What is the best cross-platform note taking app?

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Here’s the Deal

The Best 2 of 72 OptionsWhy?

Best cross-platform note taking app	Price	Platforms	Collaborative
92 Simplenote	Free	Android / iOS / OSX / Windows / Linux	yes
90 Google Keep	FREE	Android / iOS / Chrome / Web / Desktop	Yes
89 Org-mode	-	-	-
87 Evernote	$0-$89.99/Y	Android / iOS / WP / OSX / Windows / WebOS	yes
85 Zim	FREE	Windows, Linux, Mac	-

See Full List

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

Phil Morton's Experience

I was having sync problems with Apple Notes. I wanted something lightweight that I can use across platforms - Mac, iPhone, iPad. This does the job for me. I once lost a note because of some sync issues, but I have been more diligent about closing notes. I would like a backup and archival capability. I don't know if that's possible. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / Chrome / Web / Desktop

Collaborative:Yes

API:No

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

Anders Øyvind Urke-Sætre's Experience

Simple to use. Available wherever I go. Free. 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

It can be difficult to organize notes because you can only create labels and not, for example, separate projects. See More

CourageousHaurvatat's Experience

You need to update the pros and cons! Good calendar keep now sucks •••! Especially the browser based version. Has done since end of 2016! Google is slowly but surely phasing out? Such a shame! I don't know how they managed to c••k it up?!! Used to work brilliantly and loved how you could make your own collage of photos to explain a note or whatever. Now it's just useless and if your phone breaks or you get a new phone the note importing just imports the no titles but not the content! Pretty fricking useless and hugely frustrating if like me you use it for very important work related note taking!!!!! Very very busy disappointing! See More

Top Pro

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

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

Top Con

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

Boi Tien's Experience

I'd recommend GKeep because can use anywhere See More

Top Pro

Automatic saving

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

Top Con

Google account required

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

SpontaneousBasamum's Experience

I am using it more than two years. It's perfect for quick note taking. Thanks to Google. 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

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

Magda's Experience

Very handy and simple. 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

Not free/libre

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

Startstart's Experience

It tracks you See More

Top Pro

Notes can be color-coded

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 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

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

Top Pro

Useful Android home screen widget

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

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

Synchronization bugs

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

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 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

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

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

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 Pro

Cross platform

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

Archives finished tasks

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

Top Con

No API

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. 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 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

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

Sharing within team doesn't work that well

You can share separate notes but not Projects, Wordspace, or Teams. See More

Top Con

Too simplistic of an approach

Top Con

Can be difficult to discover the features

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

Top Con

There is a label limit up to 50

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

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

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

See All

70 Other Options Considered

Org-mode

Top Pro

Very flexible

It is characterized by a flexible and versatile system with adaptability to different workflows, simple and complex. 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

The ultimate note-taking app for programmers/STEM people

Nothing beats it when it comes to taking notes as a programmer. It supports native code highlighting/evaluation, inline LaTeX symbols, Vim keybinding, intuitive hierarchy and folding, instant LaTeX export… and so, so, so many more. Evernote and Onenote etc. can do absolutely nothing when it comes to these aspects. My daily life now revolves around it and nothing can ever describe my love of it. I even wrote an article describing my experience switching over from Evernote/OneNote at http://www.xiangji.me/2015/07/10/from-onenote-evernote-to-org-mode 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

Great sync support

Notes and todos can be synced with Trello, Toodledo, Simplenote, Orgmobile or tools like Git on Github, Dropbox, Google Drive, Bitbucket and Webdav with iOS and Android also can be exported to PDF, mind map, LaTeX, HTML, Docbook or txt. 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

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

Top Pro

Org-mode documents can be published online as HTML, wiki, markdown, asciidoc documents

Top Pro

iOS support with BeOrg

The free BeOrg app allows to edit org-mode files on iOS. It supports: Calendar todos notes See More

Top Pro

Notes in Org-mode can be shared as PDF, OpenDocument, RTF

Top Pro

Notes in Org-mode can be exported to slide presentations in formats including Powerpoint, Revealjs, Slideous

See All

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

RobustDaramulum's Experience

Over the last 10 year I have tried them all and none even approach the overall functionality of Evernote See More

