a canvas. Choose per space, and hide the ones you never use.
List.
Titles, dates and tags in a dense column. The view for a space you already know your way around.
Grid.
Cards, sized by what is in them. The view for a space you are still getting a feel for.
Canvas.
No rows, no order. Push notes around until the arrangement is the thing you were trying to remember.
Your notes are a folder, not a format. This is the whole argument. Everything else Saturn does is built on top of it.
Open your vault in Finder and it is what it looks like: folders of Markdown files, named after their titles. Every one opens in any editor ever written. You can search them with grep, keep them in git, back them up with Time Machine, or edit them on another machine while Saturn is running — it notices within about a second and updates.
Frontmatter is readable YAML rather than an internal blob. Links are [[wiki-links]]. Tasks are - [ ] lines. Images sit next to the note that uses them. The conventions are the ones the Markdown world already agreed on, so a vault you already keep opens as it is — and if you ever leave, there is nothing to export, because there was never anything to export from.
Sync is your own iCloud Drive doing what it already does with every other folder. There is no Saturn account, no server of ours in the path, and no month where it stops working because a card expired.
Markdown Notes/
├── Projects/
│ ├── launch-plan.md
│ └── diagram.png
├── Reading/
│ └── annual-letters.md
└── meeting-notes.md---
id: "A1B2C3D4-E5F6-7890-ABCD-EF1234567890"
title: "Launch plan"
tags: ["work", "launch"]
created: 2026-01-15T10:30:00Z
modified: 2026-01-15T14:22:00Z
pinned: false
---
# Launch plan
- [ ] Ship the site 📅 2026-09-01
- [ ] Email [[Reading/Annual letters]]A complete notes app, not a text box. Everything below ships in the current version, on by default.
Your notes are plain files.
Every note is a real .md file in a folder you choose, with readable YAML frontmatter. Open them in any editor, grep them, put them in git, or walk away — nothing is trapped in a database only Saturn can read.
Sync with no account.
Your vault folder lives in your own iCloud Drive, so it moves between your Macs the way any other folder does. There is no sign-up, no server of ours in the path, and nothing to keep paying for.
Fast on notes that got long.
A native editor built on TextKit, with an incremental syntax highlighter that re-parses only what you changed. No web view, and no spinner between a keystroke and a character.
Find anything without lifting your hands.
One keystroke opens a command palette that runs any command, jumps to any note, or searches the full text of every note you have. A full-text index keeps it instant across tens of thousands of notes.
Formatting you can see through.
Markdown syntax hides itself once a line is finished, so you read a heading rather than a hash. Tables, code blocks, task lists, quotes and images all render in place — and the underlying file is still ordinary Markdown.
Linked, like a real vault.
Type [[ to link a note, @ to mention one. Backlinks resolve both ways, aliases work, and a slash command drops in anything else. Point Saturn at a vault you already keep and your existing links come across.
Tasks that live in your notes.
Any - [ ] line becomes a task, everywhere it appears. Write "call Kyle at 9am Friday" and the date is parsed as you type; set a reminder and it arrives as a notification. One page collects every open task across every note.
Five ways to see a space.
The same folder of notes as a list, a grid, a gallery, a kanban board with your own statuses, or an infinite canvas you arrange by hand. Choose per space, and hide the views you don't use.
Export to PDF, properly typeset.
Any note, or a whole multi-note selection, becomes a real document — set in your app typeface, with headings as a navigable outline, clickable links, and tables, code and images intact. Preview the exact file before you save it.
Dictation that stays on your Mac.
Hold a key and talk. Speech becomes text through Apple's on-device recognizer, so no audio is stored and none of it leaves the machine. Requires macOS 26 or later.
Images that stay put.
Paste or drag an image straight into a note and it is written as a real file beside it, referenced by an ordinary Markdown link. Rename the note, or move it to another space, and the image follows.
At home in macOS.
Spotlight indexes your notes, Shortcuts can create and read them, and every one of the thirty commands has a keyboard shortcut you can rebind. Universal binary, notarized by Apple, and it updates itself.
$29 once
Launch price, going to $49. Not a subscription.
- 14 days free — the whole app, no card required
- Every 1.x update free for at least 5 years, security fixes included
- All your Macs on one licence
- 30-day refund, no questions asked
Questions. The ones people ask before paying, answered in the first sentence.
What is Saturn?
Saturn is a Markdown notes app for Mac. It keeps every note as a plain .md file in a folder you own — your "vault" — and syncs that folder through your own iCloud Drive. It requires macOS 15 (Sequoia) or later and costs $29 once, after a 14-day free trial.
Where are my notes stored?
Saturn's notes are ordinary Markdown files in a folder you pick — by default, a Markdown Notes folder in iCloud Drive, though any folder works, including a local one. You can open, edit, move, back up, or version-control those files with any other tool while Saturn is running; it watches the folder and picks changes up within about a second.
Does Saturn work with an existing Obsidian vault?
Yes. Saturn can open a folder of Markdown you already keep, including an Obsidian vault, and it reads the conventions those files already use: YAML frontmatter, [[wiki-links]] with aliases, tags, and - [ ] task lists. It adds an id field to a note's frontmatter so a file stays linked to its record across devices, and leaves everything else it doesn't recognise untouched.
Do I need an account to use Saturn?
No. Saturn has no accounts and no sign-in. Sync is your own iCloud Drive, so your notes move between your Macs without passing through a server belonging to us, and the app keeps working exactly the same with no network at all.
Is Saturn private?
Saturn makes no network requests of its own. It has no analytics, no telemetry, and no crash reporting, and the app contains no code that uploads your notes anywhere. The only two times it talks to the internet are checking for its own updates and, once, when you buy a licence.
How much does Saturn cost?
Saturn is $29 as a one-time purchase, with a 14-day free trial first and no card required to start it. That is a launch price and will rise to $49; buying now locks in the lower one. There is no subscription.
What happens when the trial ends if I don't buy?
When Saturn's trial ends the app becomes read-only rather than locking you out. Every note stays open, searchable, exportable, and copyable, and the files are in your own folder regardless — the trial gates writing new text, not reaching what you already wrote.
Is the purchase a subscription?
No. Saturn is bought once and is yours permanently. Every 1.x update is free — including security and macOS compatibility fixes — for at least 5 years from purchase, and the app never expires or phones home to check.
Can I use one licence on more than one Mac?
Yes. One Saturn licence covers one person on all of their Macs. On a second Mac, signing into the same iCloud account brings the licence along with the vault, so there is nothing to type in.
What are Saturn's system requirements?
Saturn requires macOS 15 (Sequoia) or later and runs natively on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs as a universal binary. It is notarized by Apple and updates itself. An iPhone and iPad version is in development.
Can I get a refund?
Yes — Saturn has a 30-day refund policy, no questions asked. Email support@saturnnotes.com within 30 days of buying and you get your money back.
Anything else — support@saturnnotes.com. A person reads it.