Today, we’re all coping with big quantities of data, from assembly notes to social media, to images and movies, to no matter else we’ve collected — and we’re all looking for some strategy to retailer it, arrange it, and discover it after we want it.
If you wish to get actually fundamental, you need to use a spreadsheet or create a easy set of word-processing paperwork. In any other case, you possibly can strive what’s considerably inaccurately described as a note-taking app. These apps, at their easiest, retailer your notes and different ideas and, at their extra complicated, are able to manipulating any and all content material you need to drop into them.
One of the crucial well-known has been Evernote, which has gone by means of fairly a couple of adjustments over time, each financially and in its function set. I’ve been utilizing it for my private notes for years, and whereas I really feel that it’s turn out to be means too overblown (and too costly), I haven’t been in a position to inspire myself to drag my decade of information out of there. At this level, although, I’m undecided I’d advocate it to a brand new person — particularly now that it’s limiting the features of its free version much more than it used to.
Nevertheless, there are lots of others on the market now with a variety of choices, from simply plain notes to purposes that may do virtually something so long as you might have the time and an inclination to study. I’ve checked out a bunch, and these are some that seemed most promising, from the simplest to essentially the most complicated.
In the long run, although, the app you utilize will largely rely in your private wants. Listed below are extra particulars on our prime picks on this class.
Google Maintain began out as a reasonably easy note-taking app, and whereas it has added a couple of options because it started, it’s nonetheless , easy strategy to document your ideas. As a result of it’s so interconnected with different Google apps (for instance, you possibly can entry it straight from Google Calendar, and you’ll convert a Maintain word to a Google Doc), it really works particularly properly for those who’re invested within the Google ecosystem.
Maintain isn’t fairly as sparse because it was: you possibly can create new notes with immediate lists, drawings, or pictures; you can even add collaborators and a wide range of backgrounds. As well as, there have been some interesting upgrades recently which were promised, reminiscent of textual content formatting (though, as of this writing, they have been solely obtainable for Android). In the meantime, being Google, the search ain’t unhealthy.
Bear Markdown Notes is an app for macOS and iOS gadgets with a superb interface and number of options that would make me remorse my faithfulness to Android. Even the free model affords a variety of tweaks — for instance, the header can both be the primary sentence of the word or the date and time (or you possibly can depart it empty and put in something you need). You’ve a large alternative of fonts and numerous formatting choices.
The app makes use of tags as a way to arrange its notes; you create a tag for a word by beginning your chosen phrase with a pound signal (or surrounding a phrase with them). The phrase / phrase will then seem within the left-hand column, the place you possibly can click on on it to seek out all of the tagged notes.
Moreover the column on the left, you might have a second column that reveals all of the notes within the highlighted part, whereas the principle window reveals what’s within the chosen word itself. It’s a UI that’s utilized by a number of apps, together with Evernote.
You may format your notes in a wide range of methods by clicking a BIU (daring / italics / underline) icon on the prime proper of every word; you can even create subheads, bulleted and to-do lists, tables, hyperlinks, and add attachments. One other icon enables you to see the statistics for the word — variety of phrases, characters, and when it was modified. It’s also possible to see an overview of your numerous heads, subheads, and any backlinks. In different phrases, even within the free model, there are many methods you possibly can play with Bear Notes.
Alternatively, if you wish to sync your notes throughout gadgets, you’ll should improve to the Professional model. With that, you additionally get password safety, the power to look inside attachments, extra codecs, and the power to export notes as PDFs, ePub, and different codecs (the free model enables you to export in Markdown, TextBundle, txt, and rtf).
Value: Free model obtainable. Professional model prices $2.99 a month or $29.99 a 12 months with a 7-day free trial.
Evernote began out in 2008 as an progressive and well-regarded note-taking app. Over time, nonetheless, its repute has suffered because it labored by means of privacy missteps, increased fees, and an interface that may really feel bloated and feature-heavy. It’s now owned by app developer Bending Spoons and has moved its operations to Europe (laying off most of its US employees within the course of). And as of December 2023, it is limiting its free version to 50 notes and a single notebook, making it primarily unusable for many customers besides as a trial model.
That being mentioned, the paid model of Evernote nonetheless does what it does properly, particularly for those who’re a kind of customers who has caught with it for some time. The essential feel and look of the net app hasn’t modified a lot, though the homepage now reveals latest notes, a scratch pad, and lately captured web sites. (The homepage might be personalised with different widgets when you’ve got a paid account.)