Specs

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

Collaborative:yes

API:yes

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

LifeUnleashed's Experience

There is also a partner app called "Scannable" that (honestly should be baked into the app) scans docs on the fly directly into Evernote. It's very handy and I use it daily for my contracts and receipts. 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

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

Lokman Afandy's Experience

even though there is limitation for free users, this apps still the best among its competitors especially its ability to sort pages, insert media, and detailed statistic such as page size or total word count, images in the pages 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

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

JovialHunor's Experience

Very flexible with good functionality like text formatting and web clipping 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

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

JovialDeaTacita's Experience

Ease of use and fast app. 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

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

Олег Медведев's Experience

Best for any kind of notes 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

No official Linux app

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

Top Pro

Evernote is synchronized

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

New web editor does not support Firefox

As of now, Firefox users must download a separate extension to change their user agent to trick the Evernote site into giving them the beta, or install Chrome. 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

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

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

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

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

Lacks search and replace capability

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

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

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

Rather poor user interface

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

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

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

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

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

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

Skitch integration

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

Top Con

Missing some basic functions

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 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

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

Top Con

Attachments are stored inside Evernote and not kept separate from it

Attachments to notes are stored inside Evernote only. This may be a hindrance for people who also want to store them externally in order to open them with other software. See More

See All

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 pre-packaged Mac support

The user can install this app through homebrew with instructions found here, but currently there is no pre-built package available for an easier install process. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

License:GPL

Price:Free

Top Pro

Multiple exports

Exports to HTML and Pandoc Markdown. See More

Top Con

Windows support has stalled

Seems like windows is not supported anymore. The last version is from February and since then, the maintainer of the windows version has stepped down with no followup. See More

Top Pro

Great sync with Dropbox

Top Con

No Android version

But if you sync using Dropbox or other, you can access the text files directly. Search and ability to navigate the directory tree will depend on what apps and tools you use. WikiMind Note is passable. See More

Top Pro

Data is easy to sync since everything is stored as regular files

Top Pro

Multi-platform

Windows and Linux. See More

See All

Microsoft OneNote

Top Pro

Text can be added anywhere like a whiteboard

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

Top Con

Not available for Linux

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

Chris Cochrun's Experience

Love using OneNote more than any note app I've tried. Because if it's freeform whiteboard style canvas, you can basically use it for and endless amount of things. One single page can be the most powerful tool you have and with the ability to tag anything with any kind of tag you basically can search across your hierarchy into other sections or pages to find relevant notes. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows / OSX / iOS / Android / Web

Collaborative:Yes

Top Pro

Comprehensive organization methods

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

Top Con

Text editing is weird (poor UX)

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

TruthfulJurate's Experience

Free, automatic backups with versioning, cloud and local (up to 2019) storage. Voice syncing with text. Works like a sticky note when spilt screen. Macros - write your own or use pre-made. IFTTT, Macroland. 3rd Add-ons available 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

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

menace97's Experience

Very useful and simple to use. It is one of the applications I use throughout the day for a variety of functions. 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

Requires a Microsoft account

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

Peter J. Mello's Experience

It was a fraught onboarding experience to become a OneNote user, but since then everything has been surprisingly productive. The interface suffers from Microsoft's current inability to thoughtfully nest commands and simplify layouts, but every feature I've needed has been there waiting for me and has performed better than expected, from collaboration to note revision to searching for the info I need. See More

Top Pro

Integrates with other Microsoft services

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

Top Con

Not open-source

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 Con

Some feature require external apps

Sort Pages, find and replace, etc need external apps called onestatics. See More

Top Pro

Converts handwriting to text on Windows version

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

Top Con

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

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

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

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

Cross-platform

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

Top Pro

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

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

Top Pro

Table is sortable

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

See All

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

Specs

Platforms:Windows; Linux; OSX

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

Markdown supported

This can be useful when formatting files in HTML. 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

Highly compatible

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

Top Pro

Files can be uploaded by drag'n'drop

Top Pro

Open source

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

See All

Quip

Top Pro

Amazing mobile interface

Unlike other mobile apps, Quip has really innovated with the text editor on mobile. They have a great interface for formatting text that stays out of your road to maximise how much room you have to type. See More

