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The $9.99 note-taking app has an excellent interface full of tools for handwriting, drawing, annotating PDFs, making shapes, highlighting, moving objects around, adding audio, integrating photos and web clips, and more.
Best note-taking apps
Read on for our detailed analysis of each app
The wide availability of mobile devices, not least smartphones, means they can be easily used anywhere and on the go. This makes them an ideal device for taking notes on, and there are a large range of apps available.
It doesn't matter if you're an engineer on a call, a secretary taking minutes, or simply inspired by an idea while commuting - the ability to take notes on a mobile device can be a real benefit.
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However, while there are basic software apps for taking notes, sometimes bundled for free with mobile devices, these can be quite limited to simply allowing typed-in text to be used. These days much more feature-packed note-taking apps are now available.
These more advanced apps can work in multiple forms, from trying to replicate the word processing experience, to imitating blank notepads in digital form and so allow for handwriting and sketching.
Additionally, some note apps also include the ability to add images, audio, even video, to your notes, and even share these directly with colleagues and working teams.
There are also sometimes options to work with multiple file formats to make sharing and collaboration easier.
Here we'll look at the best in note-taking apps.
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1. Evernote
No list of best note-taking apps is complete without Evernote, which is one of the oldest and most fully-featured. Evernote lets you create both simple and complex workflows using a combination of notebooks, notes and tags to keep everything organized.
One of its best features for gathering research is the Web Clipper extension (supported in Chrome, Firefox and Safari), which lets you save entire webpages - including text, images and PDFs - with a single click. Notes can be accessed on laptops, mobile devices and the web, so you're rarely left with a situation where you can't retrieve what you've saved. Other features include the ability to set reminders, present notes PowerPoint-style, and merge them together.
Recent additions include new tables and a Siri integration for those using the iOS edition.
There's also a paid-for version, Evernote Business, which costs $14.99 for 2 users, and integrates with Slack, Outlook, Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, and Salesforce.
2. OneNote
Microsoft's free notepad app
Like Evernote, OneNote lets you sync notes across various devices. While a free version is available on the Mac, the app is particularly useful on Windows 10-powered hybrid devices due to the interface's close resembling of an actual notepad.
Unlike Evernote however - which works more like a traditional word processor - OneNote lets you scribble on ruled pages with your device's stylus, and you can position text boxes, images and tables anywhere on the page. It also has a few features you're unlikely to find in other note-taking apps, such as the ability to record video and embed it in notes and embedding Excel spreadsheets and other Microsoft Office files. In fact, OneNote plays nicely with all of Microsoft's Office suite, so it's ideal if you're already invested in it.
However, do note that OneNote uses Microsoft's SharePoint platform, which is increasingly used by various businesses and even educational institutions to provide a backend for employees. Therefore do be aware that if your employer or even college has created a SharePoint account for you, you may find yourself continually having to login and out of OneNote to distinguish work and home accounts.
3. Ulysses
The powerful Mac app for notes
UlyssesUlysses has been around for a while now, and it's one of the most polished note-taking apps on Apple's computing platform. (One that's perfectly equipped for long-form writing, too.) Notes are written and stored in the app's proprietary Markdown style, which allows for inventive (and colorful) use of headings.
Added to that, images can be embedded in the form of links within documents; rather than displaying them in the body text, you can double click the links to preview image thumbnails. Ulysses also positions images in a sidebar that can also display a word count, mini notes and other information at a glance.
Ulysses uses iCloud to save and sync your documents, and these can be exported to a number of other formats, including PDF. Word .doc, ebooks, and HTML. All these extra features come a price tag, with Ulysses costing $39.99 a year or $4.99 on a monthly subscription.
4. Google Keep
Google's secret little pad
Google Keep is the simplest note-taking app on our list, both visually and how it operates. Think of Keep as your place for storing digital post-it notes, with each note dotted around the interface as if they were laid on a table in front of you.
Notes can be given labels, pinned to the top, given a color, paired with reminders and collaborated on in real time. It's much more minimal than other writing apps, which either works for or against it depending on your viewpoint. If you want to break away from your operating system's notes app, but don't want all of the features that come with other apps on our list, Google Keep is an, ahem, keeper.
