LinuxProductivity

What are the best note taking apps for Linux?

19

Options
Considered

123

User
Recs.

Jun 17, 2018

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 19 OptionsWhy?

19 Options Considered	Price	Platforms	Price
92 Turtl	Free	Windows, Linux, Android	free
86 Simplenote	Free	Android / iOS / OSX / Windows / Linux	–
76 Google Keep	FREE	Android / iOS / Chrome / Web / Desktop	–
-- Joplin	FOSS	Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS	Free
-- Tomboy	FREE	Windows; OSX; Linux	–

Turtl

Top Pro

Native and offline-capable on many platforms (Linux, Windows, macOS, Android)

Turtl can be used across all the major computer operating systems and also on Android. In addition, the APK for Android doesn't have to be downloaded from Google Play store, for those who do not like it. See More

Top Con

No offline access

Turtl is a very great note-taking app that supports privacy and availability except it does not work without internet connection. If you are out on a job, and your phone is dead or has no wireless tether, you lose the ability to perform the initial decryption necessary to access your Turtl account, unless you have a SIM in your laptop. If you already have the app open, then it is a non-issue, but say the app crashes, or you have to reboot your machine; no more notes - none. See More

Top Pro

Free and Open Source

Turtl is licensed under the GPLv3, which makes the application very transparent and encourages good practices. See More

Top Con

Installation & Permission Problems are common

Requires terminal commands to configure and root to run. See More

Top Pro

Good security

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

Top Pro

Supported on multiple platforms

Turtl has applications for all the major operating systems (Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, Firefox, Chrome). In addition, there are extensions available for Firefox and Chrome that cooperate with the downloadable applications. See More

Top Pro

Chromium / Chrome and legacy Firefox Plugins for sending bookmarks to Turtl application

Top Pro

Note sharing functionality

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Android

Cross Platform:yes

Open Source:Yes

See All Specs >

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18 Other Options Considered

Simplenote

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 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

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

Requires that you sign up for an account

You can not use the application without an account with simplenote. See More

Top Pro

Shared Notes

Top Con

Only Online use

If you are not connected to the internet the application will not work. 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 note groupings

All notes are in the same place (sidebar) and there is no way to group them under different notebooks or categories. 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

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 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

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / OSX / Windows / Linux

Collaborative:yes

Google Keep

Top Con

Your notes have to be stored on the cloud

Top Pro

Localized to many languages

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

Nice responsive UI

Top Con

Not free/libre

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

Top Pro

Supports images

Top Con

Too simplistic of an approach

Top Pro

Supports checklists

Top Con

Google account required

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

Top Pro

Syncs automatically with your Android phone

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 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 Con

It's a Google Chrome app, rather than a standalone app

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / Chrome / Web / Desktop

Collaborative:Yes

Joplin

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Cross-platform

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

Top Con

No dark theme

Top Pro

Offline access

Top Con

Doesn't auto update on Linux

Top Pro

Supports markdown

Top Con

Can't create tags from the mobile app

Top Pro

Supports tags for notes

Top Pro

Supports file attachments

Top Pro

Supports multiple languages

English, French and Spanish. See More

Top Pro

Encryption

Top Pro

Web Clipper

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

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

See All Specs >

Tomboy

Top Pro

Free and open source

All the components are free, open source, and allows self-hosting the sync server. See More

Top Pro

Links

Easy and effective wiki-style capabilities. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows; OSX; Linux

Boostnote

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Markdown support

Top Con

Cannot attach files to a note

Boostnote does not support file attachments to notes. See More

Top Pro

Open source

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

Top Con

Geared towards developers only, for storing code

Currently not intended for general use. See More

Top Pro

Supports code snippets and syntax highlighting

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

Top Con

Some of the features are not consistent

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 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

Works offline

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

Top Pro

Global search, tag feature

Top Pro

Cross platform support

Supports Windows, macOS and Linux. See More

Top Pro

Comes with many themes

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

Top Pro

Great for developers

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

Specs

Platforms:Windows/MacOS/Linux/Andoid/iOS

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

See All Specs >

Org mode for Emacs

Add Video or Image

Inkdrop

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Secure backend

Top Con

Expensive

Top Pro

Multi-platform

It also runs on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android. See More

