What are the best services to manage ideas?

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Apr 22, 2022

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Evernote vs Notion vs SquidHub

vs Google Keep vs TiddlyWiki vs Brightly.io vs Zenkit vs xTiles.app vs Eagle.cool vs UseResponse vs Notion

Specs

Platforms

Android / iOS / WP / OSX / Windows / WebOS

Collaborative

yes

Offline access

yes

Markdown support

limited

API

yes

Export

ENEX, HTML, MHT

Open Source

Tables

yes

Sync

yes

Import

OneNote

Hyperlinks

yes

Local hosting

Search

Supported Calendars

Reminders

Cross Platform

Subtasks

Storage types

Location-based reminders

Realtime

Recurring

Dark Theme

License

Bracket Matching

Extension language

Languages

Multiple Accounts

Swimlanes

Notetaking

Platforms

Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web

Collaborative

Yes

Offline access

Markdown support

Export

API

Export

Open Source

Tables

Sync

Import

Hyperlinks

Local hosting

Search

Supported Calendars

Reminders

Cross Platform

Subtasks

Storage types

Location-based reminders

Realtime

Recurring

Dark Theme

License

Bracket Matching

Extension language

Languages

Multiple Accounts

Swimlanes

Notetaking

Platforms

Web / iOS / Android

Collaborative

Yes

Offline access

Markdown support

API

Export

Open Source

Tables

Sync

Import

Hyperlinks

Local hosting

Search

Yes

Supported Calendars

Google Calendar integration

Reminders

Yes

Cross Platform

Yes

Subtasks

Yes

Storage types

Google Drive integration + upload directly to SquidHub + link to documents on other platforms

Location-based reminders

Realtime

Yes

Recurring

Yes

Dark Theme

License

Bracket Matching

Extension language

Languages

Multiple Accounts

Swimlanes

Notetaking

Platforms

Android / iOS / Chrome / Web / Desktop

Collaborative

Offline access

Markdown support

API

Export

Open Source

Tables

Sync

Import

Hyperlinks

Local hosting

Search

Supported Calendars

Reminders

Cross Platform

Subtasks

Storage types

Location-based reminders

Realtime

Recurring

Dark Theme

License

Bracket Matching

Extension language

Languages

Multiple Accounts

Swimlanes

Notetaking

Platforms

Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android

Collaborative

Offline access

Yes

Markdown support

Yes

API

Export

tid

Open Source

Tables

Yes

Sync

Import

Hyperlinks

Local hosting

Search

Supported Calendars

Reminders

Cross Platform

Subtasks

Storage types

Location-based reminders

Realtime

Recurring

Dark Theme

Yes

License

BSD

Bracket Matching

plugin

Extension language

JavaScript

Languages

Multiple Accounts

Swimlanes

Notetaking

Platforms

Collaborative

Offline access

Markdown support

API

Export

Open Source

Tables

Sync

Import

Hyperlinks

Local hosting

Search

Supported Calendars

Reminders

Cross Platform

Subtasks

Storage types

Location-based reminders

Realtime

Recurring

Dark Theme

License

Bracket Matching

Extension language

Languages

Multiple Accounts

Swimlanes

Notetaking

Platforms

Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iPhone

Collaborative

Yes

Offline access

Yes

Markdown support

Yes

API

Yes

Export

Open Source

Only as Linux Snap

Tables

Sync

Import

Hyperlinks

Local hosting

Search

Yes

Supported Calendars

Google Calendar - Outlook & Apple coming soon

Reminders

Yes

Cross Platform

Subtasks

Storage types

Location-based reminders

Realtime

Recurring

Dark Theme

Yes

License

Bracket Matching

Extension language

Languages

English, German, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Chinese (traditional), Korean, Russian

