Reddit Evernote Alternative

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The days of writing notes in various notebooks, furiously scribbling research on notecards, and jotting down ideas on sticky notes that end up in unexpected places are on their way out. Electronic note-taking tools have become more popular for students, professionals, and, well, anyone with ideas, notes, or to-dos.

While some of us diehards still like putting pen to paper (you can pry my notebook from my cold, cramped hands), there’s no denying that note-taking apps make it easy to organize, save, and share notes with others in a way you just can’t do with physical notes.

  1. Jan 22, 2021 Last but not least ProofHub is a kind of best herbal alternative to Evernote which works finer and a minimalistic way. You will get placed by it due to its features which are arranged according to your requirement. Basically, proofhub is an All-in-One note-taking application that you can use to organize all of your day-to-day lists.
  2. There’s no need to introduce this one most of the most innovative application; Evernote. While this application serves a simple interface to store notes and write up easily, it can be used further.
  3. Hugo - Best meeting notes app. For iOS and in your web browser. (Android, iPadOS, and macOS are.

In today’s era, it has become difficult to take out the notes in a traditional manner and so.

Evernote has become synonymous with note-taking from its inception in 2008. But just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s the right tool for you.

An Overview of Evernote

Used by 225 million people worldwide, Evernote is a leading note-taking app, with cross-platform syncing so you can update notes on any device. A widely used Evernote feature is the Web Clipper, which allows you to save website screenshots, articles, and PDFs directly to your account.

Features:

  • Find templates for notes like goal tracking, weekly planning, and budgeting.
  • Go paperless with document scanning.
  • Include information from the web with web clipping.
  • Upload and search handwritten notes from Post-it notes, whiteboards, etc.
  • Use centralized team spaces for shared team notes and resources.
  • Compatible with Browser, Windows, Mac, Android, iOS.
  • Integrates with Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce, Slack, Google Drive, and Microsoft Teams.

Best for: Anyone looking for a free version that’s packed full of value, or businesses that need an easy-to-use option for team sharing and collaboration.

Cost: Evernote Basic offers note-taking features for free. Premium ($7.99/month) and Business ($14.99/month) provide advanced features for organizing, sharing, and collaborating.

Top Evernote Alternatives for Better Note-Taking

Whether you’re looking for something feature-rich and complex or a simple text-based app where you can dump your ideas, you’ll love these Evernote alternatives.

1. Ideanote

AppSumo Deal: Ideanote

Collect, develop, and prioritize the right ideas with the right people in one platform.

$59.00 | $2,988.00

Marketed as the world’s #1 all-in-one innovation platform, Ideanote gives you one central hub to capture and manage your ideas, notes, and to-dos. This app makes it easy to collaborate with your team (or anyone else!) while developing, managing, and tracking ideas. Ideanote offers a customizable and intuitive workflow that makes note-taking easy and helpful.

Features:

  • Use 100+ idea-collection templates for situations including efficient meetings, new customers, expansion, resources, and processes.
  • Crete goal-oriented idea collections centered around a challenging question.
  • Each member gets their own profile to manage ideas, see progress, and customize settings.
  • Move, copy, edit, and archive your notes for better organization.
  • Get real-time notifications on updated notes.
  • Drag and drop files from your desktop to an Ideanote card.

Best for: Large teams that need an innovative and immediate way to exchange ideas and notes.

Cost: Starter ($249/month), Business ($649/month), and Enterprise ($2,899/month) plans all include unlimited members and their own innovative workspace, with different numbers of admins, ideas, criteria for each plan.

For a limited time, you can get a 1-year deal of Ideanote’s Business Plan at $59 on AppSumo.

2. Sticky Notes

AppSumo Deal: Sticky Notes by Ukiv

Lightning fast, easy-to-use browser extension for taking notes in Chrome and Edge.

$49.00 | $120.00

Sticky Notes is a browser extension that makes it easy to take notes in both Chrome and Edge. Accessing and organizing notes is also easy, and the app allows you to work offline so you can continue to jot down ideas, to-do lists, and other info at any time. With a range of beautiful themes, this browser extension allows you to personalize your experience while making note taking fun!

