Licensing
What is gated
Section titled “What is gated”Exactly three features need a trial or a paid plan. Everything else in Shady Notes is free, permanently, with no note limit and no nagging.
| Premium | Free |
|---|---|
| Plugins | Everything else |
| All 16 themes | Dark, Light and Nord |
| Revision history | — |
Writing, the shade, the vault, workspaces, tabs, the Navigator, sticky notes, search, find and replace, conflict handling, every Markdown feature, all keyboard shortcuts and every setting are free.
The trial
Section titled “The trial”Fourteen days, starting the first time the app checks — no sign-up, no card, no button to press. During it, all three gated features are unlocked.
prefs-premium-free.png The Premium tab in Preferences showing days remaining in the trial.
When it ends the app returns to the free tier. Nothing is taken away that you made: notes are untouched, plugin-managed notes stay exactly as they are, and recorded history is kept — you simply stop being able to browse it until you are on a paid plan again.
If your theme was a premium one, it falls back to a free one.
Signing in
Section titled “Signing in”You can sign in today — it works — but with billing closed, an account does not unlock anything the trial does not. → Signing in
Offline
Section titled “Offline”Once entitlement is established, Shady Notes works offline for 14 days before it needs to check again. A flight, or a week without a connection, is not a problem.
Cancelling
Section titled “Cancelling”If a subscription lapses, the app returns to the free tier at the next check. Your notes are never touched by any licensing state.
What goes online
Section titled “What goes online”Only the app token, and only to check your account. Your notes never leave your Mac — they are not uploaded, synced or read by us. → Privacy and data
Documented against Shady Notes 4.1.19 · release notes