Top Con

Not really free with stringent controls on trial

The trial is content limited which means if you start using it quite a bit they'll pick the perfect moment to swoop in and start charging you. It's better for them because it means they can look at your account and pick the best time to ask you to pay (hey we notice you're using Quip lots and have a new project you just started how about you pay now or you lose everything). See More

DynamicOkuninushi's Experience

I've been using for years and have yet to find an equally useful alternatuve. Sadly it isn't compatible with my new dubious oppo phone so I'm looking g for anything even close, sadly org mode is the nearest working alternative and that's far from being as useful See More

Top Pro

Lots of features

Quip has loads of features both on the sharing front and the editing front. See More

Top Con

Missing text editing features

Does not offer text coloring, or highlighting features. See More

Top Pro

Great editor

The editing experience in Quip is quite nuanced and pleasant. There is markdown support that formats as it is typed as well as support for checklists and the ability to make hierarchical lists. There are also controls for formatting in the UI, so it is all easily accessible. See More

Top Con

No Linux support

There's no Linux app available. See More

Top Pro

Very functional inline spreadsheets

Top Con

Limited formatting on spreadsheets

Within spreadsheet cells, you can't do things like, for example, taking part of the text and aligning it to the center or to the left. Furthermore, in the mobile app, you can't jump to the next line to keep writing inside the same cell. See More

Top Pro

Offline editing

Quip allows for offline editing of documents which then sync upon connection to Wi-Fi. This way users can continue working while not connected to the Internet, but they can still back up their work when they do finally get one. See More

Top Pro

Highly compatible

Quip can export documents to several formats, including .DOC, .PDF, .HTML, as well as a couple of others. This allows for compatibility with a wide selection of other apps. See More

Top Pro

Comments section

Quip offers comments for a particular line, for better Team ideas sharing. See More

Top Pro

Private document sharing

Files can be shared with others via a URL. The owner of the shared document can set it to be in read-only mode or they can allow anyone to edit it. Collaborators don't need to have a Quip account to participate. This feature makes for a great Evernote alternative, for those looking for a different app that has this similar function. See More

See All

TiddlyWiki

Top Pro

Self-hosted and indefinitely accessible

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

Top Con

Steep learning curve

Not for the uninitiated, you need to learn Wiki markup, learn TiddlyWiki itself, and learn the lingo of those active on its Google+ Forum, the primary place from where support can be obtained. The people are a friendly lot though, most willing to help, but like many other of the technologically inclined assuming too easily that you understand most of their language whilst it actually seems to be riddled with mysterious jargon and abbreviations such as CSS, Config etc. Initially this may give the impression that TiddlyWiki is not at all intended for general use but mainly for usage by people such as the developers of TiddlyWiki themselves (that would be a mistake, especially since with the advent of TiddlyWiki 5 and its further development great progress has been made to make TiddlyWiki very much more user friendly. This is a great application, well worth that learning curve, and offering much more functions than note taking alone.) See More

EmpatheticTilla's Experience

Easy to use, notes are all in one place and portable See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android

Top Pro

Relational links

Relational links and lists between notes to keep things organized. See More

Top Con

Relies on browser performance, online or offline

TiddlyWiki is a single HTML file. Thus, if you directly embed e. g large images or videos in it (instead of using the features to display externally stored images and videos) it would make the file big and performance slow. See More

LoveableRanaNiejta's Experience

Made a large database of newspaper clips See More

Top Pro

Lots of plugins

MethodicalHadad's Experience

TiddlyWiki has been my go-to for note taking for years and years. I use it to organize nearly every aspect of my life, and it's been fantastically reliable. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

You can access your notes from any device. See More

Top Pro

Easily programmable

It is relatively easy to program TiddlyWiki to do what you want. From writing simple macros to display text in a certain way, all the way to writing plugins to render and process entirely new kinds of content. So if you can code in Javascript, you are not bound by the usual limitations note-taking apps force on you. See More

