Best Note-Taking Apps Ranked

Notion

What started as a niche Trello-meets-wiki tool exploded into the default workspace for an entire generation of students, startups, and productivity nerds. Its database-and-blocks system turned 'note-taking' into 'build your own operating system for life,' which is exactly why pow

Starting Paid Price: 8 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: Web/Win/Mac/iOS/AndroidOverall Quality: 9.2/10

added by IJRin 2 rankings

Obsidian

Built on plain local Markdown files with zero lock-in, Obsidian became the darling of the 'second brain' and Zettelkasten crowd almost entirely through word of mouth and its wildly generous plugin ecosystem. It's the app people evangelize on Reddit like a religion, and the graph

Starting Paid Price: 0 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: Win/Mac/Linux/iOS/AndroidOverall Quality: 9/10

added by IJR

Evernote

The original king of note-taking apps, Evernote defined the category in the late 2000s with its elephant logo and 'remember everything' promise. It's slipped in the rankings after years of bloat, price hikes, and a shrinking free tier, but its OCR search and web clipper still hav

Starting Paid Price: 15 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: Win/Mac/iOS/Android/WebOverall Quality: 7/10

added by IJRin 2 rankingsEvernote

Microsoft OneNote

Bundled free with Windows and Office for over a decade, OneNote quietly became the note app of classrooms and corporate offices everywhere, thanks to its infinite-canvas notebooks and deep Office integration. It's never flashy, but it's the reliable workhorse millions never had t

Starting Paid Price: 0 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: Win/Mac/iOS/Android/WebOverall Quality: 8/10

added by IJRMicrosoft OneNote

Apple Notes

Once dismissed as a throwaway default app, Apple Notes quietly leveled up with scanning, tables, collaboration, and rock-solid iCloud sync, making it the app most iPhone users never bothered to replace. Its win is inertia plus genuine competence — it just works, and that's underr

Starting Paid Price: 0 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: iOS/iPadOS/macOS/iCloud WebOverall Quality: 8.3/10

added by IJR

Google Keep

Keep never tried to be Notion; it's the sticky-note app for grocery lists, quick reminders, and color-coded chaos, deeply wired into the Android and Gmail ecosystem. Its signature moment is being the app you open a hundred times a day without ever thinking about it.

Starting Paid Price: 0 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: Web/iOS/AndroidOverall Quality: 7.5/10

added by IJRGoogle Keep

Roam Research

Roam single-handedly sparked the 'networked thought' movement in 2019-2020, popularizing backlinks and daily notes before Obsidian and Logseq ran off with the idea. It's earned its place in note-taking history even as its steep price and slower development let rivals overtake it.

Starting Paid Price: 15 $/moFree Tier Available: —Platforms: WebOverall Quality: 8/10

added by IJR

Bear

Bear built a cult following among Apple users purely on design taste — gorgeous typography, tag-based organization, and a writing experience that feels like using a fountain pen. It's the app writers recommend when someone says 'I just want something pretty that syncs.'

Starting Paid Price: 3 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: macOS/iOSOverall Quality: 8.2/10

added by IJR

Craft

Craft arrived late to the note wars but immediately impressed critics with its slick document editor and native Apple-first polish, positioning itself as the anti-Notion for people who want structure without databases. Its rapid feature growth has made it a real contender for cre

Starting Paid Price: 5 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: macOS/iOS/Win/WebOverall Quality: 8.4/10

added by IJR

GoodNotes

GoodNotes rode the iPad-and-Apple-Pencil wave to become the handwriting app of choice for students annotating PDFs and sketching diagrams, effectively replacing paper notebooks for a whole cohort of grad students and doctors. Its AI-powered search of handwritten notes was a genui

Starting Paid Price: 9 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: iOS/iPadOS/macOS/WinOverall Quality: 8.7/10

added by IJR

Notability

Notability's claim to fame is syncing audio recordings with handwritten or typed notes in real time, making it the lecture-hall legend for students who needed to catch every word a professor said. A messy 2021 subscription switch dented trust, but the core product remains beloved

Starting Paid Price: 3 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: iOS/iPadOS/macOSOverall Quality: 8.5/10

added by IJRNotability

Logseq

Logseq took the outliner-plus-backlinks formula of Roam and open-sourced it, winning over privacy-conscious users who wanted local-first storage without a subscription. Its whiteboard and flashcard features have made it a sleeper favorite among academics and developers.

Starting Paid Price: 0 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: Win/Mac/Linux/iOS/AndroidOverall Quality: 8/10

added by IJRLogseq

Simplenote

Simplenote has stayed almost defiantly minimal since 2008 — plain text, instant sync, no folders, no clutter — earning a loyal base of writers who consider every other app 'too much.' Owned by Automattic, it's the app that proves restraint can be a feature.

Starting Paid Price: 0 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: Win/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android/WebOverall Quality: 7.8/10

added by IJRSimplenote

Joplin

Joplin became the go-to Evernote refugee app after end-to-end encryption and open-source code won over privacy advocates burned by big-tech note apps. It's clunkier than its rivals but its plugin system and Markdown backbone keep a dedicated technical audience loyal.

Starting Paid Price: 0 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: Win/Mac/Linux/iOS/AndroidOverall Quality: 7.6/10

added by IJR

Standard Notes

Standard Notes built its entire identity around military-grade end-to-end encryption and a promise that your notes will still be readable in 50 years, appealing to security-first users tired of app rot. It's less flashy than competitors but earns respect for its principled longev

Starting Paid Price: 9 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: Win/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android/WebOverall Quality: 7.4/10

added by IJR

Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook is the dark horse of the list, offering a genuinely free, ad-free, card-based note app backed by a company that makes its money elsewhere in its business suite. It never went viral, but longtime Zoho ecosystem users swear by its clean, no-nonsense design.

Starting Paid Price: 0 $/moFree Tier Available: ✓Platforms: Win/Mac/iOS/Android/WebOverall Quality: 7/10

added by IJR