What are the best offline note-taking apps for Windows?

Question

Project ManagementWindowsProductivity

What are the best offline note-taking apps for Windows?

27

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Considered

974

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Recs.

Feb 7, 2024

Last
Updated

22 Options Considered

Best offline note-taking apps for Windows	Price	Platforms	Export
85 Boostnote	-	Windows/MacOS/Linux/Android/IOS	Yes - Text (.txt), MarkDown (.md)
58 Standard Notes	Free	Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Web	-
56 SynapBook	Free	-	-
54 WordPad	0	-	-
-- Simplenote	Free	Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS	-

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score 315 · Answer 1

Boostnote

Top Pro

Free

Top Con

Very unintuitive design

Worst user interface. See More

PoisedFlins's Experience

It's not "offline" like this list claims.. it's capable of working offline, but it is an SAAS app. Why are the younger people in tech so stupid ? See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows/MacOS/Linux/Android/IOS

Export:Yes - Text (.txt), MarkDown (.md)

License:GPL v3

Offline access:Yes

See All Specs

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

Top Con

Can't work in "real" offline mode

RealisticGoorialla's Experience

You need to pay to get more than 10 notes. There is no free option. See More

Top Pro

Works offline

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

Top Con

SAAS for a basic app, perpetual cost for basic app

When it's $5 for a note app but $10 for Photoshop. .. The note app people are stupid. See More

MemorableKaratgurk's Experience

good See More

Top Pro

Great for developers

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

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

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 Con

Rearranging notes

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

Markdown support

Top Pro

Open source

See here. See More

Top Pro

Global search, tag feature

Top Pro

Cross platform support

Supports Windows, macOS and Linux. See More

Top Pro

Latex support

With this support you can write science notes on your notebook. See More

See All

score 39 · Answer 2

Standard Notes

Top Pro

Encrypted

Notes are encrypted and secured so only you can decrypt them. See More

Top Con

Online Required

The app requires a sign-up to a third party service. You can't store your notes offline. See More

Taufiq Hasan's Experience

Been using for months after migrated from Simplenote. Standardnotes is a simple and private note-taking app. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Web

Technology:TypeScript, Docker

Top Pro

Simple

Faster and lighter than most notes apps. See More

Top Con

Web interface requires premium

LoyalTantalus's Experience

It's not offline. The review was for offline note taking apps, and this can't be used offline. It shouldn't be on this list at all. See More

Top Pro

Open-source

SensibleVarpulis's Experience

Fast, offline, and private note-taking app available on almost all platforms. I'm using it on Windows 10, Android, iPadOS, and intend to install it on my NAS and Chromebook. There is a subscription option to access most of the features, one of which is cloud sync. Self-hosting is also an option, with a substantial discount if you choose to subscribe. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Available on Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and Linux. See More

FearlessAura's Experience

Sorry, perhaps you misread the original question. Q. What are the best offline note-taking apps for Windows? Offline, not "requires online" See More

Top Pro

Themes

Top Pro

Extensible

Editors, components, actions, and themes. See More

See All

score 47 · Answer 3

SynapBook

Top Pro

Nice sticky memo UI

It can support pop-up notes which can be used like simple Windows Sticky memo app. See More

Top Con

Not Portable

Application must be installed for your specific computer and cannot be installed to portable devices. See More

IncredibleBelobog's Experience

This is a useful feature. See More

Top Pro

Free

Basil Lloyd's Experience

Powerful and Good See More

Top Pro

Various text styles and decorations

General styles (bold, font size), highlighter and separator line, and more. See More

Top Pro

Folding

Groups can be folded. See More

Top Pro

Memo can be structured in tree form

Using the tree structure, you can structure the content. See More

Top Pro

Both search-based Memo and organizing tree Note

Search-based notes and tree-oriented tree notes are supported separately, so can be used conveniently depending on the purpose. See More

See All

score 52 · Answer 4

WordPad

Top Pro

No account needed

There's no need to create an account to use this app. See More

EarnestHors's Experience

Simple See More

Top Pro

Simple

Comes preinstalled with Windows. See More

SupportiveUpelluri's Experience

Meh... See More

See All

score 39 · Answer 5

Simplenote

Top Con

Not suitable for offline use

This requires you to be online to login and will send your notes over the internet. There are no plans to implement offline use. 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

AgreeablePluto's Experience

This use more than 400 MB in C driver See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

Collaborative:yes

API:No

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 on offline

Now desktop version supports Markdown. 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

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

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 Pro

Linux client available

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 on a particular note. See More

