The perfect note-taking apps for amassing your ideas and information

Nowadays, we’re all coping with big quantities of data, from assembly notes to social media, to photographs and movies, to no matter else we’ve collected — and we’re all looking for some technique to retailer it, arrange it, and discover it after we want it.

If you wish to get actually fundamental, you should utilize a spreadsheet or create a easy set of word-processing paperwork. In any other case, you possibly can attempt 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 well-known has been Evernote, which has gone by way of fairly just a few modifications 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 develop into manner too overblown (and too costly), I haven’t been capable of encourage myself to tug my decade of knowledge out of there. At this level, although, I’m undecided I’d advocate it to a brand new consumer — particularly now that it’s limiting the options of its free model much more than it used to.

Nevertheless, there are quite a lot of others on the market now with a variety of choices, from simply plain notes to functions that may do virtually something so long as you’ve gotten the time and an inclination to study. I’ve checked out a bunch, and these are some that appeared most promising, from the simplest to essentially the most complicated.

Ultimately, although, the app you utilize will largely rely in your private wants. Listed here are extra particulars on our high picks on this class.

Google Preserve began out as a reasonably easy note-taking app, and whereas it has added just a few options because it started, it’s nonetheless , simple technique to file 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 may convert a Preserve word to a Google Doc), it really works particularly nicely for those who’re invested within the Google ecosystem. 

Preserve isn’t fairly as sparse because it was: you possibly can create new notes with immediate lists, drawings, or photographs; you too can add collaborators and a wide range of backgrounds. As well as, there have been some attention-grabbing upgrades not too long ago which have been promised, comparable to textual content formatting (though, as of this writing, they have been solely obtainable for Android). In the meantime, being Google, the search ain’t dangerous.

Bear Markdown Notes is an app for macOS and iOS gadgets with a wonderful interface and choice of options that would make me remorse my faithfulness to Android. Even the free model affords quite a lot of tweaks — for instance, the header can both be the primary sentence of the word or the date and time (or you possibly can go away it empty and put in something you need). You might have a large selection of fonts and varied formatting choices. 

The app makes use of tags so as 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.

Apart from the column on the left, you’ve gotten 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’ll be able to format your notes in a wide range of methods by clicking a BIU (daring / italics / underline) icon on the high proper of every word; you too can create subheads, bulleted and to-do lists, tables, hyperlinks, and add attachments. One other icon helps you to see the statistics for the word — variety of phrases, characters, and when it was modified. You may also see an overview of your varied heads, subheads, and any backlinks. In different phrases, even within the free model, there are many methods you possibly can play with Bear Notes. 

However, if you wish to sync your notes throughout gadgets, you’ll need to improve to the Professional model. With that, you additionally get password safety, the flexibility to go looking inside attachments, extra codecs, and the flexibility to export notes as PDFs, ePub, and different codecs (the free model helps you to export in Markdown, TextBundle, txt, and rtf).

Value: Free model obtainable. Professional model prices $2.99 a month or $29.99 a yr with a 7-day free trial.

Evernote began out in 2008 as an modern and well-regarded note-taking app. Through the years, nevertheless, its fame has suffered because it labored by way of privateness missteps, elevated charges, 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 (shedding most of its US workers within the course of). And as of December 2023, it’s limiting its free model to 50 notes and a single pocket book, making it primarily unusable for many customers besides as a trial model.

That being stated, the paid model of Evernote nonetheless does what it does nicely, particularly for those who’re a kind of customers who has caught with it for some time. The essential feel and appear of the online app hasn’t modified a lot, though the homepage now reveals current notes, a scratch pad, and not too long ago captured web sites. (The homepage will be customized with different widgets you probably have a paid account.) There are a number of methods to prepare your notes: they are often tagged and / or assigned to folders, and folders will be grouped into named “stacks.” You’ll be able to create to-do notes. You’ll be able to search inside all of your notes, clip webpages in a wide range of methods, and sync as much as two gadgets. You’ll be able to add as much as 60MB of knowledge a month with a most word measurement of 25MB. And Evernote has been including AI options comparable to AI Word Cleanup, presently in beta, which makes use of AI to “tidy up” your notes.

