What is the best alternative to Emacs Org-mode?

Question

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score 21 · Answer 1

Joplin

Top Pro

Cross-platform

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

Top Con

Sync issue under Linux

The Linux client has a bug that requires the user to click the mouse frequently in order for sync to proceed. This bug has been open for a while. See More

Top Pro

Offline access

Top Con

No dark theme

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

Web Clipper

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

Top Pro

Supports multiple languages

English, French, and Spanish. See More

Top Pro

Encryption

Top Pro

Open source

Peace of mind that there is no malicious piece of software in the app. See More

Top Pro

Optional CLI interface

Provides a CLI interface for terminal lovers. See More

Top Pro

Timed alarm reminder for to-do lists

Top Pro

Nextcloud support

Top Pro

Active user forum with support from app creators

Support, troubleshooting, and new feature requests are easy to make at the user forum and you can contact the app creator directly. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

21 1

score 43 · Answer 2

Taskwarrior

Top Pro

Extensible

Taskwarrior has many front-ends, services, extensions, hook scripts, and capsules available. Taskwarrior keeps a list of contributed tools on their site. See More

Top Con

Command line interface

A command line interface is a arguably overly verbose, consequently tedious, way to interact with a To Do list. See More

Top Pro

Command line interface

The command line interface puts powerful filtering expressions, context, annotations, tags, due dates, reocurrence, and user-defined-attributes totally in your hands. It’s fast and low friction. See More

Top Pro

Sync across devices

When used in conjunction with the Taskserver, it can sync tasks (conflict-free) across your Taskwarrior devices. This includes integration with Mirakel. See More

Top Pro

Tasks stored in plain text files locally

Future-proof and easily integrated with version control system. You never lose access to your data. See More

Top Pro

Supported internationally

It has UTF8 support and is translated into many languages. See More

Top Pro

Self-hosted Taskserver

You can be in full control of your data. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight and fast

Taskwarrior is written in the speedy C++ language. See More

Top Pro

Customizability

Taskworrior allows you to define custom attributes and reports to your needs. See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux / OSX / Windows(Cygwin)

API:no

Collaborative:no

See All Experiences

43 2

score 48 · Answer 3

Org-mode

Top Pro

Very flexible

Org-mode is characterized by a flexible and versatile system with adaptability to different workflows, making it comparable as an Evernote alternative. It is at once simple and complex., which helps it to compete as an Evernote alternative. See More

Top Con

Difficult to learn

Org-mode has a difficult learning curve since you have to learn all the keybindings and commands. It's especially difficult if you are not used to Emacs. See More

Top Pro

Versioning can be tracked and synced using Git or other VCS

Org files are plain text, and lend themselves well to version control. Emacs also has good integrations for various VCS. See More

Top Pro

Built-in agenda

Org-mode has some built-in agenda functionality. You can schedule tasks and assign various degrees of importance to each of them. Org-mode agenda can also be synced with Google Calendar. See More

Top Pro

Basic spreadsheet functionality

Org-mode has some basic spreadsheet functionality. Other than auto-formatting ASCII tables (a notoriously annoying problem), it also has support for LISP-like syntax to define equations or any other functionality that can be achieved through spreadsheets. See More

Top Pro

Great sync support

Notes and to-dos can be synced with Trello, Toodledo, Simplenote, Orgmobile, or with tools like Git on Github, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Bitbucket, while WebDAV (with iOS and Android) can also be exported to PDF, mind map, LaTeX, HTML, Docbook, or txt. See More

Top Pro

Out-of-the-box Latex support

Org-mode has out-of-the-box support for Latex: it can immediately parse equations (or other Latex markup) and can even compile notes to PDF or HTML. See More

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48 3

score 34 · Answer 4

Todo.txt

Top Pro

Easily editable format

Todo.txt can be edited in plain text and then displayed with neat styles. See More

