HoverNotes vs Opennote
Opennote is winding down its student notebook after being acquired by Reducto — and because your notes lived in its cloud, you'll need a new home for them. HoverNotes watches videos with you across 20+ platforms and turns them into AI study notes saved to your own Obsidian vault, so no acquisition can ever lock them away again.
Saves directly to your Obsidian vaultSee it in action
Notes that capture what transcripts miss
HoverNotes sits right beside the video and turns what you watch into AI study notes — automatically, as you learn, capturing the code and diagrams a transcript misses.
Watches the video live and writes structured AI study notes as you go
Captures timestamped screenshots of on-screen code, equations & diagrams
Saves everything privately to your own Obsidian vault
The honest comparison
HoverNotes vs Opennote — side by side
Opennote was a great all-in-one study notebook — but it's being sunset, and it kept your notes in its cloud. HoverNotes does one thing well: it turns the videos you watch into a lasting, screenshot-rich library saved locally to your own vault.
Choose HoverNotes if…
You learn from video — courses, lectures, coding tutorials across YouTube, Udemy, Coursera and 20+ platforms — and want AI study notes plus timestamped screenshots of on-screen code, equations and diagrams, captured live and saved privately to your own Obsidian vault that no acquisition can ever sunset.
If you're leaving Opennote…
Opennote is winding down its student notebook after being acquired by Reducto. Export your notes while you still can, then move to a local-first home so the next acquisition or shutdown can't take your study library with it.
| Feature | HoverNotes | Opennote |
|---|---|---|
| Notes stay yours if the company is acquired or shuts down | ||
| Local-first — notes stored in your own Obsidian vault | Cloud-based | |
| Watches video live in your browser as you learn | Paste a YouTube link / record | |
| Timestamped screenshots of on-screen code, equations & diagrams | ||
| Captures the visual frames (not just transcript/audio) | ||
| Works on any video in your browser, including local files | YouTube links + uploads | |
| Saves notes as portable Markdown you keep | PDF/Markdown export (paid) | |
| Actively developed (not being sunset) | Sunsetting education product | |
| AI chat tutor about your material | ||
| Auto-generated tutorial videos & diagrams | ||
| Auto-generated flashcards & quizzes | ||
| Free plan to start |
Questions
Leaving Opennote — common questions
Is Opennote shutting down?+
Opennote was acquired by document-intelligence company Reducto in May 2026, and its team confirmed it will sunset its education product — the student AI notebook — in the coming months. If your notes and course materials live inside Opennote's cloud, now is the time to export them and pick a new home that you control.
What's the best Opennote alternative for video learning?+
If most of your learning happens by watching video — courses, lectures, coding tutorials — HoverNotes is the closest fit. It watches videos with you across YouTube, Udemy, Coursera and 20+ platforms, captures timestamped screenshots of on-screen code, equations and diagrams, and writes AI study notes straight to your own Obsidian vault instead of a vendor's cloud.
How do I move my notes off Opennote?+
Export your existing notes from Opennote while the product is still live (it supports PDF and Markdown export). Markdown files drop straight into an Obsidian vault. From there, install HoverNotes and every new note you take while watching a video is saved as Markdown into that same local vault — so your old and new notes live together, on your device.
Will my notes disappear if HoverNotes is ever acquired?+
No. HoverNotes is local-first: your notes are saved as plain Markdown files in your own Obsidian vault on your own device, not in a HoverNotes cloud. Even if HoverNotes changed hands or shut down tomorrow, the notes you've already captured stay readable and yours — which is exactly the problem Opennote users are dealing with now.
Does HoverNotes do everything Opennote did?+
Not exactly — and that's intentional. Opennote was an all-in-one study system with an AI chat tutor (Galileo), auto-generated tutorial videos and diagrams, flashcards and quizzes. HoverNotes is focused on one job: turning the videos you watch into lasting, screenshot-rich study notes you own. If you mainly need notes from video plus permanent local ownership, HoverNotes covers it.
Move your notes somewhere they can't be sold
Join 20,000+ learners turning every course, lecture, and tutorial into AI study notes they keep — captured automatically and saved to their own Obsidian vault.
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