There are a number of methods to prepare your notes: they are often tagged and / or assigned to folders, and folders might be grouped into named “stacks.” You may create to-do notes. You may search inside all of your notes, clip webpages in a wide range of methods, and sync as much as two gadgets. You may add as much as 60MB of information a month with a most word dimension of 25MB. And Evernote has been including AI options reminiscent of AI Note Cleanup, at present in beta, which makes use of AI to “tidy up” your notes.
In different phrases, Evernote has turn out to be a reasonably complicated product, though, as talked about earlier than, you’ll need to have a look at the paid variations to make use of it correctly. The Private plan enables you to sync a vast variety of gadgets, add as much as 10GB of information a month with a most word dimension of 200MB, join a Gmail account, and extra; the Skilled plan provides extra app integration and a wide range of different options.
Value: Restricted free model obtainable. Private plan prices $14.99 a month or $129.99 a 12 months. Skilled plan prices $17.99 a month or $169.99 a 12 months.
The Venn diagram of Evernote customers and OneNote customers seldom overlaps. This regardless of all they’ve in frequent: each have extensive ranges of helpful options, and every appears so as to add new performance each couple of months or so. However the really feel of every is completely different.
In OneNote, every entry is a web page, and every web page can include a wide range of completely different media, together with textual content, audio, pictures, video, tables, and drawings, amongst others. Pages are organized into sections and sections into notebooks.
There are lots of methods you possibly can tweak your information, how it’s organized, and the way it seems. You may create to-do lists and reminders, mark textual content as vital, and alter the look of the textual content. You may spotlight and make a wide range of drawings in a wide range of colours. When you use different Microsoft apps reminiscent of Outlook, you possibly can sync your OneNote entries with them — for instance, to maintain observe of Outlook conferences. You may change the web page colour and elegance or swap from darkish to gentle.
In truth, like Evernote, OneNote has had so many alternative talents added that it could possibly turn out to be a bit overwhelming. For instance, after I needed to seek out out whether or not I might extract textual content from a photograph, I went to OneNote’s “Inform me” icon, which, if it could possibly’t discover an instantaneous reply to your query, affords a wise lookup hyperlink. When “extract textual content” didn’t give you something, I clicked it and was provided (through a facet column) a Wikipedia definition of a textual content file and hyperlinks to a number of third-party apps. (A easy “we don’t try this” would have been good.)
One factor about OneNote that offers it a bonus over Evernote: it’s nonetheless fully free. So for those who’re in search of options, it’s value giving OneNote a strive.
Joplin is an open-source app that, on first look, seems like a considerably less complicated model of Evernote. It has the listing of folders (often known as notebooks) on the far left, a column itemizing the contents of the folder to the best of that, after which an area to point out the contents of the highlighted entry.
A serious distinction, although, is that Joplin produces easy Markdown information (versus Evernote’s proprietary .enex format), and there’s truly a toggle that allows you to see every file in markdown or, for those who desire, wealthy textual content. Which is useful, particularly for those who like to take a look at code. My solely downside is that hyperlinks should not dwell within the wealthy textual content format — though there’s in all probability a strategy to tweak that.
That could be a second fascinating factor about Joplin: if you’d like to have the ability to personalize your app, you possibly can. There are a number of plugins, and you’ll even create your individual scripts and plugins utilizing the Extension API. If, however, you’re not snug with coding and APIs, Joplin’s current extensions ought to give you lots to work with. You simply could must seek the advice of its energetic person discussion board.
With a view to synchronize Joplin amongst your gadgets, you might want to set it up with considered one of a number of current cloud companies (reminiscent of Dropbox or OneDrive). It’s also possible to use Joplin Cloud, which is accessible in Joplin’s paid plans: Primary, which incorporates 2GB space for storing and 10MB per word or attachment, and Professional, which affords 30GB space for storing, 200MB per word or attachment, and different options.
Value: Free model obtainable. Joplin Primary prices €2.99 ($3.21) a month or €28.69 ($30.76) a 12 months; Joplin Professional prices €5.99 ($6.42) a month or €57.48 ($61.64) a 12 months.
