What is the best alternative to Notebooks?

Question

Ad

Help millions of people make better decisions.

Each month, over 1.7 million people use Slant to find the best products and share their knowledge. Pick the tags you’re passionate about to get a personalized feed and begin contributing your knowledge.

score 22 · Answer 1

Elephant

Top Pro

Only the essentials

Only basic features are added to Elephant so users aren't overloaded with the interface. See More

Top Con

No WYSIWYG editor

Top Pro

Files are stored locally

Instead of moving files over the cloud, files are stored locally for extra privacy. For syncing, any cloud service can be used. See More

Top Con

No mobile app

No mobile apps (can use common sync tools to edit plain files, though). See More

Top Pro

Open source

All features can be used or edited at will for free. See More

Top Con

Light on features

While not labeled a beta, Elephant is a new note program and doesn't offer all the bells and whistles. See More

Top Pro

Markdown supported

This can be useful when formatting files in HTML. See More

Top Pro

Files can be uploaded by drag'n'drop

Top Pro

Highly compatible

Elephant is compatible with Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. See More

Top Pro

Active development

The developer has replied, and added many features which users have suggested in the comments on the website. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows; Linux; OSX

See All

22 0

score 91 · Answer 2

Boostnote

Top Pro

Great for developers

Boostnote is great for developers looking to take programming notes with code snippets and such. See More

Top Con

Some of the features are not consistent

Top Pro

Markdown support

Top Con

Must use third-party service for sync-ing (Dropbox, etc.)

Boostnote does not have sync-ing capabilities and relies on third-party services to fulfil notes storage. There are additional steps involved to set this up. See More

Top Pro

Free

Top Con

Very poor syncing

Data loss may occur on syncing. See More

Top Pro

Comes with many themes

Boostnote comes with many themes out of the box, most of which are popular themes and color schemes for code editors: e.g. 3024, base16, solarized, tomorrow. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform support

Supports Windows, macOS and Linux. See More

Top Pro

Open source

https://github.com/BoostIO/Boostnote See More

Top Pro

Global search, tag feature

Top Pro

Works offline

Boostnote doesn't require an internet connection to work. You can write notes offline and sync later. See More

Top Pro

vim/emacs key bindings available

Boostnote supports vim/emacs key bindings. If you're a developer familiar with either of them, navigation should be easy to pick up. See More

Top Pro

Supports code snippets and syntax highlighting

Boostnote has the ability to store code snippets and comes with syntax highlighting out of the box, supporting many languages. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows/MacOS/Linux/Andoid/iOS

91 4

score 16 · Answer 3

NoteLedge

Top Pro

Essential brush kit

NoteLedge comes with 6 built-in brushes (pencil, crayon, spray gun, ink brush, pigment liner and fountain pen) for versatile note-taking purposes. You can get advanced pens like vector brush, smart pen for shape recognition, marker and rainbow brush through subscription or in-app purchase. See More

Top Con

Not available for Linux

Top Pro

Cross-platform

NoteLedge is available on iPad, iPhone, Mac, Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8. See More

Top Pro

Clip everything from the Web to your notes

There's a built in browser where you can select and paste texts to your notes, clip images, clip and ember online videos and audio clips, or crop screenshots on webpages. It's very useful for collecting information from the web. See More

Top Pro

Multimedia supported

It is possible to record or insert videos, record audio, and take notes simultaneously. It is easy to put text, handwriting, drawings, audio and video recordings altogether in one note. See More

Top Pro

Personalize your own notebook

NoteLedge comes with tons of built-in papers, covers and stickers. You can also customize your own paper, cover or stickers with your own photos. It's easy to make scrapbook style notes with NoteLedge. See More

Top Pro

Share and back up notes easily

NoteLedge supports major cloud services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box. Additionally, you can use the developer's own cloud service, Kdan Creative Cloud, to sync and access the notes across device with ease. You can share notes as images on Facebook, Twitter, or Email. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows; OSX; iOS; Android

See All

16 2

score 6 · Answer 4

Collate Notes

Top Pro

Markdown or Rich Text editor

Choose between Markdown or Rich Text editor. See More

Top Con

No mobile support

This app offers no mobile support. See More

Top Pro

Web clipper

A web clipper built into the app saves web pages locally. See More

Top Con

No built-in sync options

For data syncing, a service like Google Drive or Dropbox needs to be used. See More

Top Pro

All data is saved locally

Data is saved to a local hard drive, not stored on a company's servers. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform support

Support for macOs, Windows and Linux. See More

Specs

Supported platforms:Windows, Linux, macOS

See All

6 1

score 6 · Answer 5

Zoho Notebook

Top Con

Migrate from Evernote non functional

The migrate from Evernote function resulted in blank notes. The headers are there but blank notes See More

Top Pro

Pre-built checklist and audio notes

Rather than create a checklist within a text note, Notebook has a pre-built checklist card, which makes creating them really easy. Plus the items you check off move to the bottom of the note. Audio notes work the same way. Rather than treat audio notes like attachments (as Evernote does), Notebook has a pre-built audio note which is really nice, very similar to Evernote in that fashion, which makes it a good alternative. See More