Top Pro

10+ years mature

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

Open source project with a large community

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

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

Top Pro

Free and Open Source

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

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

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

See All

WorkFlowy

Top Pro

Minimalistic interface

The 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

No color coding

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

HappyFlins's Experience

I use Workflowy nearly every day. See More

Specs

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

Collaborative:Yes

API:Experimental (https://workflowy.com/s/workflowy-extension-api/6ziauXitmUj7idN2 )

Offline access:Yes

See All Specs

Top Pro

Easy to overview and organize notes

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

Top Con

Doesn't support images

Top Pro

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 the task list and the container for the entire working document. See More

Top Con

Pasted URLs are kept as-is

When you have to link to, for example, a website, you can't attach the URL of the site to a word. You have to post the full URL instead. You can't have, for example, 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

Very innovative search function

When searching for a phrase, the tree is narrowed to the nodes that match, while actually keeping the tree structure! The search result tree can be folded and unfolded like norma. See More

Top Con

Very limited formatting capabilities

In the web app you can mark bold and italics, and that's about it See More

Top Pro

Supports tags

Enables users to search by tags. See More

Top Con

Hardly ever updated

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

No date tags or reminder integration

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

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

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

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

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

Only supports one big text file

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

Top Pro

Import and export via OPML

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

Top Con

Limited search

When searching for multiple terms it only finds lines that has all terms. If there is a list that holds all the search terms (although not all in same line), that list is not found, unlike in traditional note programs that finds notes that contain all terms. 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 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

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

See All

Joplin

Top Pro

Open source

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

Top Con

Can't create tags from the mobile app

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

Top Pro

Cross-platform

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

Top Pro

Supports markdown

Top Pro

Web Clipper

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

Top Pro

Offline access

Top Pro

Nextcloud support

Top Pro

Supports multiple languages

English, French, and Spanish. See More

Top Pro

Supports tags for notes

Top Pro

Encryption

Top Pro

Dark theme

Latest version provides dark theme See More

Top Pro

Optional CLI interface

Provides a CLI interface for terminal lovers. See More

Top Pro

Supports file attachments

See All

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

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. See More

Rohim Chou's Experience

Amazing. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS, iOS, Web, Android

Collaborative:Yes

Local hosting:No

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

Free plan is quite limited

The free version has a limitation of creating only 1000 "blocks". A block is a section of text, although less can be used by using Shift+Enter to make a new line in a block instead of creating an entirely new block. Unlike before, deleting blocks/pages gives whatever space was used back on your quota. 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

Full-featured on desktop, mobile and web

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

Top Pro

Quick and effective search

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

Attach files in tables

You can attach files in table cells, which is a feature missing in most spreadsheet-like applications. See More

Top 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.) See More

Top Pro

Great spreadsheet functionality

You can use calculation/formula, links, attachment, inter-referencing of data from other pages or tables, embed documents and images in the table cells. 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

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

Less headaches when editing pages

Lets you restore your page to a past edit. Also works with sub-pages and databases. Though it is worth mentioning that it's a paid feature. See More

Top Pro

Amazing formatting

Pages are split up into blocks, allowing for better organization. You can create a block for todos, make a block for just notes, and drag them up/down the page as you see fit. There are 25+ blocks. See More

Top Pro

Renders Markdown Syntax

Add code blocks, Headers, bullet point, numbered lists, or To-Do boxes by typing using Markdown Syntax (instead of clunkily moving the mouse to formatting boxes). See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

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

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Imported data doesn't count towards block limit

Importing notes and so on from other services doesn't count towards the block limit on the free tier of Notion. This can also be done automatically for a range of services. See More

Top Pro

Free for students and educators

The cheapest tier, "personal" is free for students and educators, even if you originally signed up for a paid account. See More

See All

Boostnote

Top Pro

Great for developers

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

Top Con

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

Hao Jiang's Experience

I started to use it yesterday, it was kinda troublesome to migrate from evernote but the experience on Boostnote is good. It's cross-platform and support markdown which is the most important thing for me. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows/MacOS/Linux

Top Pro

Open source

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

Top Con

Only one layer of folder

Compared to Evernote, we only have one layer of folder available. See More

ophouce's Experience

It is very easy to use because functions are gathered together. 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