Features:

  • Beautiful handpicked themes to create an experience that’s easy on the eyes.
  • Open Sticky Notes in just one click inside your browser.
  • Save your notes with optional Cloud backups and organize them into folders.
  • Access notes quickly by clicking the extension icon.
  • Works offline; take notes without an internet connection.

Best for: Busy entrepreneurs and business owners who want an easy and convenient way to store notes, to-dos, and ideas right from their browser.

Cost: The Free Forever plan is limited to three notes but offers basic themes and unlimited lists. Premium Plan ($9.99/month) gives you all nine notes, premium animated themes, automatic backup of notes, and multi-monitor support. Get lifetime access through AppSumo deals for just $49.00.

3. Google Keep

Google Keep is one of the simpler note-taking apps on our Evernote alternative list, with an easy-to-use, clean interface. With Google Keep, you can take notes on your phone, tablet, or computer, syncing across devices or sharing notes with friends and family.

Features:

  • Label, pin, and color-code notes.
  • Collaborate on notes in real time.
  • Speech-to-text functionality for note dictation.

Best for: People looking for a simple note-taking app without all the bells and whistles.

Cost: Free

4. Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote is marketed as a digital notebook where you can “gather your notes and make them even better.” OneNote makes it easy to organize your thoughts across notebooks, sections, and pages with quick navigation and search to find what you’re looking for.

Features:

  • Use on unlimited devices for free.
  • Draw thoughts and annotations with your finger or a stylus.
  • Use Web Clipper to save web content with one click.
  • Share notebooks with coworkers, friends, or family.
  • Include mixed media notes like audio, video, and other files.

Best for: Entrepreneurs already using Windows, Office365, or OneDrive, and those who want a free app with lots of features.

Cost: Free

5. Notejoy

Notejoy has become a well-known product for teams that want to share and collaborate on notes with others. With real-time editing by multiple users and threaded discussions, Notejoy has some of the best team collaboration features of any note-taking app. Integrations with Trello, Slack, and scanner apps also make it a must-have for teams.

Features:

  • Edit notes in real time with multiple team members.
  • See who has viewed and added to notes.
  • Threaded discussions with @mentions and reactions.
  • Embed Google Docs, Microsoft Office docs, PDFs, videos, and audio.
  • Clip any webpage or forward emails to Notejoy to create notes quickly.
  • Organize notes with nested notebooks, nested tags, team libraries, pins, and archives.
  • Available on a browser, Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.
  • Integrates with Google Drive, Gmail, Microsoft Office, Slack, Trello, HubSpot, and scanner apps.

Best for: Teams looking for a single, well-organized place to collaborate, store, and share knowledge with others.

Cost: Free option includes up to 5 users, 3 team libraries, 5 notebooks, 10MB per file upload, and up to 100MB library storage. Paid plans start at $4/month and offer additional features and more storage.

6. Bear

A newcomer to the note-taking software game, Bear allows you to create and sync notes across your Apple devices. A unique feature of Bear is the hybrid markdown editor that offers a full range of formatting options. This feature, along with the ability to export and get important stats like word/character count, read time, and paragraph numbers, make this app ideal for authors and students.

Features:

  • Compatible with Mac and iOS.
  • Format text as you type with a hybrid markdown editor.
  • Organize notes using hashtags and slashes for nested tags.
  • Use focus mode to concentrate on the task at hand.
  • Beautiful themes and typography, including a Dark Mode.
  • Encrypt individual notes with a password or Face/Touch ID.

Best for: Writers and students who need the option to take notes or write long-form content they can format before exporting.

Cost: Free option: Create notes, add tags and attachments, and export notes. Pro subscription ($1.49/monthly or $14.99 annually): Syncing, themes, and more powerful export options.

7. Simplenote

Simplenote‘s appeal is described in its name — it’s a simple app with a simple user interface. Simplenote offers a no-frills experience with minimal features, making it ideal for those who tend to get overwhelmed or distracted by all the options and functionality of other mobile note-taking mobile applications. If you’re looking for a distraction-free experience with simple text notes, and you don’t need advanced features, Simplenote may be your new go-to program.

Features:

  • Available for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and web browsers like Chrome.
  • Automatic and real-time sync.
  • Add tags to find notes quickly with the instant search feature.
  • Share notes with others or publish notes online.
  • Write, preview, and publish notes in markdown format.