Top Con

Available on limited platforms

Currently there is no web app or Windows version available. They are working on both, but there is no set release date. See More

Top Pro

Cloud sync

As an Evernote alternative, Notebook securely stores notes to the cloud, allowing you to access notes on all of your mobile devices, while the sync is seamless. Also, web app support is coming soon. See More

Top Pro

Great UI

Top Pro

Completely free, ad-free, with unlimited devices

Zoho (the company behind Notebook) has been providing free, advertisement-free, productivity applications for over a decade, and this one is no different. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

If you've ever used Evernote, then you know it has lot's of menus and that doing simple things requires lots of taps. Notebook is designed to be more functional, and lets you take and access notes quickly. See More

Specs

Platforms:Mac, iOS, Web, Android

6 1

score 48 · Answer 6

Turtl

Top Pro

Good security

After assigning a password to your account in Turtl, a key is created to encrypt the entire account. No data is stored on their servers meaning they have no access to unencrypted content. This is a huge leg up when comparing to other Evernote alternatives. See More

Top Con

No image embedding

Instead of image embeddings, there's a sort of poor man's substitute: image + description. If you add an image, you can create a description of any size and with all the formatting features. It can be used instead of image embedding but much more limited: only one image and only at the very top. See More

Top Pro

Multiple Platforms (Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, Firefox, Chrome)

Turtl has applications for all the major operating systems, as well as Android. In addition, there are extensions available for Firefox and Chrome that cooperate with the downloadable applications. See More

Top Con

No iOS app

While many other operating systems have a client, iOS does not have one yet (though it is planned). See More

Top Pro

Open source

The app is licensed under GPLv3 making it open source. This means that anyone can use the code and contribute. This also makes it easy to use on one's own server or for company solutions. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Android

48 9

score 4 · Answer 7

Polynote

Top Pro

Real-time collaborative

Multiple users can edit a note simultaneously, in real time. See More

Top Con

No free tier

Plynote has a 15-day free trial after which it requires a 20$/user/year subscription. See More

Top Pro

Minimal interface

The application is simple and fast. Can create, share and organize notes and notebooks on the same page. See More

4 1

score 82 · Answer 8

Ulysses III

Top Pro

Does not distract the user

Ulysses has a clean, unobtrusive, easy to overview interface that allows focusing on writing. By default it's split up in 3 panes with sidebar, sheet pane and content pane from left to right. Unnecessary panes can be hidden. See More

Top Con

Subscription-based

Ulysses now operates on a subscription-based model. $4.99/month or $39.99/year. It is not currently possible to pay once and keep it. See More

Top Pro

Great tools for organizing and finding files

Ulysses saves everything in the app so there's no file management outside of the editor involved. It organizes content in groups (folders) and sheets (files), has a powerful, easy to use search and allows adding keywords to attachments to help them be organized and found quickly. Groups can have an unlimited amount of subgroups and the title of subgroup shows up in the pane view. Sheets can be split up, merged, glued together and easily moved around in the sheet pane by dragging and dropping. Great for splitting up larger documents into manageable chunks while still keeping an overview of the whole project and having the ability to move sections around quickly. Contents of a group can be filtered by text, keywords or change date within headings, code blocks, images or any other marked up text. Filters can contain a combination of conditions and be saved to make a new group. Saved filters can be moved around to different groups and will return filtered results for that group. Selecting multiple groups will show the combined sheets of those groups. See More

Top Con

Overwrites imported markdown files

When previously written markdown files are imported, they're converted to Ulysses' version of Markdown and original files are overwritten. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

A few themes are baked in and a big selection of user-contributed styles to choose from are available on the Ulysses Style Exchange. See More

Top Con

Expensive

Top Pro

Syncs via iCloud

Content can be synchronised across devices via Apple's iCloud. See More

Top Con

Proprietary file format

Text is saved in a database in proprietary format. Meaning, your notes can't be accessed other than through the app, and cannot be moved other than by exporting them. See More

Top Pro

Comprehensive documentation

Ulysses comes with an excellently written documentation that covers everything there is to know about the software, including an extensive list of keyboard shortcuts as well as short and sweet introduction to Markdown and its benefits. See More

Top Con

Cannot render code blocks

You can go around this limitation, but it is complex and not so pretty looking as it is in other Markdown Editors. See More

Top Pro

Attachments can be added

Attachments such as images, text notes, keywords and writing goals can be added to content. And to organize them keywords can be added. See More

Top Con

iOS and Mac versions have to be bought separately

The iOS version costs $24.99 and the macOS version costs $44.99. They have to be bought separately in order to be used on those devices. See More

Top Pro

Allows the user to work anywhere and on any Apple device of their choice

Ulysses is available for both macOS and iOS. This, combined with the cloud syncing allows users to work on their projects using any Apple device they have at the time. See More

Top Con

Automatic switching of sheets can be confusing

Scrolling down when at the bottom of a sheet will switch to next sheet. When unexpected, this behavior can be confusing to some. See More