Top Con

No support for reoccurring tasks

Tasks have dates corresponding to creation and completion, but there is no explicit support for due dates or for tasks that reoccur. See More

Top Pro

Command line support

You can edit your lists using the command line (e.g., Terminal) via a supplied bash script. See More

Top Con

Nested tasks not supported

Many todo tasks for developers end up having sub tasks that need to be performed for a parent task to be completed, but the todo.txt format does not have any nesting. See More

Top Pro

Full control over your to-dos

You have full access to the underlying programming rules, and therefore total control over your task lists. See More

Top Con

Android app not updated since 2013

The app only seems to support Dropbox. It would be nice to see support for different and newer file storage services. See More

Top Pro

Works with lots of apps for every platform

Todo.txt lists can be edited in virtually every text editor ever made and accessed on devices that support Dropbox. The user community has also created a number of apps for dozens of platforms. See More

Top Pro

Editable from any text editor without needing any proprietary software

Because todo.txt is just a todo standard with various compatible apps to edit it, you can update it from any device as long as it can edit text and you can access your todo.txt file It's convenient to be able to access your todo list quickly via your programming environment so you don't have to switch contexts, and to have a separate todo.txt file per project. See More

Top Pro

It's free

It runs on MacOS, Android, and Python (in the Mac's Unix CLI) -- all for free. See More

Top Pro

Wide range of interface apps

The community has developed a wide range of apps that interface with the basic file structure. These apps vary in how much they accomplish, how much hand-holding they do, their level of glitz, etc. They range from plugins for an editing app like vim to stand-alone, platform-specific GUI's. So YMMV depending on what you use. (todopy is particularly nice, a Python program that has a "console" mode which provides a keyboard-driven GUI.) See More

Top Pro

It's easily extensible, and in fact has been extended to include most things people want

Top Pro

Easy syncing

Todo.txt automatically and seamlessly syncs through Dropbox. See More

Top Pro

Easy to sync up between lots of devices and interfaces

At a bare minimum you just need to be able to edit text, but there are many apps and advanced interfaces you can install on many devices to supplement your to-do list editing. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / CLI

API:no

Collaborative:no

See All Experiences

34 5

score 14 · Answer 5

Momentum

Top Pro

Automated Next Steps

Next steps have a separate view. Tasks can be updated sequentially or parallel. See More

Top Con

Beta interface is confusing for first-timers

The interface is very opinionated (this is a good thing). But it is not obvious how to map user's own GTD variant onto the one the author has in mind. Maybe after it is in production, there will be better on-boarding. See More

Top Pro

Projects and Tasks can be endlessly nested

You can nest multiple projects with tasks, there is no limit. See More

Top Con

No native apps

Top Pro

Has an offline mode

No permanent internet connection needed. See More

Top Con

In Beta (development)

Top Pro

Specifically designed for GTD

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Web-based, progressive-web-app (PWA). See More

Top Pro

Realtime synch

Data instantly updates on all devices. See More

Top Pro

Clean design

Lots of space helps focus on the tasks. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows/macOS/iOS/Linux/Android

Price:free / 5$ subscription / 5$ ticket

14 3

score 120 · Answer 6

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

Doesn't support images

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

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

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

Inconvenient interface

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

No color coding

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

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

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

Supports tags

Enables users to search by tags. 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

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

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

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

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 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

Text formatting

You can have bold, italic, and underlined text. 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

120 28

score 215 · Answer 7

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

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 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

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 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

Can export your data

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

Top Con

No way to import notes from anywhere

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

Excellent iOS app

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

Collaborative features

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

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

Excellent desktop client in the form of nvAlt

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 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

API:No

Collaborative:yes

See All Experiences

215 46

score 29 · Answer 8

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 mobile app

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

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 WYSIWYG editor

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 Experiences

29 0

score 520 · Answer 9

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

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

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

Messy if you have lots of notes

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

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

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

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

Not free/libre

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

Top Pro

Automatic saving

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

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

Useful Android home screen widget

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

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

Google account required

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

Top Pro

Notes can be color-coded

Top Con

Synchronization bugs

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

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

Notes can include photo and audio attachments

Notes can include multimedia attachments in addition to text. 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