Best for: People who prefer simplicity over fancy features or want a distraction-free note-taking experience.

Cost: Free

8. Dropbox Paper

Dropbox Paper is another powerful alternative to Evernote that’s ideal for team collaboration. In addition to allowing you to add and edit notes as a team, Dropbox Paper offers a task management tool that lets you assign to-do lists, add due dates, and mention team members in real time within the document. You can also drop a link to nearly anything in your note — YouTube video, Pinterest board, Google Map, SoundCloud clip, GIF — and Paper displays the preview properly.

Features:

  • Compatible with Windows, iOS, and Android.
  • Variety of templates, including meeting notes, launch plan, brainstorming, creative brief, project plan, new hire onboarding, and product spec.
  • Annotate specific parts of an image with feedback.
  • Turn Paper docs into professional-looking presentations in one step.
  • Simplify to-do lists with task management tools like task assignments, due dates, reminders, and task completion.
  • Integrates with Sketch, Invision, Dropbox, Slack, and more.

Best for: Dropbox customers looking to collaborate on notes, or teams that need task management capabilities for project management.

Best

Cost: Free

9. Notion

Notion is another Evernote alternative focused on team collaboration. One of the best note-taking apps for teams, Notion offers a variety of project management capabilities, including Kanban boards, tables, and lists to customize your workflow. Unique to Notion is the team wiki feature, which allows you to turn your team knowledge into a database of easy-to-find answers. If you’re just looking for a personal note-taking solution, Notion may be overkill.

Features:

  • Web app, desktop app, and apps for iOS and Android devices.
  • Turn any type of project into a template, including multi-layered pages.
  • Use tables to create databases or a team wiki.
  • Nested hierarchical organization, including dropdowns.
  • Collaborate in real time, mentioning coworkers when you need input or responses.
  • Invite others to work on notes or share with your entire company.
  • Embed 500+ other apps inside your Notion pages to create a hub for your team’s work.

Best for: Teams that need an easy way to collaborate on notes while accessing a team wiki.

Cost: Free plan allows unlimited pages and blocks you can sync across devices and share with five guests. Paid plans start at $4 a month and offer unlimited guests, unlimited team members, admin tools, and advanced permissions.

10. Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook is a unique Evernote alternative, as it takes a novel approach to creating note types by using different note cards. Zoho offers different formatting for text notes, checklists, audio notes, photos, files, sketches, and smart notes with advanced formatting. Another distinction between Zoho Notebook and other solutions is a beautiful visual experience, with separate images for each notebook and colored backgrounds.

Features:

  • Available on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux.
  • Use pinch and swipe gestures to navigate the app and organize notes.
  • Customize notebooks with image covers and color-coded note cards.
  • Search for and organize notes using tags.
  • Secure notes with passcodes or Touch ID.
  • Automatically sync notes to the cloud across all your devices.

Best for: People who need to manage many different types of notes within the same app, and people who are visually inclined and want a beautiful experience.

Cost: Free

11. Apple Notes

If you have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you’re probably already familiar with Apple Notes. While simple, Notes makes it easy to capture thoughts, create checklists, and sketch ideas quickly. It comes loaded on your iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, so there’s no need to download the app. To create a note, open the app, tap the “compose” button, create your note, and tap “Done.” Then it’s saved and synced to all your devices. It couldn’t be easier!

Features:

  • Use iCloud to update your notes across all your devices.
  • Pin important notes, so they are easier to find later.
  • Create checklists to mark off as you finish.
  • Format with headings, bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, and more.
  • Scan and sign documents within the app.
  • Add attachments like a website, photo, video, or Google map.
  • Organize your notes in folders.

Best for: Apple users who want a quick and easy way to save thoughts, ideas, to-dos, notes, and attachments.

Cost: Free

12. Turtl

Reddit Evernote Alternative Software

Turtl is a close all-in-one Evernote competitor, with the biggest difference being that it’s a secure and encrypted open-source application. Turtl works well for any kind of notes or project, including passwords, shopping lists, bookmarks, and more long-form content. It also allows you to gain control of your data by installing your own Turtl server at home or work.