Multiple Accounts

Yes

Swimlanes

Yes

Notetaking

Platforms

Web, IOS, Android

Collaborative

Offline access

Markdown support

API

Export

Open Source

Tables

Sync

Import

Hyperlinks

Local hosting

Search

Yes

Supported Calendars

Reminders

Cross Platform

Subtasks

Storage types

Location-based reminders

Realtime

Recurring

Dark Theme

License

Bracket Matching

Extension language

Languages

Multiple Accounts

Swimlanes

Notetaking

Yes

Platforms

Windows, macOS

Collaborative

Offline access

Markdown support

API

Export

Open Source

Tables

Sync

Import

Hyperlinks

Local hosting

Search

Supported Calendars

Reminders

Cross Platform

Subtasks

Storage types

Location-based reminders

Realtime

Recurring

Dark Theme

License

Bracket Matching

Extension language

Languages

Multiple Accounts

Swimlanes

Notetaking

Platforms

Collaborative

Offline access

Markdown support

API

Export

Open Source

Tables

Sync

Import

Hyperlinks

Local hosting

Search

Supported Calendars

Reminders

Cross Platform

Subtasks

Storage types

Location-based reminders

Realtime

Recurring

Dark Theme

License

Bracket Matching

Extension language

Languages

Multiple Accounts

Swimlanes

Notetaking

Platforms

Collaborative

Offline access

Markdown support

API

Export

Open Source

Tables

Sync

Import

Hyperlinks

Local hosting

Search

Supported Calendars

Reminders

Cross Platform

Subtasks

Storage types

Location-based reminders

Realtime

Recurring

Dark Theme

License

Bracket Matching

Extension language

Languages

Multiple Accounts

Swimlanes

Notetaking

Pros + Cons

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

Pro
Focused, uncluttered user interface

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

Comment

Pro
Clean UI

Evernote has a flat, uncluttered user interface.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

Pro
Premium allows search in attached files and documents

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Comment

Pro
Web client has a focused, uncluttered user interface

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Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

Pro
Skitch integration

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

Comment

Pro
Powerful features for organizing 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.

Comment

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.

Comment

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. Below is an example of an Evernote result when searching notes for "screenshots."

Comment

Con
Missing some basic functions

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Comment

Con
No undo feature

If you erase something by mistake, you can't undo it.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

Con
Lacks search and replace capability

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Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

Con
No official Linux app

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

Comment

Con
Different features and functions per device

Some functions can only be accessed on the Desktop app. These include changing your default notebook.

Comment

Con
Great note-taking platform, but not a feature-rich to-do platform

I suppose if you had a hammer, you could nail a screw into a block of wood. But it just isn't the right tool for the job. Almost everything you would want in a to-do list app needs to be manually organized and managed in Evernote. There are no features for sorting, reviewing, scheduling, assigning priority, etc.. In effect, it isn't much better than keeping a to-do list in a Microsoft Word or OpenOffice text document. Evernote is a great note-taking app. However it isn't really designed to be a calendaring/scheduling/to-do list app – even though you could use it that way if you tried.

Comment

Con
Buggy

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

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

Pro
Evernote supports multimedia

The web clipper to add images to a note.

Comment

Pro
Supports embedding of multimedia content

Notion supports the embedding of a wide range of content in its notes, including but not limited to pictures, videos, audio, Twitter posts, Google Maps, PDF files, and Google Drive files.

Comment

Pro
Pages within pages within pages, to infinity

You can have a ridiculous amount of information within a single note. Look at how it works, you'll be surprised!

Comment

Pro
Awesome for wikis

You can easily start writing a bunch of web pages, share it with co-workers and choose whether to publicize or keep your contents private. It's also easy to hyperlink pages.

Comment

Pro
Cross-platform

Works with Android, iOS, Windows, & Mac OSX.

Comment

Pro
Full-featured on desktop, mobile and web

Even the right-click menus on the web are the same as the app.

Comment

Pro
Highly visual, with icons next to every new page and so on

This feature makes it very easy to find certain notes and such. And great for visual people as well. You could also add images as icons instead, if you like.