Top Pro

Can paste rich text and import from Word

Pasted rich text and imported Word documents keep their formatting when converted to Markdown. See More

Top Con

Lacks a LaTeX-exporter

Top Pro

Multiple preview and export options

The editor can export to Plain Text, RTF, Word, HTML, ePub and PDF with customizable styles for each option. It can also preview HTML directly in the browser. See More

Top Con

Proprietary Markdown extensions but no MultiMarkdown

Top Pro

Keyboard navigation

You can operate Ulysses via keyboard only. No need for mouse. See More

Top Con

No proper right-to-left support in PDF

Ulysses lacks right-to-left support that was available in the previous incarnation of this software. See More

Top Pro

Displays statistics including how long it takes to read the document

The editor tracks statistics that shows how many characters, words, sentences, paragraphs, and pages a document contains and estimated reading time for slow, average, and fast readers. The statistics display in a popover that can be torn-off so it's constantly visible. See More

Top Con

Cursor rendering issues

Top Pro

No Markdown syntax knowledge required

Markdown formatting can be applied from the right-click menu, with keyboard shortcuts or from an optional markup bar. Necessary elemants to links, images, and footnotes are added by filling in a popover. See More

Top Pro

Helps get stuff done

Goals such as how many characters, words, sentences, paragraphs, lines or pages should be written can be set to help get motivated. See More

Top Pro

Powerful organization features

Groups, tagging, and notes for each document. See More

Top Pro

Includes features for not losing place

Ulysses has options for highlighting current line, showing line numbers and enabling typewriter mode. Typewriter mode defines a place on the screen where the cursor should be so eyes are kept focusing in one place on the screen. See More

Top Pro

Helpful support

Staff is helpful in answering questions on how to use the app. See More

Top Pro

Inline formatting

There's no live-preview pane or an external previewer necessary. Ulysses displays styling inline. See More

Top Pro

A demo version is available

A time (10hrs) and usage limited demo for Ulysses III is available. See More

Specs

Platforms:MacOS, iOS

License:Proprietary

Export:Plain text, Rich text, Markdown, HTML, ePub, PDF

Preview:Live Preview

See All Specs >

See All

82 21

score 100 · Answer 9

Workflowy

Top Pro

Outline-style hierarchy with zoom

Any sublist can be viewed as a top-level list. This sounds simple but makes WorkFlowy extremely powerful. For example, the same line item, "write my book," can simultaneously be a to-do in a task list and the container for an entire working document. See More

Top Con

Offline desktop app requires Chrome

The offline desktop requires installing Google Chrome first before the WorkFlowy app can be installed. This is not good news for non-Chrome users especially users who frequently uses Firefox or Safari as their default browsers, in which Chrome app also suffers memory leak and battery issues. See More

Top Pro

Minimalistic interface

Interface has no clutter. It allows focusing on thoughts to note down. This keeps things simple and easy to understand, which can help keep everything organized in an intuitive manner. See More

Top Con

Doesn't work well in mobile browsers

The functionality of the mobile version of the site is a bit limited, while new features have been added such as the ability to move lines of text, even that is limited on Android to only being functional on Chrome. See More

Top Pro

Easy to see an overview and organize notes

All notes are part of a list, which makes it easy to organize everything. Nested lists allow for organizing notes into hierarchical categories of infinite depth. All lists can be folded. WorkFlowy also has tags and instant full-text search. See More

Top Con

Doesn't support images

Top Pro

Tasks can be added and manipulated quickly

WorkFlowy allows entering many tasks very quickly – especially useful for meeting minutes or a "brain dump" when you have to type fast. After typing in all your thoughts, it's very easy to organize and sort multiple groups at once. See More

Top Con

Cannot use link-text

You cannot have text link to a URL. When you link to a website you have to post the full URL instead. Instead of having the name of the website or article like, Slant, you instead have to post http://slant.co. It's especially annoying if you have a long URL that takes up a lot of space in the document. See More

Top Pro

Super fast sync between devices

While adding a list of to-do on web, it syncs with iPhone and iPad apps very quickly. This way you can jump between devices with no delay of up to date content. See More

Top Con

Infrequent updates and new features

WorkFlowy works well but it is hardly ever updated, in comparison to Dynalist, which works in a very similar way but has more features and is updated weekly. See More

Top Pro

Deep nesting

Workflowy's 'everything is in a tree' interface makes it easy to keep expanding on topics, no matter where, or how deep in the hierarchy they are. See More

Top Con

No color coding

It's a black and white interface without the ability to differentiate based on color. See More

Top Pro

Supports tags

Enables users to search by tags. See More

Top Con

No public API

Top Pro

Quickly focus on a specific topic

Enables users to focus on specific topic area, which is referred to as "hoisting" within Workflowy. See More

Top Con

Inconvenient interface

Notes automatically collapse, making them unreadable without user interaction. You cannot view multiple long notes at once. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform web and mobile