Features:

  • Sync across devices, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android. An app for iOS is coming soon.
  • Use bookmark browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox.
  • Share and collaborate with teammates or family members who can access your data without compromising security.
  • Protect note data with Turtl’s high-end cryptography.

Best for: Entrepreneurs and individuals who want a secure and encrypted notebook that’s collaborative.

Cost: Free for up to 50MB of note data and 3 collaborators. Paid plans start at $3/month and offer more storage and additional collaborators.

13. Quip

Owned by Salesforce, Quip brings all your notes, docs, and team members into one place where you can collaborate and chat with ease. A unique feature of Quip is its chat feature, which is built into every document. Quick to set up and easy to use, Quip makes it easy to get started with creating and maintaining living documents.

Features:

  • Integrates with Salesforce’s CRM software so you can create spreadsheets with live Salesforce data.
  • Streamline your workflow with a built-in chat feature, team chat rooms, and 1:1 messaging.
  • Templates for sales, service, marketing, manufacturing, project planning, and more to kickstart your workflow.
  • Collaborate on documents and edit with others in real time.
  • Out-of-the-box security with encrypted, auditable, and controlled data.

Best for: Teams that need to develop and maintain documents that change over time or organizations already using Salesforce.

Cost: Starter ($10/user/month) plan includes unlimited documents, spreadsheets, and slides with group chat and 1:1 messages. Enterprise ($25/user/month) plan adds single sign-on, enterprise API and customization, and custom live apps.

14. Roam Research

Marketed as a personal knowledge management system, Roam is a note-taking tool that’s ideal for organizing ongoing research and collecting data. Roam was inspired by the Zettelkasten method of note taking, which involves writing lots of small notes on rearrangeable index cards instead of taking pages and pages of notes that you then have to sort through. Roam is unique because it allows you to collect notes using “networked thought,” which helps you discover and create relationships between notes and ideas.

Features:

  • Available through web browser.
  • Use bidirectional links to link existing topics or ideas together.
  • Use in-text links or page links at the bottom of notes to jump from one note to another.
  • Get a bird’s-eye view of all your pages and how they are linked using the graph overview.
  • Insert code, images, videos, tables, nested lists, diagrams, and more.

Best for: Students and professionals who need to keep track of research or ideas over time and want to see how the ideas/data interconnect.

Cost: Professional plan ($15/month) offers up to three private or public Roam graphs, unlimited collaborators, and API access. Believer plan ($500/5 years) adds first access to new features, community calls with the team, and priority support.

15. Obsidian

A direct competitor to Roam, Obsidian markets itself as “a second brain” that helps you make connections between your notes and ideas. This knowledge base works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files. Encouraging you to make connections between your ideas, Obsidian makes it easy to connect notes with backlinks and a graph view. The ability to use offline may be a game-changer for those who want to collect ideas or make notes without the distraction of the internet.

Features:

  • Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
  • Use offline for a distraction-free experience.
  • Connect ideas and notes using backlinks with a graph view for a bird’s-eye view of connections.
  • Split panes infinitely, resize, and pin to keep content linked.
  • Build your own note-taking toolkit with plugins like graph view, page view, backlinks, daily notes, word count, and search.

Best for: Anyone who wants to organize their notes, data, and ideas by connecting and linking based on themes or topics.

Cost: Personal plan is free for personal use; no sign-up or account needed. The Catalyst ($25+ one-time payment) and Commercial ($50/user/year) plans offer additional support and access.

16. Nimbus Note

Nimbus Note is the ultimate note-taking, sharing, and organizing tool for easy collaboration across team members and clients. This powerful platform eliminates the scatterbrained feeling of juggling tools, folders, and those pesky sticky notes on your monitor. With customizable workspaces for team members to get on the same page, simple tracking, seamless embedding, and even live desktop screen recording, productivity for your team just got a whole lot better.

Features:

  • Use isolated workspaces, each with their own access permissions, branding, and third-party integrations
  • Unlimited nested folders for each workspace to manage complex projects
  • Assemble notes with a block editor, which lets you embed files, audio, video, websites, and widgets like Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Drive
  • Mobile app lets you scan papers and add them straight to your notes
  • Flexible tables that act as spreadsheets, databases, or both
  • Nimbus Capture lets you record desktop videos with a live feed from your webcam, with the ability to take on-screen notes
  • Public pages that you can share with teams and clients with ease
  • Embeddable code of shared Nimbus Pages for your website or blog

Best for: Project managers of small and large teams looking to consolidate all their documents and info in one collaborative workspace

Cost: Pro Plan ($24.99/year), Business Plan ($70/year).