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

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

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

Too simplistic of an approach

Top Pro

Archives finished tasks

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

Cross platform

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

There is a label limit up to 50

Top Con

Not good at all for longer notes

With almost no formatting options whatsoever it's hard to actually use Keep for long-form notes. 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

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

Notes get lost/deleted and can NOT be recovered

Since nothing is stored locally on the phone, everything can go missing. Google can't recover any of it. See More

Top Con

Scrolling through notes is horrible

There is no options to decrease the surface area of the notes to make it easier to get an overview. Compare this to something like the Apple Notes or Evernote UI and you'll know what I mean. See More

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

API:No

Collaborative:Yes

See All Experiences

520 119

score 352 · Answer 10

Evernote

Top Pro

Consolidates all your information

Evernote is designed to store a lot of different types of information from a lot of different sources in one place. Using the Web Clipper, native integrations, or a service such as IFTTT (If This Then That) you can use Evernote to store all your ideas, notes (both handwritten and typed), tasks, reading lists, receipts, and more. See More

Top Con

Free version limited to 2 devices

The free version has become very limited as a cloud based note taking app as there is now only sharing between two devices allowed. See More

Top Pro

Powerful features for organising your notes

Evernote is designed to make it easy to keep your notes well organized, which aids in quickly finding/browsing old information. You can put notes into a single notebook and use search to access old notes, or if you're so inclined, organize notes extensively with hierarchical notebooks and tags. See More

Top Con

Pay for offline use, search, and other functions

The free version of Evernote is highly limited. You have to pay if you want to access your notes without internet connection, search your notes or documents, or upload large amounts of data. The free version allows you to upload 60 MB of data per month, which is about 20 to 30 iPhone camera pictures. At a certain point, they started charging you for "advanced" capability, which includes searching your own attachments. See More

Top Pro

Native and offline-capable apps on pretty much every platform

Evernote has apps for Windows 7 and 8, Windows 10, Mac, Android, iOS (both iPhone and iPad), Blackberry, and Windows Phone. It also has a fully functional web app and chrome plug-in. No matter what device or platform you're on, you will pretty much always be able to access Evernote. See More

Top Con

Bloated and complex

Evernote is too big, has too many features. Note taking apps need absolutely clean interface to allow unobtrusive note taking and not a struggle to search for which buttons to click. It focuses on the search feature so much that it doesn't encourage or make it immediately easy to organize your notes and thoughts. It's essentially a sophisticated notes dump with good search. See More

Top Pro

Trustworthy to store data in the long term

With many utility tools being constantly shut down by their creators, it's really important to consider the long-term risks of picking a home for all your notes. Evernote is a $1 billion company with a track record of exceptional security and goals of becoming a "100 year old" company. See More

Top Con

No official Linux app

Evernote does not offer an official Linux app, although there are some third party alternatives available. See More

Top Pro

Can include images, and snippets from the web or a whole webpage via web clipper

With one click you can clip part or all of any webpage, including text, images, and links. Especially for those who use Google Chrome, this web clipper is a very rich add-on. The “simplified article” mode strips all graphical overhead from the page before adding the information to Evernote. It's also possible to add highlighting, tags, etc. before storing the note. See More

Top Con

Poor text formatting abilities

Text formatting in Evernote is buggy and unreliable. Bullets (outlining) are getting stuck or disappearing, tables are very static and prone to breaking and everything beyond the most basic formatting might cause an issue. See More

Top Pro

Has OCR functionality to convert images to searchable text

A really cool and handy Evernote feature is the ability to automatically scan images for text. See More