See All

score 26 · Answer 6

Notion

Top 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. See More

Top Con

Not Offline

Notion is limited to the last couple pages you've viewed for offline and that's about it. See More

SensibleKoalemos's Experience

Paid See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web

Collaborative:Yes

Offline access:No

Markdown support:Export

See All Specs

Top 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. See More

Top 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 its own page. Simple tables as in Markdown are missing. See More

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Flexible contents storage and organization

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

Top Pro

Blocks offer incredible flexibility

The basic unit of organization in Notion is the block, which can be a chunk of text, an image, a bullet point, or even a link to another page. Each page consists of these blocks, which can be easily reorganized, moved to other pages, converted into other content types, or generally manipulated in many useful ways. Because of blocks, restructuring information in Notion is way easier than in any other wiki or notebook app. See More

Top 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! See More

Top Pro

Full-featured on desktop, mobile and web

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

See All

score 56 · Answer 7

Evernote

Top Con

No undo feature

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

DelightfulHuitztlampaehecatl's Experience

I used to have all my notes synced across my phone, tablet and desktop PC. The new subscription model now prevents me from doing this. I've now gone back to using OneNote. See More

Specs

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

Export:ENEX, HTML, MHT

Collaborative:yes

Offline access:yes

See All Specs

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

Evernote is synchronized

Yanis's Experience

Still the best green app in my list :) 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

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

MemorableNjirana's Experience

Enormous amount of power consumption in android 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

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

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

Clean UI

Evernote has a flat, uncluttered user interface. 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

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

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

Top Con

Different features and functions per device

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

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

Missing some basic functions

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

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

Trustworthy to store data in the longterm

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

Lacks search and replace capability

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

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

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

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. 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

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

Premium allows search in attached files and documents

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

Web client has a focused, uncluttered user interface

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

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

See All

score 10 · Answer 8

typora

Top Pro

Support for tables

It supports tables for Markdown Extra. And also provides a GUI to make it easy to insert and edit them. See More

SensibleKoalemos's Experience

Very Minimalstic See More

Specs

Platforms:Mac OSX; Windows; Linux

Export:HTML; HTML (pure); PDF; Word; OpenOffice; RTF; Epub; LaTeX; Media Wiki; ReStructuredText; Textile; OPML

License:Proprietary

Sync:iCloud

See All Specs

Top Pro

Natural typing experience

Editing in Markdown, either in WYSIWYG mode or in markdown code mode, feels natural. It never gets in the way. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Currently works on Windows, Mac and Linux. See More

See All

score 15 · Answer 9

Zim

Top Pro

Plain text data format rather than proprietary

If/when the app is no longer developed, or if the user decides to no longer use the application or view/edit them on a non-supported platform, it can be done with any plain-text editor. See More

Top Con

No native sync support

Zim notes don't automatically synchronise with other devices. See More

TactfulKusarikku's Experience

Best offline note app. No need to log in anywhere, everything is stored locally in widely used data format. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

License:GPL

Markdown support:Export

Technology:Python

Top Pro

Good export options

Zim supports HTML, LaTeX, Pandoc Markdown and RST. See More

Top Pro

Allows for organized, wiki-style navigation

Notes can contain links to other notes, allowing you to reference important information when needed. This way the user can connect and reference many different pages in the app, keeping things clean and structured, unlike Evernote, which makes this a good Evernote alternative. See More

Top Pro

Allows for wiki-style navigation

Notes can contain links to other notes allowing you to reference important information when needed. See More

Top Pro

Automatically manages files and folders

Zim will automatically create a folder structure that fits your page hierarchy and add/remove files such as images to/from appropriate folders. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Top Pro

Support for multiple platforms

Windows, Linux, and BSD are supported with their own clients. This is nice for those that use multiple operating systems but still want to use the same app on each. See More

See All

score 10 · Answer 10

Joplin

Top Pro

Open source

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

Top Con

Weak tag searching

Joplin can currently only search for a single tag at a time. None of the boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) are available for use in searches. This greatly diminishes the usefulness of tags in Joplin. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

Export:Yes

License:MIT

Sync:File System, OneDrive, Next Cloud, WebDav, DropBox, JoplinCloud, s3 (Beta)

See All Specs

Top Pro

Cross-platform

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

Top Con

Old school interface

Top Pro

Encryption

Top Con

Sync issues on Windows

No way to change account settings and sync easily corrupted. See More

Top Pro

Supports markdown

Top Con

App Image launches very slowly

On Linux, you can only install via App Image, which take 5+ seconds to launch. I can launch LibreOffice in under two seconds. See More