How to Pick the Best Evernote Alternative

If you aren’t loving Evernote as much as you thought you would, there are plenty of note-taking applications that are just as good as, if not better than, Evernote. The key to picking the best Evernote alternative is to choose a program that has the features you care about most, fits in your budget, and works with the technology you’re already using every day.

Start with a free trial from one of the contenders above to see if you like using the software.

If you’re ready to commit, check out our AppSumo deals on note-taking software like Ideanote and Sticky Notes.

Note-taking is personal. It has as much to do with how your mind works as it does with what you’re taking notes about and why you’re taking them in the first place.

Still, search for the best note-taking app and you’ll invariably find Evernote at the top of most lists.

Some notes are for sharing. Some are a reminder. Some are taken and never looked at again.

Sometimes a note is a quick thought, jotted down on-the-go on a mobile device. Other times your notes are prepared at length at your computer over a large project, meeting, or study session.

Evernote is fine, generally-speaking — but you’re not just anyone, and your notes aren’t just any notes.

To find the best Evernote alternatives, we tested and used over 30 apps, reviewed top threads on Reddit, and consulted reviews on G2 to hear what the community had to say.

It’s not all just Evernote vs OneNote anymore. There are a slew of great note-taking apps, each with a key advantage over Evernote depending on what you are doing.

The best note-taking apps that aren’t Evernote:

  • Hugo - Best meeting notes app
  • CacoonWeaver - Best speech-to-text notes app
  • Milanote - Best whiteboard-style notes app for creatives
  • Bear - Speediest markdown notepad for iOS & Mac
  • Typora - Best distraction-free notes app
  • Workflowy - Infinite expandable bullet points
  • OneNote - Best free option (not just for Microsoft lovers)
  • Boost Note - Best note-taking app for developers
  • Google Keep - Best note-taking app for Google fanatics
  • Ulysses - Top-of-the line notes for serious writers
  • Notability - Best notes app for iPad with Apple Pencil
  • Nebo - Best note-taking app for Surface with Surface Pen

Why Evernote is no longer the gold-standard for notes

For many years, Evernote was on top of the note-taking game. With its sleek, comfortable interface, enjoyable mobile experience, and easy way of organizing with folders and stacks of folders, Evernote dominated the note-taking world after the iPhone’s original launch in 2007.

However, over the last 4+ years, Evernote has undergone a series of problematic changes, introducing bizarre new products in an attempt to expand its reach. They also changed the free plan in ways that have driven away users by crippling key features unless you pay.

Evernote remains a great product in many ways. It syncs across devices, offers a handy web clipper, and can even search handwriting.

But in trying to be all things to all people, the notes app market has opened up, offering a slew of note-taking apps that are going to appeal to more specific groups of people looking for more specific solutions.

Evernote

What’s not on this list?

With note-taking apps, you need to be able to quickly take notes. Speed is of the essence. That means not having to waste time organizing and saving your files. You also need to be able to easily search your notes to find information.

Of course, you can take notes almost anywhere you can write.

Some people use the cells in a spreadsheet. Others use word processing apps like Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Authors may prefer to jot down notes inside the tools they are already working in, like Scrivener. You can also take notes in project management software like Asana, or collaborative docs like Dropbox Paper.

None of these, however, beat the speed and simplicity of a dedicated notes app.

So in this post, we’re only looking at tools that are primarily for notes. Full-on word processing tools aren’t in the running, nor are project management tools or CRMs that happen to have a notes function. (Ulysses might be a minor exception, as it can be both a notes tool and word processor depending on how you use it.)

With that, here are the best note-taking tools in 2020 that aren’t Evernote.

Hugo - Best meeting notes app

For iOS and in your web browser. (Android, iPadOS, and macOS are on the horizon)

Plenty of note-taking apps are good generally-speaking, but taking notes in meetings poses some unique challenges. Fortunately, Hugo is purpose-built for meeting notes at work.