5. Bear
Elegant writing and note taking
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A relative newcomer to the note-taking app scene, Bear lies somewhere in-between Evernote and Ulysses, allowing you to create notes and sync them across various Apple devices using iCloud.
Using a Slack-like three-pane interface, you can arrange notes by applying hashtags, which allows a subfolder style system. Bear uses rich Markdown for editing, so you can insert links into documents without having to display the full URLs in a similar manner to Ulysses. However, Bear, which is pretty easy on the eye, and one of the few polished Markdown apps that allow you to insert images directly into notes, which could make it a far more valuable app overall if images are a big part of your workflow.
Bear 1.4 added Tag autocomplete, one of the most requested features for the app, so it's even better.
Most of Bear’s features are free to use on any iOS device, but there is a paid-for pro-version with additional themes, export options, which costs $1.49 a month or $14.99 a year.
6. Atom
Something of a left-field choice, Atom is primarily an app used for coding, but its sheer range of customization options means that you can mould it into a useful text editor too. Because it's based on common web standards, you can hack its CSS stylesheet to create just about any visual theme you can think of. Want to make it look and feel like Word 2016 with a Smooth Typing Animation-style effect? No problem.
Want to write in Markdown with a solarized color scheme? Then download the Markdown Writer extension and choose from one of the hundreds of community-generated themes.
Atom is far from perfect as a text editor due to its lack of one or two standard features - such as an automatic grammar changer - that have been standard in other note-taking apps for years. But it's certainly one of the most interesting and capable when in the right hands.
A special note about Atom is that it's a cross platform editor, which means it's compatible with Windows, iOS, and even Linux. Collaborative editing means multiple people can edit the same files using different operating systems.
7. Simplenote
The simplest way to keep notes
Simplenote’s selling point is its clear, simple user interface, making it easy to keep track of notes. It is available for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux, with data synced automatically. There’s also a web app if a client can’t be downloaded.
Tagging and search tools ensure users can find what they’re looking for and notes can be shared or published to others working in the same team or on a project. Simplenote backs up previous versions of documents so it’s always possible to revert to an earlier one.
Simplenote doesn’t have many advanced features, but is an ideal candidate for simple note taking. And best, of all, it’s free.
8. Dropbox Paper
A collaborative workspace
Dropbox Paper launched in August 2016 and works across the cloud platform’s mobile suite for Windows, iOS, and Android. What separates Paper apart is its focus on collaboration, allowing teams to share their ideas, images and videos for projects.
There are integrations with productivity apps such as Google Calendar and Slack as well as some more surprising tools like Spotify.
Recent additions include new organisation tools such as the ability to create mobile folders on the go as well as improved delete and archive features. Dropbox also redesigned the Paper homepage which brings users Paper docs and Dropbox files together.
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Its enterprise features make it an ideal note taking app for businesses, but it goes without saying that you get the most out of it if you are already a Dropbox customer.
Other note-taking apps to consider
The increased use of mobile apps has seen an explosion in the number of note taking and text editing applications released. Here are a few more that it might be worth keeping an eye out for:
ColorNote Notepad Notes is an app for Android devices, including the Amazon Fire tablet. It's only a simple program that is similar to Sticky Notes, but ColorNote Notepad Notes gets a mention precisely because it's one of the few note-taking apps that have been successfully ported to the Amazon app store.
Milanote isn't so much of a text-application as much as a pinboard for visual thinkers. It allows a mix of images, blocks of text, and lists, to be put together, and there are also draws to the side for holding page elements you haven't used but plan to do so later. Although not a mobile app, it is a web app optimized for mobile devices, which provides cross-platform functionality.
Zoho Notebook is a note-taking mobile app with a good stack of features. Users are encouraged to create separate notebooks within the app, each with a custom image. There's good support for images and rich text, and it's able to sync and backup across multiple devices.
Squid Notes is an app for Android that supports handwriting and sketching, which can be especially useful for working with text and images more quickly and easily. There are different types of 'paper' backgrounds available. You can also use digital signatures to add to your files and export them in other formats, such as PDF.
Quip is less of a note-taking app as much as a collaborative word-processing and spreadsheet applications. It's pitched especially toward business use, not least for different teams to work together, whether in sales, HR, IT, or project management, and comes at a price of $30 a month for a team of five, and $10 per additional user.