Top Pro

Web Clipper

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

Top Con

Bloated

This project is suffering from feature creep and uses a lot of memory for a note-taking app. See More

Top Pro

Supports tags for notes

Top Con

Gargantuan memory footprint

1GB+ of memory for taking notes. See More

Top Pro

Nextcloud support

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

Dropbox support

Can sync using Dropbox. See More

Top Pro

Supports file attachments

Top Pro

Timed alarm reminder for to-do lists

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

Top Pro

Supports multiple languages

English, French, and Spanish, Italian, German, Czech and many others. See More

Top Pro

Optional CLI interface

Provides a CLI interface for terminal lovers. See More

Top Pro

Offline access

See All

score 12 · Answer 11

CherryTree

Top Pro

Export to PDF / HTML

Top Con

No Android version

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Technology:C++

Top Pro

Can choose the syntax highlighting of a note

You can change the syntax highlighting of every note to a variety of languages, like SQL, C, C++, JAVA, Fortran, Kotlin, PHP e so more. See More

Top Con

No cloud sync

Top Pro

Supports internal and external links, tables and images

You can add images from screenshot as well as insert from pc. See More

Top Pro

CodeBox for multiple languages

Top Pro

Can be password-protected

Top Pro

Can insert images

You can add images in the middle of a note, from screenshot or the pc. See More

Top Pro

Keyboard shortcuts for productivity

https://giuspen.com/cherrytreemanual/#_keyboard_shortcuts See More

See All

score 14 · Answer 12

ResophNotes

Top Con

Can't configure hotkeys

There's no way to change keyboard shortcuts. See More

Top Pro

Portable

It's possible to put the app on an external device and run on another Windows device without having to install it. See More

Top Con

Can mess up your hard drive

If you set the storage it recursively copy all the files from the directory to your storage folder. It can mess up your whole hard drive. See More

Top Pro

Notes can be organized via tags

Notes can have tags associated with them allowing you to group notes together based on whatever criteria you choose. Now you can, for example, look at all notes related to a specific event, a specific project or a specific group of people. See More

Top Con

Not cross platform

Windows only. It does syncs through Simplenote, so you can access your notes from other devices. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Pro

Integrates with Simplenotes

Top Pro

Markdown support

Top Pro

Has a portable version

See All

score 12 · Answer 13

TiddlyWiki

Top Pro

Host your TiddlyWiki file on GitHub for free

You can use the TiddlyWiki saver to save your TiddlyWiki file directly to your github repository. If you also use GitHub pages, then you can load your file wherever you happen to be, make changes, and update. See More

Top Con

Does not work in all browsers

It does not work with the latest Firefox version anymore, due to the fact, that the Firefox security model changed. It needs third party tools to work correctly and to save things inside the file when edited through the browser. See More

BraveTiddalik's Experience

the best See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android

Top Pro

Active and helpful community typically answers questions within hours.

The official support forum is at talk.tiddlywiki.org. It's frequented by a large number of knowledgeable TiddlyWiki enthusiasts. You rarely see a question go unanswered more than 2 or 3 days, and in most cases questions are answered within minutes. For harder questions, the developer himself frequently wades in to add information. See More

Top Pro

Can embed images and documents for a portable, single-file solution.

TiddlyWiki gives you the choice of whether you access additional resources (images, docx, pdfs) externally from the operating system or internally as embedded objects. See More

Top Pro

Encrypt your entire Wiki with SJCL without additional plugins

You don't have to worry about leaving your TW somewhere it might get exposed. You can activate the built-in encryption ability, using the Stanford Javascript Encryption Library to have your wiki encrypted with 256 bit security. See More

Top Pro

The equivalent of DataView/SQL already baked into the product

You can create lists of anything inside TiddlyWiki like tags, title structure, date, custom fields and present it as links, checkboxes, tables or whatever structure you need using a few lines of wikitext (a markdown-like language with powerful widget ability built-in). See More

Top Pro

Official CodeMirror Plugins for a complete editing experience

The official CodeMirror plugins allow you to close brackets, close tags, auto-complete, use VIM, Sublime or Emacs keybindings, and edit CSS, HTML, XML or Javascript text. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

The wiki is extendable through plugins and allows scripting. See More

Top Pro

Stored in a single html file

The whole wiki, including all notes, is stored in a single html file. Offline note taking often implies that you are travelling. In this case internet access is rare and your application needs to be mobile, i.e. you should be able to quickly put it on a usb stick. Because tiddlywiki runs in a single file, this is an easy task! See More