First, staying organized. Hugo centralizes and organizes all of your meeting notes with the help of your calendar. Notes are associated with your actual meetings, so you basically don’t have to worry about categorizing anything. (You can always add tags if you want to.) This works with G Suite, Gmail, or Office 365 calendars.

Plus, Hugo also integrates with over 20 other apps used for work. It syncs notes to your CRM (e.g. Salesforce), pushes tasks to project management tools (e.g. Jira), and works seamlessly with video conferencing tools (e.g. Zoom).

The Chrome browser extension gives you access to your notes from any page in your browser, which means you don’t have to dedicate your screen to note-taking during a video call. Just open and close the Hugo drawer when you need to check your agenda or jot a note down.

Hugo isn’t designed to just help you (although it will). With accounts for teams, collaborative note-taking, and a library of 80+ meeting note templates, everyone in your organization can use Hugo to centralize your meeting notes together.

During the pandemic, Hugo is offering free accounts to teams of up to 40 users. If you sign up during this period, you’ll get to keep that pricing even after the pandemic is over.

Hugo Pricing:

  • Free plan: Yes
  • Paid plan: $6/user/month for teams 11+

ALSO: Take a look at this guide to taking amazing meeting notes.

CacoonWeaver - Best speech-to-text notes app

Compatibility: iOS (iPhone/iPad)

CacoonWeaver is the best way to collect audio notes for iOS. Pop open the app and transcribe your ideas, thoughts, memories, and dreams. To organize your notes with voice commands, just say something like, “Cacoon Shopping” and the app will automatically put your notes in the Shopping category.

Unlike other note-taking apps where you need to enable dictation to record an audio note, and then carefully watch to make sure your text is going in correctly, CacoonWeaver records your audio and transcribes at the same time.

You can play back your notes, or read them back, which gives you the peace of mind to know that no matter what, your information won’t be lost, and there are no limitations on the max length of an audio recording.

CacoonWeaver also keeps track of where you had ideas, showing you blips on a map.

The UI is clean and minimalistic for distraction-free recording and offers custom push notifications and nudges to help you be your best self.

Alternative

Because it is still in its debut phase, CacoonWeaver is currently free and keeps your data private and secure. The app claims to be in beta but it is fully functional and in better shape bugs-wise than a lot of other apps you’ll find on the AppStore.

CacconWeaver Pricing:

  • Free app: Yes
  • Paid plan: N/A

Milanote - Best whiteboard-style notes app for creatives

Compatibility: Desktop apps for Mac and Windows, plus mobile apps for iOS and Android

The Next Web calls Milanote “the Evernote for Creatives” and it’s easy to see why creative directors, filmmakers, photographers, marketers, and designers of all kinds enjoy using it.

Unlike most note-taking apps, Milanote takes a highly-visual approach, allowing you to organize your ideas and projects in visual boards. Collect images, videos, text, and tasks all together on your screen.

If your creative process includes activities like mood boarding, brainstorming, storyboarding, or mind-mapping, the visual canvas offers a flexible and delightful experience.

Milanote works for teams and clients too, with build-tin commenting, sharing, and notifications. Plus, you can download a high-quality, printable PDF of any board.

You can try Milanote free with no time limit, although it is limited to 100 notes, images, or links (and only 10 file uploads). After that, it’s $9.99 for unlimited storage

Milanote Pricing:

  • Free plan: Yes
  • Paid plan: $12.50/month when billed monthly, $9.99/month when billed annually.

Bear - Fastest markdown notepad for iOS & Mac

Compatibility: iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Mac

For Apple fans looking to upgrade beyond Apple Notes, Bear offers a good balance of features, design, convenience, and software speed. If you’re coming from Evernote, for example, it’s so fast, you’ll notice the difference immediately.

From your very first note, Bear’s design shines, treating you with elegant typography and theme options which include multiple dark modes.

Bear's speed isn't just for writing notes, either. Searching in the app also runs fast, with minimal delays when searching notes.

With many advanced markdown options (or is it markup?), Bear works great if you like to format as you type. Hybrid markdown support means you can see the formatted text as you’re typing, although if you’re not a regular user of markdown, you might not enjoy the experience at first. You can easily export these nicely-formatted notes to HTML, PDF, and TXT.

