Google Keep vs Microsoft OneNote

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

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.

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.

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.

Automatically saves new changes so that nothing is lost.

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.

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.

Notes can include multimedia attachments in addition to text.

Newer version of Google Keep now supports drawing on either a blank page, existing notes or in an image attached to the note.

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

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.

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.

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.

You can move cards manually, which is great for prioritizing to-dos. Within a card, you can also drag and drop items.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Integrates well with Outlook, Office, and OneDrive.

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.

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).

Which makes it easy to quickly look at the high level of notes, and then drill deep into each point.

You can add a variety of different files into your notes including images, video, audio, and more.

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).

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The ability to quickly file away web clippings is a key part of note taking.

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.