Android app not stable

There many reports on crashing when syncing to dropbox. See More

DedicatedArash's Experience

Best app for developers See More

Top Pro

Free

Top Pro

Global search, tag feature

Top Pro

Comes with many themes

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

Top Pro

Cross platform support

Supports Windows, macOS and Linux, plus iOS and Android. See More

Top Pro

Markdown support

See All

Mobisle Notes

Top Con

Major limitations for free users

Free users are not able to share their notes via direct URL, they cannot sync notes over devices, and they have to deal with ads at the bottom of every note. See More

Top Pro

Clean, user-friendly, stylish interface

Mobisle Notes does not overwhelm the user with options like due-dates and prioritization like other apps do. It doesn't clutter the screen with buttons that are never used. The basic interface is just a plain and simple notepad. Android lacks a default notepad app. Of all the basic notepad apps on Android, Mobisle Notes is the most beautiful, and the perfect fill-in for anyone looking for something similar to the iPhone's default notepad app. See More

Specs

Platforms:iOS; Android

Top Pro

Checklists

The most common use for a notepad app is as a quick checklist. Mobisle Notes lets you switch to checklist mode with a button press, so you can easily mark things as done, rather than having to delete all the text. See More

See All

typora

Top Pro

Live preview

Typora immediately renders what's typed on the screen in Markdown format. This helps users to have a better understanding of how their document is being formatted. See More

Top Con

Recorded notes cannot be viewed on mobile devices

Sometimes unstable, it can get stuck. No history management either. See More

Specs

Platforms:Mac OSX; Windows; Linux

Preview:WYSIWYG

License:Proprietary

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

See All Specs

Top Pro

Custom theme support

Typora has clean yet beautiful built-in themes and allows for users to create new themes using CSS. See More

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

Top Pro

Shows table of contents for the document

It supports an outline for the document, by showing a table of contents on the left side of the screen. See More

Top Pro

Free during beta

Top Pro

Inline images

It won't display image like ![alt](http://image-url), But shows the image content inside the editor. See More

Top Pro

Support for LaTeX expressions

It supports LaTeX expressions, with an easy-to-use MaxJax panel. See More

Top Pro

Syntax highlight for fenced codes

It supports GFM's code fences, with syntax highlight support for C/C++, java, etc. See More

Top Pro

Make charts and diagrams with Mermaid, FlowChart and Sequence

Use fenced code-blocks to render diagrams using syntax from Mermaid and FlowChart.js. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Currently works on Windows, Mac and Linux. See More

Top Pro

Best notes markdown software

Top Pro

Hybrid interface

The editor and preview dual-pane setup typical of desktop Markdown editors are gone; instead, a singular interface makes for a WYSIWYG experience. This streamlines the workflow and encourages direct manipulation. See More

See All

MindMup

Top Pro

Frictionless interface

MindMup allows focusing on thoughts and productively capture them without getting in the way. See More

Top Con

Note capacity is limited

MindMup is good for mapping out thoughts that could be summarized in bullet points, but longer notes aren't as practical for this service. See More

Top Pro

Browser-based

Don't need to install anything, just open the website and you are set. See More

Top Con

Unconventional note taking style

It's a mind mapping application, not a traditional text based note storage platform. See More

Top Pro

Just works

Top Pro

Compatible with Google Drive and Github

Top Pro

Easy sharing & presenting

After taking notes, it only takes seconds to share and/or prepare them for presentations. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

MindMup is free with source code available on GitHub. See More

See All

Turtl

Top Pro

Open source

All code is freely available on GitHub, licensed under GPLv3. See More

Top Con

Need user account to use

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Android

Top Pro

Truly cross-platform

Supports Windows, MacOS, and Linux equally. Mobile apps sync seamlessly. See More

Top Con

Very difficult self-hosting

There is no real guide from Turtl for setting up the server. You need Quicklisp, commonlisp, rethinkdb,libuv, to name a few. See More

Top Pro

Private

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

Can be self-hosted

Top Pro

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

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

See All

SynapBook

Top Pro

Memo can be structured in tree form

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

Top Con

Does not support iOS

This app only supports Android and desktop OS, but not iOS. See More

Jason71's Experience

It seems to have many simple and useful functions. The post-it notes feature is especially useful to me See More