WorkFlowy can be accessed from either a browser or their apps, which include a Chrome app for desktops as well as an iOS and Android app. This makes it easy to access ones notes no matter the platform or device being used. See More

Top Con

Doesn't work on all mobile phones

Not compatible with Android OS version 4.1 and 4.2. See More

Top Pro

Text formatting

You can have bold, italic, and underlined text. See More

Top Con

Only supports one big text file

Although with Workflowy's focus feature this can work, you might prefer managing separate text files. See More

Top Pro

Import and export via OPML

OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is a commonly used standard for text exchange. With two-way support for OPML you are never locked into Workflowy. Importing/exporting via copy/paste of entire outlines is a snap. See More

Top Pro

Strong community

There are number of talented coders who help customize WorkFlowy with extensions and styles. It has an active blog and welcomes collaboration. See More

Top Pro

Daily digest email

WorkFlowy can send you an email with that day's activity. It's a great way to track progress. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / Web

API:no

Collaborative:yes

See All

100 25

score 188 · Answer 10

Simplenote

Top Pro

Geared towards fast usage

Unlike alternatives (such as Evernote) that are laden with features, Simplenote is fast to use and sync. Reviews from the Verge, Lifehacker, and a variety of other sources all describe using the Simplenote apps as very fast. While it may not be as feature-rich as other apps, the responsiveness of the app and simple interface keep it easy to use while never slowing down the user when they need to quickly take a note. See More

Top Con

Search is limited to one tag

There seems to be no way to find notes that have both tag X and tag Y. This isn't a big deal until you have a large library of notes, and want to cross-search for two things at the same time to vastly narrow down your search. See More

Top Pro

"Time machine" style revision control on the notes

Each edit of a note is saved in order to allow the user to go back to a previous version of a document. This way, if mistakes are made or something is deleted, you can go back to the previous version without any hassle. See More

Top Con

Limited ways to reorder notes

You are able to sort your notes alphabetically, date modified, or by last created. There is no way to drag and drop the notes to create a custom order. See More

Top Pro

Very simple and clean interface

Simplenote takes a minimalist approach to its interface. There are no toolbars full of formatting options or extra features like notebooks to group notes. The entire desktop interface consists solely of a sidebar with your tags and trash filters, the list of existing notes with search, a button to add a new note and a simple view for looking an existing note or writing a new one. See More

Top Con

No Widgets on Android

There is no way to view a list of the notes in Simplenote via a Widget on Android See More

Top Pro

Works offline

Users can edit and create documents offline, can then sync their content the next time they are online. This way a user can work even when there's no data connection without the worry of losing work. See More

Top Con

No support for file attachments

Simplenote doesn't provide support for embedded attachments. This can limit the use for some as many other note-taking apps do support this type of feature. See More

Top Pro

Markdown support via web interface

There is support for Markdown when using the web app. This can be convenient for those who want to use Markdown in a particular note. See More

Top Con

No reminders

You cannot set reminders to revisit a specific note or complete a task. See More

Top Pro

Wide range of great clients with great sync

Official native apps are available on popular platforms such as Android, iPhone, iPad, Kindle, OS X, Windows and Linux. Open-source clients extend this support even more widely to various other platforms, such as webOS and the BlackBerry PlayBook. These apps embody the core philosophy of Simplenote: minimalism and focus on the note taking. There are multiple unofficial clients (including the excellent Notational Velocity and NValt, a fork of the app with markdown support and other goodies.) See More

Top Con

No 32-bit version

Top Pro

Linux client available

Top Con

The search function doesn't see tags

If you search for 'foo' you won't find notes with tag foo. In that regard, tags are completely isolated from the search. See More

Top Pro

Desktop app is open source

The desktop version of Simplenote is hosted on the GitHub and since it is open source, it can allow developers to fork the code in order to improve the app. See More

Top Con

No way to bulk-apply a tag

This is a typical workflow action in other apps: Do a search, multi-select notes among the matches, then apply or de-apply one or more tags to all these notes at once. There's no way to do this in Simplenote. The only bulk operations are Delete and Pin-to-top. See More

Top Pro

Can export your data

The program enables exporting of notes as text documents. See More

Top Con

No notification when changes made on a shared note

Currently, there is no way to be alerted when a change is made by another contributor on a shared note. See More

Top Pro

Excellent iOS app

Top Con

Save-to-disk feature is poor

The only way to download your data off Simplenote is via a "download zip" feature that unfortunately loses all the semantic structure of your data (tags, for instance). See More

Top Pro

Collaborative features

Notes can be shared with others or worked on collaboratively. See More

Top Con

No integrated social media sharing

The only way you can share notes with others is with a link you're given when you publish your note. There is no integrated social media sharing if you directly want to post your note to Twitter, Facebook, etc. See More

Top Pro

Excellent desktop client in the form of nvAlt

Top Con

Lack of color impacts usability

There are two themes available, the default theme and a dark theme. Both use only the single solid color (either white or black) for the background, so there is a lack of visual cues to separate what you're looking at. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / OSX / Windows / Linux