In different phrases, Evernote has develop into 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 helps you to sync a vast variety of gadgets, add as much as 10GB of knowledge a month with a most word measurement of 200MB, join a Gmail account, and extra; the Skilled plan provides further 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 yr. Skilled plan prices $17.99 a month or $169.99 a yr.

The Venn diagram of Evernote customers and OneNote customers seldom overlaps. This regardless of all they’ve in frequent: each have huge 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 totally different.

In OneNote, every entry is a web page, and every web page can comprise a wide range of totally different media, together with textual content, audio, photographs, video, tables, and drawings, amongst others. Pages are organized into sections and sections into notebooks. 

There are quite a lot of methods you possibly can tweak your information, how it’s organized, and the way it appears. You’ll be able to create to-do lists and reminders, mark textual content as necessary, and alter the look of the textual content. You’ll be able to spotlight and make a wide range of drawings in a wide range of colours. In the event you use different Microsoft apps comparable to Outlook, you possibly can sync your OneNote entries with them — for instance, to maintain monitor of Outlook conferences. You’ll be able to change the web page coloration and elegance or swap from darkish to mild.  

The truth is, like Evernote, OneNote has had so many alternative skills added that it could develop into a bit overwhelming. For instance, after I needed to seek out out whether or not I may extract textual content from a photograph, I went to OneNote’s “Inform me” icon, which, if it could’t discover an instantaneous reply to your query, affords a sensible lookup hyperlink. When “extract textual content” didn’t give you something, I clicked it and was supplied (by way of 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 searching for options, it’s value giving OneNote a attempt.

Joplin is an open-source app that, on first look, appears like a considerably less complicated model of Evernote. It has the checklist of folders (also called notebooks) on the far left, a column itemizing the contents of the folder to the appropriate of that, after which an area to indicate the contents of the highlighted entry. 

A serious distinction, although, is that Joplin produces simple Markdown information (versus Evernote’s proprietary .enex format), and there’s truly a toggle that permits you to see every file in markdown or, for those who want, wealthy textual content. Which is helpful, particularly for those who like to take a look at code; my solely drawback is that hyperlinks should not stay within the wealthy textual content format — though there’s most likely a technique to tweak that.

And that could be a second attention-grabbing factor about Joplin: if you would like to have the ability to personalize your app, you possibly can. There are a number of plugins, and you may even create your personal scripts and plugins utilizing the Extension API. If, then again, you’re not comfy with coding and APIs, Joplin’s current extensions ought to offer you loads to work with. You simply could have to seek the advice of its full of life consumer discussion board.

To be able to synchronize Joplin amongst your gadgets, you might want to set it up with one in every of a number of current cloud providers (comparable to Dropbox or OneDrive). You may also use Joplin Cloud, which is on the market in Joplin’s paid plans: Primary, which incorporates 2GB cupboard space and 10MB per word or attachment, and Professional, which affords 30GB cupboard space, 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 yr; Joplin Professional prices €5.99 ($6.42) a month or €57.48 ($61.64) a yr.

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 essential window exhibiting the contents of every word. It affords the flexibility to create checklists, insert photographs and tables, nest notebooks, and (you probably have 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 one in every of my “musts”) that works with the foremost browsers, though the clipper’s skills should not as intensive as Evernote’s.

The truth is, 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 best way to go, providing limitless notes, the flexibility so as to add attachments (as much as 20MB) and tables, extra methods to design the interface, and the flexibility to export to quite a lot 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 technique to describe Notion, it might be formidable. You can begin with a number of various kinds of codecs — a desk, a board, a timeline, a calendar, an inventory, a created template, or simply an empty web page. In the event you’re a person, you possibly can create a vast variety of pages, share your information with quite a lot of apps, together with Slack and GitHub, and share your content material with as much as 10 “friends” without cost. The truth is, for most individuals, free will probably be fairly ample. 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 further 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 comprise different notes, which might comprise different notes. Notion additionally appears to be continuously including new options, comparable to AI writing capabilities and new sorts of sharing choices.