Top Con

Different features and functions per device

Desktop app has table creation. Android app lacks font color changes. Some functions can only be accessed on the desktop app. These include changing your default notebook. See More

Top Pro

Great selection for integrating with other apps

The Evernote app center page is nicely organized and has good quality integration of apps that can improve your productivity. See More

Top Con

Very heavyweight for a to-do list

Evernote is a powerhouse program with many features. It uses a correspondingly large amount of memory to run. See More

Top Pro

"Reminders" are a great way to combine your to-dos and notes

One of the note types is a "reminder," which can act as a to-do list. You can add all the usual formatting to reminders, including audio. Evernote will provide alerts when they are due and house them in a special location within the app. See More

Top Con

Security issues

Evernote had their entire database hacked and compromised including customer user passwords. They responded by locking valid users out of accounts and forcing password changes but are still vague about their own security policies. They do not have a good track record for data security. They also do not offer local personal encryption of entire Notebooks as Microsoft OneNote does. See More

Top Pro

Powerful note formatting

Evernote has an extensive range of formatting options and note types. You can create checklists, reminder alerts, audio notes, or add images and attachments. It also has an awesome speech-to-text feature if you prefer to dictate aloud. See More

Top Con

No recurring and snooze reminders

Perhaps because it is not truly a to-do list app, there is currently no support for recurring events or snooze reminders. The company claims to be working on this functionality. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Evernote is easy to dive into because it doesn’t overwhelm you with advanced functionality from the start. As you get more accustomed to the app, you might want to delve deeper to see what benefits the more advanced features will offer. See More

Top Con

Constantly directs you to upgrading your account

The frequent reminders to upgrade your account can quickly become disruptive. You get notifications when using the app, and many of the features that show as available in the app are actually for paid accounts only (which, when you try to use them, will remind you to upgrade). See More

Top Pro

Focused, uncluttered user interface

Evernote has a very clean and intuitive interface that's simple to understand at a glance. See More

Top Con

Buggy

A program with more features is always prone to more bugs. Evernote is definitely not the most stable note-taking program available. See More

Top Pro

Multipurpose

In addition to general note taking and to-do list management, Evernote lets you search through scanned documents, handwritten text, and images; collaborate with others through shared notebooks; record audio notes; and more. See More

Top Con

Rather poor user interface

Slow, not user friendly experience, complex, and somehow limited. See More

Top Pro

Premium allows search in attached files and documents

With a premium account you are able to search through PDFs and Office Docs. See More

Top Con

Lacks right-to-left writing support

When you write in a right-to-left language (Arabic, for example), everything looks fine in the editor but the direction changes to the left again after saving the note. See More

Top Pro

Evernote is synchronized

Top Con

Steep learning curve

Since Evernote has so many features built in, it's hard to know where to find everything until reasonable amount of time has been spent with it. See More

Top Pro

Flexible image manipulation

Permits photos that are taken, to be processed when in automatic mode and saved as a photo, black and white document, colour document, post it note or business card. The automated mode is also good at cropping the document effectively. See More

Top Con

Easy to accidentally hit the wrong button on the mobile apps

The mobile apps have fairly small touch targets, making it easy to miss the button or accidentally press the wrong one. See More

Top Pro

Innovative hacks

To save emails, just forward them to your Evernote email address generated on account creation. It is of course one of many such hacks. See More

Top Con

Missing some basic functions

Top Pro

Effective with pictures or snapshot of boards

Take a picture of your white board/paper board and you have it instantly in evernote everywhere, ready for additional notes and classification Scannable friend app is rather efficient to keep hand written note as well. See More

Top Con

Not distributed

One cannot run Evernote on own servers. This brings with it the risks normally associated with handing over critical applications to a large corporation. See More

Top Pro

Best web clipper

Can clip to the web from desktop or mobile, using simplified format or original formatting. Very quick and flexible, and enables you to highlight, take notes, tag, etc. See More