Collaborative:yes

API:No

See All

188 43

score 469 · Answer 11

Google Keep

Top Pro

Easy to use

1-step to take a note on Android: tap 'take a note'. Web version: cursor is on the note itself. See More

Top Con

Google can access and mine your data

You have to be okay with Google analyzing and using your data in order to use Keep. See More

Top Pro

Super fast to use

The focus on a minimal interface makes everything fast to use on both web and mobile. This comes in handy for when a note needs to be jotted down quickly, as there is little to no load times or faffing about trying to get to a space where the note can finally be recorded. See More

Top Con

Single-level lists only

There’s no way to set a hierarchy for your lists. See More

Top Pro

Unlimited and seamless sync across all Google connected devices, from mobile to desktop

When a mobile device isn't in use, Google Keep can be accessed as a Chrome app or as a website. Basically, no matter the device being used or the OS on it, there is always a way to access the app. There is also no limitation to how many devices this can be done with, freeing up the user to always have access. See More

Top Con

No text formatting

No basic formatting like bold, italics. Makes it harder to do things like meeting notes. Keep is intended as a minimal and quick note taking app, but sadly for those that are looking for something more robust, the features are just not there. See More

Top Pro

Works as a great bookmarking tool as links added can optionally include a preview image

Keep has a great feature that allows you to save sites you visit as a special note type with a link and a preview image. See More

Top Con

Messy if you have lots of notes

Top Pro

Automatic saving

Automatically saves new changes so that nothing is lost. See More

Top Con

Can be taken down some day

As Google is notorious for taking down services, you may end up with just a backup of your notes in XML format and a need to look for a substitute. See More

Top Pro

Useful Android home screen widget

The Keep widget lets users quickly see existing notes and add new ones. See More

Top Con

Not free/libre

This application is proprietary, and thus cannot be modified or freely distributed. See More

Top Pro

Can share and collaboratively edit any item including lists

Keep allows sharing any item with other contacts and editing them together at the same time. This way a team can work together in real time, no matter their location. See More

Top Con

Cannot share groups of notes (e.g., labels)

Google's equivalent of groups are labels, which can't be shared. By comparison, Trello allows you to share boards with others. Trello also supports grouping through teams. Google Keep has no such concept. See More

Top Pro

Notes can be grouped via labels

In addition to the ability to color-code notes, they can be labeled and navigated and grouped that way. This allows for easy organization, to then be found easily at a later date. See More

Top Con

Organization is limited to just multiple tags for notes

There are no folders in Keep that you can move notes into. It makes the user interface more cluttered, and navigation gets more difficult. See More

Top Pro

Notes can be color-coded

Top Con

No ability to undo changes

There is no way to revert changes or restore text you may have accidentally deleted (however, you can restore entire notes for up to 7 days after deletion). See More

Top Pro

Supports drawing or writing notes by hand

Newer version of Google Keep now supports drawing on either a blank page, existing notes or in an image attached to the note. See More

Top Con

Synchronization bugs

There are some issues with synchronizing data including laggyness and returning old/deleted items. See More

Top Pro

Notes can include photo and audio attachments

Notes can include multimedia attachments in addition to text. See More

Top Con

No notifications when tasks are added to shared lists

Although the ability to collaborate on lists is advanced, Keep will not let you know when another person adds an item to a list you share. See More

Top Pro

Includes character recognition for text in images

Google Keep lets users take pictures of physical notes and makes the contents searchable within the app. This can be a convenient time saver for those that do not want to type out the necessary info, but rather take a quick snapshot of it. See More

Top Con

Google account required

You're required to have a Google account in order to use the app. See More

Top Pro

Really well implemented speech-to-text

Google has a lot of experience with speech-to-text functionality and they did a fantastic job with Keep. This means you can easily record spoken notes that can then be changed to a text based note. See More

Top Con

Not distributed

Cannot run on own servers as Keep will only run on Google's own servers. This increases the risks which are normally associated with handing over critical applications to a large (US) corporation. See More

Top Pro

Both location- and time-based reminders

You can set reminders that bring certain notes to your attention when you arrive at a specified location or when it’s a specified time or date. Unfortunately you can only do one or the other for each note. See More

Top Con

No integrated social media sharing

There is no integrated social media sharing if you directly want to post your note to Twitter, Facebook, etc. See More

Top Pro

Drag and drop sorting

You can move cards manually, which is great for prioritizing to-dos. Within a card, you can also drag and drop items. See More

Top Con

Does not integrate with Google Calendar or Tasks

It does not integrate with Google Calendar or other Google Apps with the exception of "Google Now." Keep reminders can appear on Google Calendar, but you can not get reminders and use Tasks at the same time. See More

Top Pro

Archives finished tasks

Any finished task is archived and can be searched at a later date. See More

Top Con

No way to search within a note

There is no "find" feature for looking up a word or phrase within a note, which can be problematic in larger notes. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

This app can be used seamlessly across all platforms including Android, iOS, and desktop computer platforms. See More

Top Con

Can be difficult to discover the features

Google Keep has slowly been introducing new features, but doesn't do a good job of helping you discover them. See More