The truth is, its lack of limitations could also be an issue for some customers. In the event you like to actually get into the workings of a posh app and screw round with it till it does all the things you need it to do — after which some — then it’s possible you’ll need to take a look at Notion and play a bit with its options. (For instance, I presently use Notion to trace my varied workflows and upcoming duties.) Nevertheless, if all you need to do is write down your ideas with possibly just a few further choices, you may need to go together with one thing a bit less complicated.

Value: Free model obtainable. Plus model prices $12 a month or $120 a yr (each costs per consumer).

Some apps are common, some are very fashionable — and a few even have what quantities to fan golf equipment. Obsidian is among the latter.

This app is the form of factor that, for those who’re into it, can have you exploring its varied 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 saved domestically in a Vault (in different phrases, a essential folder). There are methods to sync between gadgets without cost — relying on which gadgets you need to sync. Or you should utilize one in every of Obsidian’s paid plans: Normal, which helps you to use Obsidian’s service to sync the info in a single vault and retailer as much as 1GB of knowledge, and Plus, which helps you to sync as much as 10 vaults and retailer as much as 10GB of knowledge. There’s a cost as nicely 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 attention-grabbing codecs that you simply don’t get in most different note-taking software program. Once you first open it after set up, you get a number of decisions on the left facet of the web page: a graph view, a canvas view (which helps you to create a movement chart, pinboard, or different association), and one in every of my present favorites, a every day word (which is solely a dated word however is a pleasant concept if you wish to preserve a journal). You may also create templates. And none of this takes into consideration the varied plug-ins which have been created by its group — there have been 1,233 after I final checked.

In fact, which means if you wish to actually benefit from Obsidian, it’s a must to make investments some effort and time. However for these into tweaking their apps to go well with them fully, it’ll most likely be value it.

Value: Free. Sync Normal prices $5 a month or $48 a yr, whereas Sync Plus prices $10 a month or $96 a yr. A business use license prices $50 per individual per yr.

If Notion isn’t complicated sufficient for you, then maybe you must attempt Capacities, a comparatively current app that organizes your notes utilizing a networking slightly than a file / folder format. Once you create an entry (or object) in Capacities, the very first thing it’s a must to do, even earlier than you begin typing, is choose what class it belongs in: web page (in different phrases, an easy 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 also be mechanically dated so yow will discover it from the app’s calendar. And that’s only the start — there are all types of the way to create and manipulate your entries. Capacities might be very helpful for those who discover it really works along with your considering processes, but it surely may take some self-training earlier than you’re certain.

The essential model consists of limitless entries, cheap however restricted media uploads, and synchronization throughout gadgets, amongst different options. A Professional model provides 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 yr.

There are quite a lot of note-taking apps on the market, and whereas not all made our “better of” checklist, there are others which may fit your wants, so I assumed I’d point out them right here.

• Notes is Apple’s model of Google Preserve (or Preserve is Google’s model of Apple Notes). It’s a free, built-in, easy technique to take notes, save photographs, scan paperwork, and make sketches, supplied you might be utilizing an Apple gadget.
• Simplenote is a text-only app that provides simple note-taking for anybody who simply desires to, nicely, take notes.
• Workflowy is a web-based app that makes use of an overview format and is definitely extra versatile than it appears at first.
• Anytype, which remains to be in beta, is a posh and privacy-aware app that, like Obsidian, might be perfect for many who actually like to research the best way to personalize their functions.
• Craft is an attention-grabbing app that provides a wide range of templates and is comparatively straightforward to get used to. The free Starter model may be very restricted, however you get 14 days to check out the extra full Plus model, which prices $10 a month or $96 a yr.
• Zoho Pocket book is a free app that organizes your notes by dividing them into separate notebooks; every pocket book may comprise audio information, photographs, or different attachments.

Correction, November sixteenth, 2023, 4:25PM ET: This text initially acknowledged that Obsidian is open-source software program. It isn’t. We remorse the error.

Replace November sixth, 2024: This text was initially revealed on November sixteenth, 2023, and has been up to date since so as to add UpNote and Capacities, summarize a number of apps on the backside of the article, and replace the pricing.