It allows users to create notes using solely a computer keyboard and search them using incremental find.

Other features include database encryption, basic text formatting, tags and spellcheck.

It has been recommended along with Simplenote as a solution for taking and syncing notes by both Wired and Lifehacker.

[3] In 2013, Elastic Threads (David Halter) and Brett Terpstra created a fork of Notational Velocity with added functionality called nvALT.

[4] In 2019, Brett Terpstra and Fletcher Penney started working on a replacement for nvALT called nvUltra.