Top Con

Does not offer themes

There is no option for changing the color theme (such as a dark theme) unless you use a 3rd party extension. See More

Top Con

No dedicated app for windows, linux, mac (except unofficial)

Top Con

Slow to save the updates

Saving is delayed by a moment and the saving status UI is unclear. You can lose updates if you close the tab too quickly. See More

Top Con

Too simplistic of an approach

Top Con

Delay between to-do entries

The keyboard closes and reloads between to-do list entries, so the first letters or words may be missed if you’re trying to quickly create a list. See More

Top Con

No API

Top Con

No BlackBerry 10 app

No BlackBerry support apart from web. See More

Top Con

No Windows Mobile app

No Windows Mobile app, and it is unlikely to ever be produced. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / Chrome / Web / Desktop

Collaborative:Yes

API:No

See All

469 107

score 21 · Answer 12

Apple Notes

Top Pro

Sync with other Apple devices via iCloud, other cloud/email services

It syncs with iCloud, and surprisingly, also with Gmail and possibly other services too. See More

Top Con

Cannot export to a format that can be imported again

This makes it impossible to backup your notes as files that could be managed by your backup system, you can only use things like iCloud and Google or export to PDF which would not be able to be re-imported in the case of storage failure. See More

Top Pro

Rich-text editing

Allows for simple text formatting and making TODO lists with checkboxes. See More

Top Pro

Built-in

It's a default system app, making it easy to find and use since it is already installed. See More

Top Pro

Attachments

You can add files to notes and then filter notes by attachment types. See More

Top Pro

Supports sharing

Top Pro

It's fast, and syncing is very dependable

The app launches quickly on both Mac and iOS, it also syncs quickly (in seconds) and very dependably across different Apple devices. See More

Top Pro

It remains simple to use with a gentle learning curve

Despite the significant new updates in iOS 9 and iOS 10, you can start using Notes immediately, then try/master new features with ease — definitely a gentle learning curve. See More

See All

21 8

score 254 · Answer 13

Microsoft OneNote

Top Pro

Text can be added anywhere like a whiteboard

OneNote allows you to arrange text freely on the digital paper mimicking the way it would be done with a real pen on real paper. See More

Top Con

Not available for Linux

There is no native Linux client for OneNote available, and most likely will never be created. Users can use the web based client, but a native app would be a better choice for those that use the app frequently. See More

Top Pro

Comprehensive organization methods

Can have multiple 'tabs' at the top like in a web browser with many notes within each 'tab'. See More

Top Con

Text editing is weird (poor UX)

When clicking in the middle of a note, it adds something like a text-box positioned in the middle. If you move that field to the bottom right, it gets weirder. You can end-up with an empty note, having an empty text-box 1km to the bottom-right of it. See More

Top Pro

Stylus and digitizer pen support

OneNote can be used on all touch capable devices via stylus or digitizer pen making for an intuitive and easy way to take notes by hand, which can often be faster or just preferred over typing. See More

Top Con

Syncing issues

It tells you there are conflicts between a note on the PC and on the Android because of the timing of the synchronization but doesn't try to resolve itself. See More

Top Pro

Sharing and collaboration

You can share your notes by inviting people with an e-mail, or by giving them a direct URL. You have control over what kind of access the user has on your note (read only, edit) and can revoke it at any time. OneNote will alert you when a chance in made on your shared note. See More

Top Con

Not open-source

This application is proprietary, and thus cannot be modified or freely distributed. See More

Top Pro

Integrates with other Microsoft services

Integrates well with Outlook, Office, and OneDrive. See More

Top Con

Platform dependent

The newer versions for Windows and Mac are converging, using the Windows style layout (with a more more consistent and usable UI). The original OneNote for Mac for example is very different from OneNote for Windows. Because Microsoft has a vested interest in making sure the Windows version is superior, the Mac version tends to lag behind in terms of functionality. Tutorials and other forms of documentation available online generally apply only to the Windows version, which implies non-Windows versions are undocumented. Even worse, because the documentation rarely, if ever, indicates it only applies to Windows, it's easy to waste hours trying to make non-existent features work. As such, the documentation is "negative documentation" (i.e. worse than no documentation at all). See More

Top Pro

Supports hierarchical organization of information / notes

OneNote is designed to allow hierarchical organization of information. This is achieved with grouping into the following categories and UI elements (Notebooks, Sections, and Pages). Both Sections and Pages allow additional groupings that can be expanded / collapsed in list view. This can be incredibly helpful for quickly taking notes and organizing them for work or personal projects. For example, you could have a Notebook for "Cooking Recipes", with sections for "breakfast, dinner, desserts", where individual recipes would be page entries (i.e. the "Desserts" section would have pages for brownies, chocolate cheesecake etc). See More

Top Con

Sync isn't stable

Many users have reported synchronization issues. While not everyone will experience this, it can be difficult to troubleshoot, with some fixes resorting to editing registry keys in Windows when using the Windows client. See More