Top Pro

It runs in the browser, but doesn't need internet

Top Pro

Free and Open Source

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

Top Pro

Lots of plugins

Top Pro

Progressive user level, from ease of use to programming your own plugins

Basic users can start with simple note-taking, progressively discover predefined features and existing plugins, then start using more fancy features (like filters, widgets, macros), in order to adapt their wiki to their needs. See More

Top Pro

10+ years mature

Mature software, active community with members from all over the world. See More

Top Pro

Relational links

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

Top Pro

Self-hosted and indefinitely accessible

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

Top Pro

Extremely customizable

This is a major aim and point with TiddlyWiki; people can relatively easily modify it to fit their particular application needs. See More

Top Pro

Open-source project with a large community to back it up

This means you can quickly get help by posting a question in the forum or can get actively involved in making the application better. See More

Top Pro

Multiple, user-defined usages

The list of possible usages is practically infinite in TW, and more importantly it lets the user define their own method of dealing with their content. See More

Top Pro

Single html file

It's a single file and all your notes will be "accessible even in 25 years" because they can be seen in plain html text. See More

Top Pro

Built in cloud saving for when one does connect to the internet

User can work offline as much as they want and once connected to the internet can then upload these changes with the built in cloud storage function called TiddlySpot. Other (non-built-in) solutions for cloud storage involve Google Drive, Dropbox, Github etc. See More

See All

score 5 · Answer 14

Org-mode

Top Pro

Extremely flexible and customizable

Top Con

Harder to sync on mobile

Top Pro

Cross-platform across all desktop environments

Top Pro

No tracking

Top Pro

Free and open source

Top Pro

Supports Vim/Emacs keybindings etc.

Top Pro

You won't get locked out of its format

Since notes are stored in plaintext format. See More

Top Pro

Far ahead of other note-taking tools for programmer use

See All

score 19 · Answer 15

Google Keep

Top Con

No desktop app

The web app is slow and insufficient, requiring constant internet connection and a browser all the time. The UI is not optimal for use with a keyboard and mouse, everything seems to be optimized for touch and mobile usage exclusively. It is really inconvenient to have to open the browser every time you need to get data in or out or to quickly consult information. See More

Top Pro

Allows color-coding

OptimisticAtropos's Experience

Small. Takes images See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / Chrome / Web / Desktop

API:No

Top Con

No API

Does not provide an API so that developers can build desktop apps for it, and to backup and export and import data. See More

Top Pro

Clean, minimal interface

Instead of having every possible feature, Google Keep is designed to be very simple and minimalist. It's really easy to quickly create notes and search for old notes. Google Keep enhances the app's organization by letting users color code notes. 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

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

Great integration with Google Drive

Everything you add to Google Keep is also added to Google Drive and synced across the web and all your devices. See More

Top Con

Single-level lists only

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

Top Pro

Supports drawing

Newer versions 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

Messy if you have lots of notes

Top Pro

Archives finished tasks

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

Top Pro

Allows photo and audio attachments

Notes can include multimedia attachments in addition to text. 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

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 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

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 dedicated app for windows, linux, mac (except unofficial)

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

Offline notes on desktop require installing Google Chrome first

Accessing offline notes on desktop requires installing Google Chrome first before Google Keep app can be installed. This is not good news for non-Chrome users. 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 orginization, to then be found easily at a later date. See More

Top Con

Organization is limited to just multiple tags for notes

It makes the user interface more cluttered, and navigation gets more difficult. See More

Top Pro

Works as a great bookmarking tool

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

No Windows Mobile app

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

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

Handdrawing in app

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 Pro

Works as a great bookmarking tool

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

No subtasks

You cannot add subtasks to a list. 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

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

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

Cross platform

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

Top Pro

Notes can include photo and audio attachments

Notes can include multimedia attachments in addition to text. 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 Pro

Notes can be color-coded

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 Pro

Useful Android home screen widget

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

Top Pro

Automatic saving

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

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

See All

score 9 · Answer 16

NoteLedge

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

Specs

Platforms:Windows; OSX; iOS; Android

Top Pro

Multimedia supported

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

Top Pro

Cross-platform

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

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

See All

score 10 · Answer 17

Wiz Note

Top Con

Synchronization is too slow

Synchronization is too slow because of The Great Firewall of China, as Wiz Note is Chinese software. See More

Top Pro

Open format

WizNote's format is just a zipped html file. See More

Top Con

Language support

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Works on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS and Linux. See More