Comment

Pro
Unlike anything else

One of the most complete applications one can use to build a personal dashboard (or professional) and migrate all other services to it. No more calendar, task, notes, financials, lists, writing and wiki apps, just Notion.

Comment

Pro
Does a great job with both notes and to-dos

To-dos in Notion aren't just dot point lists. You can drag and drop them into columns just like Trello (Kanban style), you can have sub-tasks, and you can easily mark things off as completed so they are no longer in your way. Notes are also powerful, with proper formatting and ways to manage and search for them, which makes it a great Evernote alternative.

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Pro
Amazing view flexibility

You can create different views for a page's content and easily toggle between kanban, table, etc. (As long as the content is able to allow different views).

Comment

Pro
Can separate notes into workspaces

Notes can be stored on separate workspaces in which they are kept separate from others, which may be of great benefit to users and teams working on multiple projects. A user can create an unlimited amount of workspaces.

Comment

Pro
Cross Platform

Works with Android, iOS, Windows, & Mac OSX.

Comment

Pro
Quick and effective search

Just type in a word and you'll have results in no time at all.

Comment

Pro
Flexible contents storage and organization

You can upload files and embed online stuff in any hierarchical structure using pages, toggle lists, etc.

Comment

Con
"Web clipper" needs important (even urgent) upgrades

I can only talk about Evernote Web Clipper and in comparison Notion Clipper is so basic. and I consider it serious that it isn't compatible with Safari. All the customization options within Notion would be enhanced with a better Web clipper

Comment

Con
Designed with teams in mind, and less formatting than Evernote

Evernote may be more individual-oriented and has more formatting and such options available, but whether that affects you is down to personal preference. Try both and see which you prefer.

Comment

Con
No lightweight tables like Markdown

Every table is some sort of database with a default view and every row is a data set with attributes and it's own page. Simple tables as in Markdown are missing.

Comment

Pro
Extremely simple

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Notes can be color-coded

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Comment

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.

Comment

Pro
Automatic saving

Automatically saves new changes so that nothing is lost.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

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Pro
Easy to use

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

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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.

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Pro
Self-hosted and indefinitely accessible

All content is stored within the same html file as the interface.

Comment

Pro
Relational links

Allows for relational links and lists between notes to keep things organized.

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Pro
Free and Open Source

No commercial interests, no ads, no registration, no nonsense. You own your notes 100%.

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Pro
Collaborative

It's simple for users to comment and iterate on each others ideas - which means that a simple seed can grow into something bigger.

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Pro
Fun

Gamification features is used to increase the incentive for team members to submit new ideas - and to make the service more fun.

Comment

Pro
Cloud based

Access and create new ideas wherever you are.

Comment

Pro
Works on all devices

The service is web based; it's fully responsive to work well on all devices. It's available wherever you & your ideas are.

Comment

Con
Early stage

Not enough trust.

Comment

Pro
Easy to Use

Like Google Doc, but more effective!

Comment

Pro
Browser extensions

Has extensions in Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge browser. Takes screenshots of pages and lets you categorize it straight away.

Comment

Pro
Wide multimedia handling including image, video, gif, 3d, font, etc.

Handles 81 types of files in Windows and 90 in MacOS.

Comment

Con
Little team management options

a bit difficult to do team contribution unless you sync with a cloud service like google drive, dropbox...

Comment

Pro
Public Roadmaps

Build and share public product development roadmaps in Kanban view

Comment

Pro
Tools for internal team collaboration

Use internal notes to share private details with other agents to set meetings, elaborate more details about the further strategy and building roadmaps. Set reminders to get notified at the right time. Create a closed community for internal communications.

Comment

Pro
Online Community

Setup idea management platform to match your idea processing workflow with custom statuses and notification settings using flexible automation rules.

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Pro
Omnichannel Idea Management

Manage ideas from various sources: community, widget, social media and IOS & Android platforms.

Comment

Pro
Full UI Customization

Easy to configure the interface and the flows

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