Top Pro

Powerful table editor

Adding and resizing rows and columns is easy and flexible. This makes for an easy way to adjust a note as it grows in content size. See More

Top Con

No backup on Windows 10 free version

If you accidentally delete a section on the windows 10 free version of Onenote, there is no backup to fall back on. See More

Top Pro

Insert files into your notes

You can add a variety of different files into your notes including images, video, audio, and more. See More

Top Con

The added flexibility means your notes may feel cluttered

Since you can place elements anywhere you'd like on your note, you have to pay attention to how you structure it. For some this added flexibility is a huge selling point, but for others it could become distracting and makes notes feel difficult to digest. See More

Top Pro

All indented lines under the first can be expanded and hidden

Which makes it easy to quickly look at the high level of notes, and then drill deep into each point. See More

Top Con

Requires a Microsoft account

You need to have a Microsoft email to sign up for OneNote (Outlook, Hotmail, or Windows Live). See More

Top Pro

Very similar design for those used to Microsoft programs

If you have experience with other Microsoft programs such as Microsoft Office, you'll feel right at home with the design of OneNote thanks to the similarity of the menus. See More

Top Con

You cannot use local OneNote files with the version of OneNote that is included with Windows

There is a difference between the OneNote that is included with Windows 10 and the OneNote that comes with Microsoft Office. The version included with Windows cannot use local OneNote files and requires you to be online to access your notes. See here for this and other differences. See More

Top Pro

Offers flexible encryption

Unlike most other apps, you can selectively password protect, and fully encrypt, individual documents or entire folders. This is especially important to many people with data stored in the cloud. As of early this year, even the free version supports encryption. Microsoft has also enhanced their internal security methods for storing data on OneDrive (where OneNote performs sync), which makes it more secure than most of their competitors (including Evernote). See More

Top Con

Menu/ribbon can feel crammed

OneNote offers a lot of formatting options, which results in a lot of options being crammed into the ribbon. It can feel somewhat cluttered and takes a bit of time to get used to. See More

Top Pro

Converts handwriting to text on Windows version

You can take handwritten notes on your mobile device with a stylus or digital pen and then convert the handwriting to text later on your Windows PC. See More

Top Con

Search function is lacking advanced features

e.g. Searching for "friend" will find "friendship" and "friendly" (because "friend" is at the beginning of the word); using this query will not find words such as "girlfriend" or "boyfriend." See More

Top Pro

Strong search features let you quickly find what you're looking for

If you don't want to search through all of your notes, you can narrow it down by specifying the page, section, group, or notebook. You're not limited to just searching through your text either. You can search for text in images, video recordings, and audio (this is off by default). See More

Top Con

Uninspired, bland user interface

Many of OneNote's competitors use Material Design and bold colors to create a minimal, clean looking interface. OneNote has a bit more of an outdated look and can feel over crowded at times. See More

Top Pro

On Android, you can tap a badge to start a note

The badge on Android hovers over on your screen similar to Facebook Messenger's Chat Heads. You can tap it and instantly start jotting down your thoughts without having to flip to the app first. See More

Top Con

Doesn't automatically sort (by name, size, date)

You can't choose to sort automatically. Just do it manually. See More

Top Pro

Large variety of themes available

You have quite a few options for themes available with illustrated backgrounds. If you want something a bit more simple while still having personality, there are also several color themes. See More

Top Pro

Lots of options for customizing fonts

You can fully customize your default font (the color, type of font, and font size). You can override this styles with the same options (and more) in individual notes. See More

Top Pro

Add notes through email

You can choose what notebook the notes will save to. E-mail notes to your special Onenote e-mail and it will be accessible across all devices. See More

Top Pro

Article Web Clipper available on desktop and mobile

Has a web clipper extension on Chrome and Edge that can be used for clipping whole articles and images. Web clipping of articles is also available on Chrome mobile through the "Share" option. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Its available Windows Mobile, Windows Store, Android, a Desktop Version, and a Web app. Apple macOS and iOS are also supported. See More

Top Pro

Browser plugins allow easy saving of web pages

The ability to quickly file away web clippings is a key part of note taking. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows / OSX / iOS / Android / Web

Collaborative:Yes

See All

254 74

score 38 · Answer 14

Bear

Top Pro

Minimal ease of use

Top Con

No Tabs - can only view 1 note at a time

Top Pro

Tagging support

Top Con

No inline editing and markup of pictures

The only option is to open in an editor (thereby creating a copy) and saving it again. See More

Top Pro

Flawless sync

It's everything Dropbox Paper promised to be, but without the embarrassment. The notes are always in sync between devices. See More

Top Con

sometimes sync problems between iOS ans macOS

Top Pro

Instant markdown preview in the editor while preserving original MD code

Top Pro

Beautiful Interface

Well designed app See More

See All

38 15

score 31 · Answer 15

Quiver

Top Pro

Has more features than just a simple Markdown editor

Quiver is a notebook and note-taking app akin to Evernote which happens to also be able to edit Markdown files. As such, it has a lot of useful features such as: image support, file attachments, web content support and more. See More