Top Pro

Templates

Provides templates for different types of notes. See More

Top Pro

Markdown

Supports Markdown for easier HTML editing. See More

Top Pro

Audio notes

Allows attaching records. See More

Top Pro

Allows importing from Evernote

Can import notes from Evernote. See More

Top Pro

Team collaboration

Team collaboration with messages and comments. See More

Top Pro

Quick search

Rapid search your notes by TAGS. See More

See All

score 11 · Answer 18

CintaNotes

Top Pro

Automatic link capture

CintaNotes automatically captures links from webpages and local documents, so you can quickly go back to the note's source. See More

Top Con

No Markdown support

Can't store, edit or export notes in Markdown, the program uses "RTF (in editor) + Internal format (for its database) + HTML (export)" instead. More info on the issue tracker. See More

Top Pro

Clips text from any application that works with the clipboard

Create notes by clipping text from any application that works with the system clipboard. Just select the text and press CTRL+F12. See More

Top Con

No Apple support

You can't use the app on MAC computers and Apple mobile devices, See More

Top Pro

Quick and performant

The program rarely crashes and is extremely quick. See More

Top Con

No mobile version

You can't use the app on you mobile platforms such as Android. But you can use the third-party solution "Simplenote" for syncing your CintaNotes data to mobile platforms. See More

Top Pro

Advanced search

You can search your notes by titles, fields, text, links etc. See More

Top Pro

Hierarchical tags

Notes in CintaNotes are organized into a crystal clear hierarchy tags. A hierarchy consists of 2 or more tags where the top tags is a parent tag and the one at the bottom is a child tag. This makes it easy to find your notes. See More

Top Pro

Attach files to notes

CintaNotes stores all attachments in the notebook file so you can remove the original file after it's been attached. See More

Top Pro

Password protection of separate notebooks

If you want to keep your notes private you can encrypt notebooks with sensitive data using AES-256 algorithm. See More

Top Pro

User friendly interface

The app is really easy to use and the interface is extremely simple. See More

Top Pro

Separate notes through sections

Notes are organized into sections or tabs. This is done to keep notes on the same topic separate while still having them in one notebook file. See More

Top Pro

Advanced synchronization options

CintaNotes can be synchronized with Simplenote or Dropbox. The first option makes you notes available on mobile devices via the Simplenote app and the second one allows you to share you notebooks with other people. See More

See All

score 14 · Answer 19

GloboNote

Top Pro

Simple and clean interface

Top Pro

Free and platform independent

Can run on Windows, Linux and Mac that has Java 6 or higher installed See More

score 6 · Answer 20

Sticker Notes Gold

Top Pro

Create and edit sticky notes on your desktop

Top Con

The app creates its own desktop only inside the app

Top Pro

Two types of notes: text notes, notes with drawings

Top Pro

Ability to change the wallpapers of the desktop

See All

22 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Boostnote

My Recommendation for Boostnote

Free

Very unintuitive design

Supports code snippets and syntax highlighting

Can't work in "real" offline mode

Works offline

SAAS for a basic app, perpetual cost for basic app

Great for developers

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

Comes with many themes

Rearranging notes

vim/emacs key bindings available

Markdown support

Open source

Global search, tag feature

Cross platform support

Latex support

My Recommendation for Standard Notes

My Recommendation for Standard Notes

Encrypted

Online Required

Simple

Web interface requires premium

Open-source

Cross-platform

Themes

Extensible

My Recommendation for SynapBook

My Recommendation for SynapBook

Nice sticky memo UI

Not Portable

Free

Various text styles and decorations

Folding

Memo can be structured in tree form

Both search-based Memo and organizing tree Note

My Recommendation for WordPad

My Recommendation for WordPad

No account needed

Simple

My Recommendation for Simplenote

My Recommendation for Simplenote

Not suitable for offline use

Desktop app is open source

No support for file attachments

Markdown support on offline

Save-to-disk feature is poor

Very simple and clean interface

Search is limited to one tag

"Time machine" style revision control on the notes

Linux client available

Markdown support via web interface

My Recommendation for Notion

My Recommendation for Notion

Does a great job with both notes and to-dos

Not Offline

Awesome for wikis

No lightweight tables like Markdown

Unlike anything else

Flexible contents storage and organization

Blocks offer incredible flexibility

Pages within pages within pages, to infinity

Full-featured on desktop, mobile and web

My Recommendation for Evernote

My Recommendation for Evernote

No undo feature

Powerful note formatting

Free version limited to 2 devices

Evernote is synchronized

Pay for offline use, search, and other functions

Best web clipper

Constantly directs you to upgrading your account

Easy to use

Bloated and complex

Clean UI

Very heavyweight for a to-do list

Multipurpose

Poor text formatting abilities