Top Pro

Nice sticky memo UI

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

JollyMut's Experience

Good. 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

Top Pro

Offline mode support

Basically, it is based on server synchronization, but it can be used offline. See More

Top Pro

Folding

Groups can be folded. See More

Top Pro

Various text styles and decorations

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

Top Pro

Frequent updates

Bug fixes and additional new features rolled out frequently. See More

Top Pro

Free

See All

Dynalist

Top Pro

Ability to create documents and organize by folder, and search by title

Stephen Zeoli's Experience

Dynalist is one of the most useful tools in my information management tool kit. See More

Specs

Platforms:All major platforms (Web/Windows/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android)

Top Pro

Unlimited notes

Which is perfect for personal knowledgebase. See More

Top Pro

Search and link to other notes

Top Pro

Bullet hierarchy with zoom

Able to zoom in in bullet points, collapse bullets, move bulleted information, etc. See More

Top Pro

Create custom user styles

Anyone can create a custom style and share them with the community, which can be found here. See More

Top Pro

Inline images

score 159 · Accepted Answer

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

Lokman Afandy's Experience

Unable to insert image is biggest flaw for this apps See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / OSX / Windows / Linux

Collaborative:yes

API:No

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

ReveredPhilomelus's Experience

CON: Single level only. Can't set up hierarchy of notes. All done by tags 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 32-bit version

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 encryption at rest

Notes are encrypted in transit, but remain unencrypted on Simplenote's servers. 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 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

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 reminders

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

Top Pro

Linux client available

Top Con

No way to import notes from anywhere

Top Pro

Can export your data

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

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

Collaborative features

Notes can be shared with others or worked on collaboratively. 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

Open Source

All of the Simplenote apps are open source and ready for your contributions! You can find the source on GitHub: iOS: https://github.com/automattic/simplenote-ios Android: https://github.com/automattic/simplenote-android macOS: https://github.com/automattic/simplenote-macos Electron (Windows and Linux): https://github.com/automattic/simplenote-electron 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

See All

What is the best cross-platform note taking app?

The Best 2 of 72 OptionsWhy?

Simplenote

My Recommendation for Simplenote

My Recommendation for Simplenote

Geared towards fast usage

Search is limited to one tag

"Time machine" style revision control on the notes

Limited ways to reorder notes

Very simple and clean interface

No support for file attachments

Markdown support via web interface

No 32-bit version

Works offline

No note encryption at rest

Wide range of great clients with great sync

No widgets on Android

Desktop app is open source

No reminders

Linux client available

No way to import notes from anywhere

Can export your data

The search function doesn't see tags

Collaborative features

No way to bulk-apply a tag

Excellent iOS app

No notification when changes made on a shared note

Open Source

Save-to-disk feature is poor

Excellent desktop client in the form of nvAlt

No integrated social media sharing

Lack of color impacts usability

Google Keep

My Recommendation for Google Keep

My Recommendation for Google Keep

Easy to use

Google can access and mine your data

Super fast to use

No text formatting

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

Messy if you have lots of notes

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

Organization is limited to just multiple tags for notes

Automatic saving

Google account required

Can share and collaboratively edit any item including lists

No notifications when tasks are added to shared lists

Notes can be grouped via labels

Not free/libre

Notes can be color-coded

Can be taken down some day

Notes can include photo and audio attachments

Not distributed

Supports drawing or writing notes by hand

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

Useful Android home screen widget

No ability to undo changes

Really well implemented speech-to-text

Synchronization bugs

Includes character recognition for text in images

Does not offer themes

Both location- and time-based reminders

Does not integrate with Google Calendar or Tasks

Drag and drop sorting

Not good at all for longer notes

Cross platform

No integrated social media sharing

Archives finished tasks

No API

Notes can be grouped via labels

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

Scrolling through notes is horrible

Slow to save the updates

Sharing within team doesn't work that well

Too simplistic of an approach

Can be difficult to discover the features

There is a label limit up to 50

Delay between to-do entries

Notes get lost/deleted and can NOT be recovered

No BlackBerry 10 app