It also has quick shortcuts, such as for finding today’s date, and supports checkboxes to help with to-dos. Built-in tagging is powerful and allows you to create tags anywhere in a document that are automatically captured in the sidebar.

Bear uses iCloud to speedily sync notes between iOS and Mac with a Pro membership. Still, some users complain that this should be a free feature like it is with most other note-taking apps.

Bear is rated 4.5 out of 5 on G2 Crowd with positive reviews from many note-taking app power users, such as consultants, software developers, and UI/UX designers. The biggest complaint about Bear is a lack of helpful or effective support.

Bear pricing:

  • Free app: Yes
  • Paid Plan: Bear Pro is $1.49/monthly, $14.99 annually with a free trial

‍Typora - Best distraction-free notes app

Compatibility: For desktop/laptop computers only (Mac, Windows, and Linux)

Typora is a slick alternative to Bear that is even more minimalist and distraction-free. The app is simple, with very little UI getting in the way. It’s also beautifully designed, with clear, aesthetically-pleasing text.

Typora has a night mode and also supports custom themes so that you can create the perfect writing experience.

It also has two cool modes. One is a unique Focus Mode that highlights the paragraph you’re currently working on, while graying out everything else. Typewriter Mode similarly highlights the center of your screen.

Many of the same advanced markdown features are in Typora, meaning that you can type up nicely-formatted notes without ever having to shift your hand to your mouse. Even so, if you want to get a little bit fancy, Typora supports tables, diagrams, mathematical formats, footnotes, code fences, and task lists.

Typora Pricing:

  • Free app: Yes, during beta
  • Paid Plan: Not yet announced

‍Workflowy - Infinite expandable bullet points

Compatibility: Desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux, plus iOS, Android, and in your browser

Do you love taking notes with bullet points?

Do you wish everything in life could be bullets — Infinite, ever-expanding bullet points, as far as the sky can reach?

Does your whole world spin around lists and bullet points? If not, would you like it to?

If the answer the above is a resounding Yes!, you’ll be in heaven with Workflowy.

The concept is simple. Workflowy lets you create infinite piles of bullet points which are also each their own document. Expand, collapse, move documents, drill in and out — it’s intuitive and natural bullet points at a scale that you may have never dreamed of.

The product works well for outlining and project organization just naturally. It’s novel, intuitive, and requires very little learning to figure out.

The only downside to Workflowy is in organizing more matrixed information. This might be more challenging, because every bit of information may not have a clear place in your stack of bullet points for where it should belong. (Contrast this with Hugo, which organizes meeting notes based on your calendar, so notes don’t live in just one particular place — they’re associated with names, companies, dates, meeting titles, etc...)

Still, for your next novel or work project, especially for people whose minds work in a certain bullet-driven way, give Workflowy a try.

Workflowly Pricing:

  • Free plan: Yes
  • Paid plan: $5/month

OneNote - Best free option (not just for Microsoft lovers)

For iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and in the browser

Simple, practical, and ubiquitous for Windows and Office users, OneNote is a free note-taking app that seems to be everywhere.

It’s a great basic option, with a familiar UI to anyone who has ever used Microsoft products like Word, and while it does most of the things Evernote does, it stands out because of one big four-letter word that starts with an F.

Free.

You get more advanced functionality here without having to pay.

In OneNote, you can add multimedia elements to your notes, such as audio, video, images, and even websites using the Webclipper browser extension. Task lists are an option, although robust task management in OneNote can be challenging because you can’t put due dates on anything.

OneNote has a large folder organization system, letting you create notebooks and sections, and nest them inside each other. The way that sections get dragged around can be frustrating — trying to move one section below another and can have it end up inside on accident — but again, for a free option, for many, this may be a minor inconvenience. Cross-notebook search is available, although there is a learning curve to finding your information.

OneNote uses OneDrive to sync across all of your Microsoft apps. If you don’t have an Office 365 subscription, you can upgrade your OneDrive to a paid plan for an increase in storage space.

OneNote Pricing:

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  • Free app: Yes
  • Paid plan: Upgrade OneDrive for more storage space, starting at $1.99/month for 100 GB

‍Boost Note - Best note-taking app for developers

Compatibility: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and in your browser

Stylish, markdown-enabled, and fully open-source, Boost Note is a developer’s dream. The interface resembles Sublime, the popular text editor, with a slight skew toward taking quick and easy notes.