UpNote is a handsome, comparatively easy to grasp app that appears to be a pretty different to Evernote. It has roughly the identical look, with notebooks listed on the left, the notes in a highlighted pocket book listed subsequent to it, after which a major window exhibiting the contents of every word. It affords the power to create checklists, insert pictures and tables, nest notebooks, and (when you’ve got the Premium model) lock particular notebooks. And it imports a wide range of codecs — together with Evernote.
There are apps for macOS, Home windows, Linux, iOS, and Android, and there’s a net clipper (a function that’s considered one of my “musts”) that works with the most important browsers, though the clipper’s talents should not as intensive as Evernote’s.
In truth, for those who do plan to make use of UpNote extensively, you’ll have to transfer off the free plan, which solely permits as much as 50 notes. After that, the Premium plan — which is, admittedly, a lot cheaper than Evernote’s — could be the way in which to go, providing limitless notes, the power so as to add attachments (as much as 20MB) and tables, extra methods to design the interface, and the power to export to a variety of codecs.
Value: Free model obtainable, restricted to 50 notes. Professional model prices $1.99 a month or $39.99 for a lifetime subscription.
If there’s one strategy to describe Notion, it will be formidable. You can begin with a number of various kinds of codecs — a desk, a board, a timeline, a calendar, a listing, a created template, or simply an empty web page. When you’re a person, you possibly can create a vast variety of pages, share your information with a variety of apps, together with Slack and GitHub, and share your content material with as much as 10 “friends” totally free. In truth, for most individuals, free might be fairly adequate. There are some limitations — for instance, file uploads are restricted to 5MB — however not sufficient to actually depend. A Plus model provides limitless uploads and a few extra group options.
Like Evernote and different higher-end apps, Notion organizes its notes into folders — besides on this case, every word can act as a folder and might include different notes, which may include different notes. Notion additionally appears to be always including new options, reminiscent of AI writing capabilities and new varieties of sharing choices.
In truth, its lack of limitations could also be an issue for some customers. When you like to actually get into the workings of a posh app and screw round with it till it does every part you need it to do — after which some — then you might need to take a look at Notion and play a bit with its options. (For instance, I at present use Notion to trace my numerous workflows and upcoming duties.) Nevertheless, if all you need to do is write down your ideas with perhaps a couple of further choices, you would possibly need to go together with one thing a bit less complicated.
Value: Free model obtainable. Plus model prices $12 a month or $120 a 12 months (each costs per person).
Some apps are fashionable, some are highly regarded — and a few even have what amounts to fan clubs. Obsidian is without doubt one of the latter.
This app is the type of factor that, for those who’re into it, can have you exploring its numerous ins, outs, and add-ons for days and weeks on finish. Obsidian makes use of the Markdown format for its notes (which implies they can be utilized on a wide range of different apps). Your notes and different media are stored domestically in a Vault (in different phrases, a major folder). There are methods to sync between gadgets totally free — depending on which devices you want to sync. Or you need to use considered one of Obsidian’s paid plans: Customary, which helps you to use Obsidian’s service to sync the information in a single vault and retailer as much as 1GB of information, and Plus, which helps you to sync as much as 10 vaults and retailer as much as 10GB of information. There’s a cost as properly if you wish to use Obsidian commercially.
As you possibly can think about, one thing this versatile is difficult to explain.
Even originally, there are a number of fascinating codecs that you just don’t get in most different note-taking software program. If you first open it after set up, you get a number of selections on the left facet of the web page: a graph view, a canvas view (which helps you to create a stream chart, pinboard, or different association), and considered one of my present favorites, a every day word (which is just a dated word however is a pleasant thought if you wish to hold a journal). It’s also possible to create templates. And none of this takes under consideration the various plug-ins which were created by its group — there have been 1,233 after I final checked.
After all, which means if you wish to actually reap the benefits of Obsidian, you must make investments some effort and time. However for these into tweaking their apps to go well with them fully, it can in all probability be value it.
Value: Free. Sync Customary prices $5 a month or $48 a 12 months, whereas Sync Plus prices $10 a month or $96 a 12 months. A industrial use license prices $50 per individual per 12 months.
If Notion isn’t complicated sufficient for you, then maybe it’s best to strive Capacities, a comparatively latest app that organizes your notes utilizing a networking reasonably than a file / folder format. If you create an entry (or object) in Capacities, the very first thing you must do, even earlier than you begin typing, is choose what class it belongs in: web page (in different phrases, a simple doc), assembly, individual, picture, and so on. Solely then are you able to begin creating your entry. Every entry can hyperlink to a number of different entries; every can be robotically dated so you will discover it from the app’s calendar.