Top Con

No ability to re-order notes other than sorting

Evernote has no way to re-order notes, nor even to change their display order. Sorting is the only option, and the "official" workaround (for years now) is to prefix note titles with line numbers manually so notes will sort and display as desired. See More

Top Pro

Skitch integration

If you're on iOS and have Skitch installed, you can quickly annotate your notes using Skitch. See More

Top Con

Lacks search and replace capability

Top Pro

Has conflict management and undo

Allows undo/redo when editing (i.e. all changes are finalized upon saving). If conflicts between synchronized versions arise, both copies are saved in Evernote. See More

Top Pro

Can choose from a few themes

You can pick from a green theme, light, or dark theme. All are very clear and visually appealing. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / WP / OSX / Windows / WebOS

API:yes

Collaborative:yes

See All Experiences

352 92

score 301 · Answer 11

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

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

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

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

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. It has the best pen input out of any note taking app. See More

Top Con

Not open-source

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

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

Integrates with other Microsoft services

Integrates well with Outlook, Office, and OneDrive. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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 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

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 Con

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

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

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

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 Experiences

301 81

score 17 · Answer 12

Checkvist

Top Pro

Tasks can be managed with custom tags

Top Con

Limited capability in the android app

Checkvist is primarily a web interface. See More

Top Pro

vim-like commands

Top Pro

Convenient search by text or tag filtering

Top Pro

Converts incoming emails to todos - this is a way to enter tasks from anywhere.

Top Pro

Great search

Search filters help you search for tasks by tag, due date, assignee, etc. See More

Top Pro

Very flexible

To-do lists often need to be grouped and regrouped for clarity. The outline-based nature of Checkvist makes it easy to move things across categories, to increase and decrease priority, etc. See More

Top Pro

Smart parsing of items

Parses markdown, html links, hashtags to become formatted text, clickable links, and tags, respectively. See More

Top Pro

Generous set of free features

Checkvist offers many free features if you are using this individually. See More

Top Pro

Supports comments on tasks

Any item can have a free-text comment, which can be shown or hidden as desired. See More

Specs

Platforms:Web-based, Android/iOS PWA

17 0

score 16 · Answer 13

GTDNext

Top Pro

Automatic next actions

When it comes to choosing your next action, most to-do apps suffer from the same problem: All of your actions (sometimes hundreds in total) are visible to choose from. This can overwhelm users and cause them to give up on the system. GTDNext is different. In the "Next Action" view, only the very next action is shown for each of your projects. This results in a nicely consolidated view of only the things that need your immediate attention. See More

Top Con

No mobile app available

Top Pro

GTD style lists

All the “Get Things Done” lists you would expect: next actions, someday, waiting, and scheduled. See More

Top Con

Web only

GTDNext does not have native apps for other devices, but it does work across PC/Mac/Linux on the web client. See More

Top Pro

Unlimited levels of projects and actions

In GTDNext you can set up an unlimited number of levels for your projects and actions, allowing you to plan your project and sub-projects in as much detail as needed. See More

Top Pro

Areas of Focus

GTDNext supports the “Areas of Focus” methodology from Getting Things Done. You can filter all of your tasks to just show your work tasks, side project tasks, or personal tasks. There is also a global filter, so that when you’re hard at work you can focus only on your work projects and tasks. See More

Top Pro

Many keyboard shortcuts available

The number of keyboard shortcuts makes it easy to log or add tasks without removing your hands from the keys. See More

Top Pro

Option to visualize all projects and tasks in a single outline view

This is really useful because it prevents you from having to navigate through each project individually. See More

Specs

16 0

score 13 · Answer 14

WeDo

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Has versions for Android, Web, and iOS. See More

Top Con

No calendar integration

Does not have calendar integration See More

Top Pro

Supports file attachments

You can attach files to each task. See More

Top Con

Doesn't support multiple reminders

Top Pro

Great user support

It is a new app, but they have a very good interface so the users can send their suggestions to improve the app. See More