Top Con

The line in focus shows a border around it which is distracting

The line in focus in the editor shows a rounded rectangular border around it, which is unappealing and distracting. See More

Top Pro

Supports code highlighting

Has syntax highlighting for more than 120 programming languages. See More

Top Con

Much more than a simple Markdown editor

Since it's more like a note-taking app (and a note-taking app built for developers) than a Markdown editor, it may be a little excessive to use it only for its Markdown editing features. See More

Top Pro

Supports vi keybindings

For people used to vi keybindings, Quiver can be set up to work with them. See More

Top Pro

Live preview

Quiver has live preview for both Markdown and LaTeX. This helps users to better understand the way they are formatting their files. See More

Top Pro

Notes can be linked to each-other

Quiver notes have unique links that can be copied and pasted into other notes to gain quick access between them. See More

Top Pro

Combination of different types of writing in one note

The most outstanding thing for me. Use HTML line breaks while writing MD text. Also, unlike most hybrid editors like Bear, it supports instant image sizing and respective preview. See More

Top Pro

Cloud syncing

Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, or any other file-based cloud services. See More

Specs

Platforms:macOS

License:Proprietary

Export:Text, Markdown, LaTeX

Preview:Live Preview

See All Specs >

See All

31 14

score 13 · Answer 16

Laverna

Top Pro

Supports tasks

Application also supports tasks. Adding tasks as easy as in GitHub. See More

Top Con

No drag'n'drop image upload

Top Pro

Privacy-focused

None of the developers can get access to personal data because they are using IndexedDB and localStorage. In fact all information will be stored only on client-side. See More

Top Con

Still a lot of bugs to squash

Laverna is still in early stages of development and as such not all functionality is well tested. See More

Top Pro

No registration required

Laverna is a web app written in JavaScript which means it requires no installation and no registration. See More

Top Pro

Several editing modes

Laverna supports several editing modes: distraction-free mode, preview mode and normal. See More

Top Pro

Synchronizing

In settings page it is possible to enable synchronizing with cloud storage. After that all information can be accessed from anywhere. See More

Top Pro

Simple

Simple and fast to learn and use. See More

Top Pro

Encrypts all data on the client's side

Laverna can encrypt all notes on client side with SJCL library and no one, except the user, can get access to them. See More

Top Pro

Good Markdown support

Laverna web app uses pagedown and ACE editor. See More

Top Pro

Remote storage

Supports the remoteStorage protocol for personal privacy data storage. See More

Top Pro

Open source

All code is open source and available on GitHub. See More

Specs

Open Source:Yes

See All

13 7

score 10 · Answer 17

Milanote

Top Pro

It's well-suited for collaboration

This app works great for thought maps, brainstorming, taking notes from meetings. See More

Top Pro

Has a free version

Top Pro

You and other individuals can work on a single note effectively due to the real-time collaboration feature

You can invite other collaborators to your Milanote board, allowing them to work on notes you create. You will also be able to see the changes that they make to the notes in real time. See More

Top Pro

Instantly creates backups of notes that you make

The application creates backups of the notes that you make, along with the latest changes that you have made. This is very useful if your device unexpectedly shuts down as your work will still be available for your to edit the next time you open the app. See More

10 0

score 8 · Answer 18

Joplin

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS. See More

Top Con

No dark theme

Top Pro

Offline access

Top Con

Doesn't auto update on Linux

Top Pro

Supports markdown

Top Con

Can't create tags from the mobile app

Top Pro

Supports tags for notes

Top Pro

Supports file attachments

Top Pro

Supports multiple languages

English, French and Spanish. See More

Top Pro

Encryption

Top Pro

Web Clipper

Browser extension saves full pages, clean content, or screen selections to new notes. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

8 0

score 6 · Answer 19

Draft

Top Pro

Hemingway Mode

Draft will turn off the ability to delete anything in the document. It will be possible to only write at the end of what's already written. It won't allow going back; only forward. "Write drunk; edit sober" -Ernest Hemingway. See More

Top Pro

Markdown to-dos

Draft supports Github style Markdown Todos. See More

Top Pro

Cloud sync

Documents can be imported from cloud services like Dropbox, Evernote, Box, Google Drive. See More

Top Pro

Version control

With documents shared with Draft, any changes collaborator made by collaborators are on their own copy of the document, and the user gets to accept or ignore each individual change made. See More

6 0

score 6 · Answer 20

Letterspace

Top Pro

Full featured iOS app

This was a iOS first app and that is clear. Great swipe bar interface on iOS. See More

Top Con

No in-app Markdown preview

You can export to PDF or HTML with formatting, but no preview in the Mac app. See More

Top Pro

Simple, yet powerful interface

Keyboard shortcuts for basic text formatting. A few theme options. Full screen mode and swipe gestures. See More

Top Pro

@mentions and #tags for easy organization

Top Pro

Advanced Markdown support

Features Markdown support that many other text editors don't; such as Todo's ( -[x] ) and Strikethrough. See More

6 0