Boost Note highlights syntax for you and recognizes over 100 programming languages. It also supports math blocks where you can write math equations using LaTeX syntax. Themes are fully customizable.

Notes are stored safely in the cloud, with more file system-based storage coming soon.

Boost Note Pricing:

  • Free app: Yes (100 MB cloud storage)
  • Paid plan: 2GB cloud storage at $3/month. Boost Note for Teams launches in June 2020.

Google Keep - Best note-taking app for Google fanatics

Compatibility: Android, iOS, and in your web browser

Google Keep is a straightforward notes app that comes as part of your G Suite or Gmail account. It offers a clean, nicely-organized UI that has most of the standard features you’re looking for in a note-taking app, without too many bells and whistles.

If the rest of your life already revolves around Google products, Google Keep may be the right pick for you.

As you create notes, they are organized on your screen visually in a corkboard style. You can change the background colors to give it a post-it notes effect. While if you take a ton of notes, this may feel haphazard, with moderate use it's colorful and fun.

You might be wondering, Why do I need Google Keep when I have Google Docs?

For some users, it may be redundant to have multiple types of Google Docs, but others may enjoy the simpler note-taking experience in Google Keep. And if your notes start to become something more than just a note, there’s always the Copy to Google Docs action to transfer it over.

Google Keep Pricing:

  • Free app: Yes
  • Paid plan: N/A

Ulysses - Top-of-the-line notes app for serious writers

Compatibility: Mac, iPad, iPhone

For writers and authors, Ulysses is a notes app that will replace your word processor 99% of the time. Fully-featured and elegant, it is a very power writing app.

Export in various file formats, including text, HTML, ePub, PDF, and DOCX, plus a number of export styles for professional-looking PDFs and manuscripts. You can also schedule or publish articles to Wordpress and Medium directly within the app.

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Ulysses also excels at organizing, if you’re willing to set it up. With views, custom searches, filters, and tags, it’s the most organizable note-taking experience on this list (except for Hugo, which auto-organizes meeting notes based on your calendar.)

All of this functionality comes at a cost, however. Ulysses is free to try, but if you get hooked, there’s not paired down free version to stick with.

Ulysses

  • Free plan: Trial only
  • Paid plan: $4.99/month or $39.99 ($3.33/month) when paid annually

Notability - Best note-taking app for iPad with Apple Pencil

Compatibility: iOS (iPhone and iPad)

Combine handwriting, photos, and typing into a single note with Notability. The elegant interface is nicely-designed, letting you choose from a variety of typing and drawing instruments with ease.

Notability has a nice range of sketching tools that make it easy to recolor, scale, and adjust your ideas and sketches. You can also pick from different paper backgrounds, for example, to sketch your notes on graph paper, or more textured art paper.

Notability syncs with iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, AirDrop, and Email for easy sharing with colleagues and study partners.

It’s also great for annotating PDFs.

Notability Pricing:

  • Free trial: No
  • Paid app: $8.99

(Note: Nebo, discussed below, is another great option that works across all tablet platforms.)

‍Nebo - Best note-taking app for Surface with Surface Pen

Compatibility: iOS, Android, and Windows

Microsoft’s Surface Pen offers a delightful drawing experience on the Surface Book, Pro, and Studio, and there’s no reason you can’t use OneNote for this purpose. The anniversary update of Windows 10 also brought the Windows Ink Workspace, which gives you three cool apps: Sticky Notes, Sketchpad, and Screen sketch.

If you have an active pen like the Surface Pen, you might be asking, with all this greatness bundled for you in Windows, can note-taking get any better?

The answer is yes, and the other answer is Nebo.

Draw sketches and diagrams. Easily switch between your pen and keyboard.

There are tons of cool gestures that make the experience delightful, like how you can scratch out a letter to delete it, or swipe up to join two sentences together.

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Getting notes out of Nebo is a breeze, with image, text, DOCX, and HTML formats available. You can also copy/paste diagrams to PowerPoint and they stay fully-editable.

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Nebo pricing:

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  • Free app: N/A
  • Paid app: $9.99