Top Pro

Users can add recurrent tasks

It allows users to set recurrent tasks. See More

Top Pro

Supports subtasks

You can add subtasks to any task. See More

Top Pro

Allows users to assign tasks to other users

It allows you to assign tasks to other person. If he/she does not use WeDo, it sends an invitation. See More

Top Pro

Clean interface

Top Pro

Free

At least for a while. See More

Top Pro

Supports groups

You can add groups, and for each group, yuou can add members. It is something like Trello Boards, but I think its better. See More

See All Experiences

13 0

score 42 · Answer 15

MeisterTask

Top Pro

Unlimited tasks and projects for free

MeisterTask offers a free plan that includes unlimited tasks and projects, as well as two integrations of the user's choice. See More

Top Con

No Linux desktop application

Top Pro

Useful integrations

MeisterTask has integrations with Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, GitHub, BitBucket, Zendesk, Zapier, and MindMeister. You can even get a personal URL to subscribe to your tasks, schedule, etc. via any calendar program that supports the iCal format (e.g. MacOS default calendar application, or maybe even Fantastical 2 on the same platform). See More

Top Con

Main view isn't compact enough

The main view isn't compact enough even when set to small font and compact view. Additionally, columns are not collapsible. See More

Top Pro

Task Automations

MeisterTask offers “Section Actions” that help automate steps in your workflow and increase efficiency and consistency. See More

Top Con

Subtasks are hidden inside the task

It can be hard to see the complete details of each task due to the nested interface. See More

Top Con

No reminders

No native reminder events. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS, iOS, Android

42 1

score 9 · Answer 16

DropTask

Top Pro

Visual task management

A unique visual style uses large circles to group tasks by project or user. See More

Top Pro

Nice visuals

Simply put, it’s a pretty program. See More

Top Pro

Easy to view tasks

View by urgency, importance, and effort or all three, as well as simple to view deadlines. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / OSX / Web

API:yes

Collaborative:yes

9 0

score 8 · Answer 17

Quire

Top Pro

Cross platform, sync and offline usage

Top Pro

Organizations, projects, task, hierarchical subtask and smart folders

Unlimited tasks/todo structures See More

Top Pro

Integration with calendar and github

I haven't dabbled with that though See More

Top Pro

Multiuser handling

Handle multiple users and assignments See More

Top Pro

It is free

As of now, at least. See More

8 0

score 7 · Answer 18

Timing for Mac

Top Pro

Fully automatic

No start/stop timers, no forgetting to track time. See More

Top Con

Only works on one device, no billing, no syncing and no mobile or web apps

Timing has a pretty limited use for a paid app as it only works on one Mac device. There is no cloud sync to get the schedules synced to another device. There is also no billing built into the app. See More

Top Pro

Easy time analysis after the fact

once a users day is finished they can go through the history of the app to pick and choose what tasks are worth keeping for time tracking of the day. This makes it easy in the sense that there is no manual tracking needed to be done, everything is recorded and then can be filtered down to the users work tasks. See More

Top Con

Mac only

Is only compatible with OSX, so is pretty limiting in that regard. See More

Top Pro

No Subscription Needed

The app works completely offline - no user data leaves your computer and you don't have to pay some monthly fee. See More

7 0

score 6 · Answer 19

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

score 5 · Answer 20

24me

Top Con

No desktop or browser client

Top Pro

Integrates with Android and iOS

The app has an Android version and an iOS version that syncs with the native reminders app. See More

Top Pro

Combines 4 apps into 1

The app lets you manage your notes, calendar, personal accounts, and to-do list from one place. See More

Top Pro

Cuts down on procrastination

The self-proclaimed "assistant for everyone," 24me helps people break the cycle of procrastination and willpower exhaustion by automating things they may have otherwise put off until later. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS

API:no

Collaborative:yes

5 0