Top Con

Not open source

Top Pro

Markdown with code syntax support

It's useful for taking notes for programming. See More

Top Pro

Supports flowchart and sequence diagrams

Top Pro

Create-your-own themes and plugins

Top Pro

Responsive developer

Top Pro

Supports Math equations

Specs

Platforms:macOS,Windows,Linux,iOS,Android

Offline access:Yes

See All Specs >

CherryTree

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Can be password-protected

Top Con

Single user only

Zim

Top Pro

Freely Licensed

Libre software for users who value their freedom. See More

Top Con

Looks ancient

Zim has a very plain and outdated interface. See More

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

Top Con

No mobile app support

This is a desktop app and there are no mobile versions available. This can make it more difficult to use on-the-go if using cloud storage to store files from the app, as there is no mobile app version to access those files. See More

Top Pro

Good export options

Zim supports HTML, LaTeX, Pandoc Markdown, and RST. This allows ones documents to be easily used in a wide selection of other apps. See More

Top Con

No native sync support

Zim notes don't automatically synchronize with other devices or offer built-in cloud sync support. Of course the user can add the files to Dropbox, or something similar, to then open them on another device with the app installed. But this is more of a work-around than a built-in solution. See More

Top Pro

Automatically manages files and folders

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

Top Pro

Plain text data format rather than proprietary

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

Specs

Notes (formerly known as Bijiben)

Add Video or Image

Collate Notes

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Markdown support

Top Con

Android/iOS Missing

No mobile application. See More

Top Pro

Rich Text support

Top Con

Price

Use free of charge is limited to 14 day trial period. See More

Top Pro

Web clipper

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

Top Pro

All data is saved locally

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

Top Pro

Cross-platform support

Support for macOs, Windows and Linux. See More

Top Pro

AppImage, .deb, .rpm, and .tar.gz installers

Specs

Supported platforms:Windows, Linux, macOS

Lenote

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Great for note-taking

All entries are organized in notes and notebooks, accessed from the sidebar or via search. See More

Specs

Platforms:MacOS

Export:PDF, Plain Text

License:Proprietary

leanote

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Cross-platform

leanote is available for all platforms - Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. See More

Slite

Add Video or Image

gNote

Add Video or Image

Laverna

Top Con

Still a lot of bugs to squash

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

Top Pro

Secure notes

Offers encryption. See More

Specs

Open Source:Yes

GloboNote

Add Video or Image

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 running See More

MyNotex

Add Video or Image

See flagged products

123 Community Recommendations

+80

Request recommendations from the community

CourageousPodaga

Contributor for 3 months

2

Total
Recs.

275

Total
Karma

3 months ago

This is not an application it is "Software as Service".

No offline access

Requires that you sign up for an account

Contributor for 13 days

1

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Recommended 13 days ago

simple, useful, beatiful

Contributor for 14 days

3

Total
Recs.

35

Total
Karma

Recommended 14 days ago

wiznote, leanote, vim, zim, turtol, boostnote, simplenote

Contributor for 16 days

1

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Recommended 16 days ago

offline. can set font-size can search from all

CourageousPodaga

Contributor for 3 months

2

Total
Recs.

275

Total
Karma

3 months ago

When the application demanded that I signup for an account in order to use the application on my computer, it was deleted. I am looking for a Note Taking Application not an online service masquerading as an application.

Requires that you sign up for an account

Only Online use

Contributor for 4 months

1

Total
Recs.

15

Total
Karma

4 months ago

Not open source !

CreativeYacatecuhtli

Contributor for 4 months

1

Total
Recs.

10

Total
Karma

Recommended 4 months ago

I use it as my main note taking app for lectures at university.

Markdown with code syntax support

Contributor for 3 days

2

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

3 days ago

Onepiecefan hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

PioneeringTelesphorus

Contributor for 8 days

1

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Recommended 8 days ago

PioneeringTelesphorus hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

MeticulousQuetzalcoatl

Contributor for 21 days

1

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Recommended 21 days ago

Free and Open Source

Supported on multiple platforms

Currently displaying 7 out of 123 total recommendations.

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