Best Note Taking Apps
We recently polled our readers and suggested the best note-taking apps. Most of you said that you are still doing something old-fashioned with a pen and paper – a technique that I sincerely support.
However, when it comes to apps, the reviews have been surprisingly different; I had no idea there were so many different note-taking apps out there. While that meant I had a ton of new software to try, the good news is that we now have a solid list of great apps that you can use to create reminders, write down ideas, or keep track of checklists. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but you are sure to find a note-taking app that suits your needs.
Evernote
Evernote received the most votes in our contest, but it came with some understandable caveats, which we’ll talk about in a minute.
First, the good news: Evernote offers a wide range of options for organizing your thoughts and work, and supports text, audio, and video annotations. But Evernote’s best feature is probably its robust cross-platform support, allowing you to access all your documents from multiple devices and web browsers. Chrome, Firefox and Safari can also be equipped with the Evernote Web clipper add-on that saves entire web pages to your documents for quick access, while the iOS version includes Siri integration. If you want even more granularity through cross-platform integration, the $ 15 premium version of Evernote supports Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Slack, and more. The premium version also includes additional useful features such as offline access to notes.
Evernote is obviously a great choice on paper, and we agree that Evernote has been recognized as the best app of its kind. We also recommend merging Evernote with Saferoom, which will receive a separate recognition later on this list.
Updated Aug 5 : We incorrectly documented the 2016 Evernote privacy policy changes and are sorry about the error.
One note
Microsoft’s OneNote has also received a fair amount of feedback, not surprisingly; Like Evernote, OneNote ranks high on the list of note-taking apps.
He also deserves these recommendations. OneNote not only supports text and web clippings, but you can also handwritten notes if you use a tablet or touchscreen and scan physical documents.
Since this is a Microsoft product, you will be able to sync your notes across all devices associated with your Microsoft account, including iOS and Android devices. But even if you’re not signed in to the same account, you can still enjoy built-in integrations with Microsoft Office applications such as Excel and Word. It’s a great choice and viable alternative to Evernote, although we once again recommend using it with Saferoom, which you can read about below.
Zoho Notebook
Like the other apps listed here, Zoho Notebook supports many types of notes and multimedia inserts, but is flexible in tabbing and organizing. Most other apps just stack or collect your notes in one place with limited organization or workflow, but Zoho Notebook uses color coding and customizable features to create different types of notes such as checklists, spreadsheets, media clips, and more. Each note type has its own characteristics, visual design, and even specific gesture controls to quickly navigate the user interface.
Zoho Notebook is free for Android, iOS, Mac, and web clients, although there is currently no Windows app available.
Dropbox paper
Dropbox Paper doesn’t have the same cross-platform support or breadth of functionality as some of the other apps on this list, but it’s a great collaboration choice as it allows multiple users to access and edit the same notes.
It’s only available on Android, iOS and web browsers, but integrates with the main Dropbox cloud storage service, allowing you to add files from Dropbox folders to your notes.
Safe room
Okay, technically Saferoom is not a standalone note-taking app, and downloading and installing it won’t do anything. Instead, Saferoom is used to encrypt your notes in applications like Evernote or OneNote, or even Microsoft Word documents.
Your files are encrypted with zero knowledge password protection – essentially, you create a password that only you know. The password is not stored anywhere, but Saferoom does support password management apps like LastPass. However, make sure you don’t forget the password you set, because there is no way to recover your password or your encrypted files if you do.
While this is not a note-taking app, we included it on our list as several note-taking apps have their own encryption or privacy settings built in – and you know how much we love our privacy solutions here.
Rest
Here are some notable apps that only received a small number of votes, but are still worth a try.
Simplenote: Want to keep things fast and easy? Use simple notes. The user interface is minimal (in a good way) and basically the only thing you can do with Simple Note is create and edit new notes, but this might be the best choice if that’s really all you need. Plus, your notes are synced to the cloud, so you can access them from multiple devices. Sure, other apps can do a lot more and contain a lot of organizing tools, but Simplenote is great for jotting down quick ideas or putting together a last-minute shopping list. Simple Note is available on Android, iOS, Mac, Windows and Linux.
Joplin : Joplin is a free and open source note-taking app available for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux. It allows you to create multiple types of notes, reminders and alarms that can be synced to multiple cloud services like Dropbox, NextCloud, OneDrive, and WebDAV. The app also includes a web clipper and even supports handwritten notes, but in our opinion, the best Joplin feature is the built-in end-to-end encryption to keep your notes private.
Google Keep / Apple Notes: While these are different apps with different features, Google Keep and Apple Notes work great as standard note-taking solutions on Android or iOS respectively. Both sync to the cloud on other devices with the same OS, and both integrate with their parent company’s own services (Google Drive for Keep and iCloud for Apple Notes). The other apps on this list can expand your feature set and allow you to access your notes from a wider range of platforms, but Google Keep and Apple Notes are still great choices.