And that’s just the start — there are all kinds of how to create and manipulate your entries. Capacities may very well be very helpful for those who discover it really works together with your pondering processes, but it surely would possibly take some self-training earlier than you’re certain.
The essential model contains limitless entries, affordable however restricted media uploads, and synchronization throughout gadgets, amongst different options. A Professional model offers entry to AI options and limitless media uploads, amongst different options.
Value: Free for fundamental options; the Professional model prices $11.99 a month or $119.88 a 12 months.
Streetwriters (Personal) Restricted
Notesnook kind of seems like Evernote: it has a listing of your notebooks on the far left, the contents of the highlighted pocket book subsequent, and the contents of the highlighted entry on the best. However there are some large variations. Notesnook is open supply with an emphasis on privateness: your information is encrypted (and there’s a full rationalization of how its encryption works), and whenever you join, you might be supplied with a restoration key as a protected strategy to get better your information must you neglect / lose your password.
The free model is complete sufficient that you need to use it for some time with out worrying about paying — for instance, you might have entry to as much as 20 notebooks and a vast variety of gadgets and notes. It additionally has some fascinating options. For instance, you possibly can create a “monograph,” which primarily a word you can share publicly with or with out a password, and with a self-destruct connected, for those who select.
The Professional model permits you up so as to add attachments as much as 500MB (attachments should not obtainable within the free model), the power so as to add pictures, and limitless notebooks and tags.
Value: Free for fundamental options; the Professional model prices $4.49 a month or $50.04 a 12 months, right down to $9.99 a 12 months for college kids and lecturers.
Twos might be tough to determine, however when you do, you might resolve it actually works for you. For some motive, every entry you make is known as a “factor.” If you create a factor, you possibly can hold it as a single entry in a bigger listing or designate it to be the start of recent listing. Click on on a dot on the proper of any entry, and a backside menu opens that permits you to create sublists, transfer the entry to a unique listing, add a tag or a photograph, create a reminder, or add a variety of different options. It’s also possible to have a operating listing of the day’s duties that you just entry through the “At present” button on the prime of the web page (which is nice for those who rely on to-do lists). Bookmarks of your lists can be found in a column on the left. There’s additionally the power to make entries public, sync appointments together with your calendar, create a template, or use a “good options” AI function. And all this may be tweaked.
In different phrases, Twos is difficult however fascinating. The free net and desktop variations include all the app’s options; the cellular apps are a bit extra restricted, however you possibly can improve with “cash” that you just earn through the use of numerous options (or you should buy a function for $2). Twos Plus will get you all present and future upgrades, a badge, and sneak peaks on future options.
Value: Free; optionally available subscriptions price $2 a month or $20 a 12 months, and there are larger ranges for these feeling beneficiant.
There are lots of note-taking apps on the market, and whereas not all made our “better of” listing, there are others that may fit your wants, so I assumed I’d point out them right here.
- Notes is Apple’s model of Google Maintain (or Maintain is Google’s model of Apple Notes). It’s a free, built-in, easy strategy to take notes, save images, scan paperwork, and make sketches, supplied you might be utilizing an Apple gadget.
- Simplenote is a text-only app that gives easy note-taking for anybody who simply needs to, properly, take notes.
- Workflowy is a web-based app that makes use of an overview format and is definitely extra versatile than it seems at first.
- Anytype, is a posh and privacy-aware app that, like Obsidian, may very well be very best for many who actually like to research the right way to personalize their purposes.
- Craft is an fascinating app that gives a wide range of templates and is comparatively simple to get used to. The free Starter model could be very restricted, however you get 14 days to check out the extra full Plus model, which prices $10 a month or $96 a 12 months.
- Zoho Notebook is a free app that organizes your notes by dividing them into separate notebooks; every pocket book can even include audio information, images, or different attachments.
Correction, November sixteenth, 2023, 4:25PM ET: This text initially said that Obsidian is open-source software program. It isn’t. We remorse the error.
Replace June twelfth, 2025: This text was initially revealed on November sixteenth, 2023, and has been up to date since so as to add a number of new apps and replace the pricing.