Last year, Evernote's developers announced that the free note-taking app is undergoing significant changes. Controversially, these include limiting the Basic (free) account tier to just two devices, and raising the prices of Plus and Premium accounts to US$3.99 (about £2.96, AU$5.37) and $7.99 (about £5.93, AU$10.75) per month respectively.
That's disappointing news for anyone who uses the app on their desktop and mobile devices to keep track of thoughts, gather resources for projects or jot down ideas throughout the day.
The company vowed to give current users time to adapt before the new limits kick in, but if you're looking for an Evernote alternative, here are your options.
1. Microsoft OneNote
Text, drawings, web clips, audio – OneNote stores it all
- Price: Free
- Storage: Through OneDrive (5GB as standard)
- Devices supported: Unlimited
If you use Evernote as a multimedia pinboard or to manage projects, Microsoft OneNote is an excellent alternative. The OneNote app comes pre-installed with Windows 10 as part of the updated Office suite, and is available to download for earlier versions of Windows. There are mobile apps for Android, iOS and Windows Phone too, plus a web app.
OneNote synchronizes your data through your Microsoft account, and uses OneDrive to store everything you save. Earlier this year, Microsoft cut the standard OneDrive storage limit from 15GB to 5GB, which is worth bearing in mind if your notes tend to contain a lot of images and other media.
Like most Evernote alternatives, OneNote lets you gather and organise links, text, images and drawings in tagged notebooks, but it also has a few extra tricks up its sleeve. You can also import text and tables from other Microsoft Office apps, record audio, and email content straight to a notebook (a very handy option for working on fiddly smartphone screens). It can also record audio
There are optional extensions, too: OneNote Web Clipper lets you capture and clip sections of web pages, and Office Lens (for Windows 10 Mobile) captures pictures of handouts, whiteboards and other meeting-room paraphernalia, turns them into editable documents and saves them to a notebook.
Thanks to Microsoft's business clout, other developers are falling over themselves to integrate OneNote into their apps. Paint shop pro 2018 for mac. WordPress, IFTTT, Feedly and Livescribe are just a few with OneNote compatibility now built in.
Convinced? Shift your clips and notes across using Evernote to OneNote Importer and you're ready to go.
Download here: Microsoft OneNote
2. Simplenote
Text-only notes for pretty much any device with a screen
- Price: Free
- Storage: Unlimited
- Devices supported: Unlimited
You can use Simplenote on as many devices you like, with apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Kindle Fire, Android and Linux, plus a web version for good measure. There's unlimited storage too (as long as you don't go mad with it), and it's completely free.
The catch? It's text-only – no images, web pages or doodles. That won't be to everyone's liking, but if you never bother with Evernote's fancier options and just want a cross-platform notebook with automatic syncing, it's perfect.
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Download here: Simplenote
3. Cintanotes
A lean note-taking app with handy shortcuts
- Price: Free; Pro US$39 (about £30, AU$50); Lifetime Pro US$119 (about £90, AU$160)
- Storage: 100MB for synchronized attachments
- Devices supported: Unlimited (Windows only)
CintaNotes is a Windows-only Evernote alternative, and although it's also available as a portable app so you don't have to install it, there's no online version. There's no limit on the number of devices though, so if you're dedicated to Microsoft's OS that will be no obstacle.
CintaNotes comes in three flavors: free, Pro and Lifetime Pro. The free version is a straightforward affair offering text clipping, search, backup, customizable hotkeys and three sections to store your notes. It's nicely designed, and the keyboard and mouse shortcuts make it feel like a natural extension of Windows.
Notes created in CintaNotes are synchronized using Simplenote (above), so it's worth trying both programs to see which suits you best.
Download here: CintaNotes
4. Google Keep
Quick reminders to jog your memory
- Price: Free
- Storage: Unlimited (attachments stored in Google Drive)
- Devices supported: Unlimited
Google Keep is available for Android and iOS, as a Chrome browser plug-in, and as a web app. As you'd expect. it uses your Google account to sync across devices, making it a particularly useful option for Android users.
However, despite this convenience, Google Keep is quite limited as a free alternative to Evernote. Although useful for keeping your own thoughts in order, it's not built with collaboration in mind. You can share individual notes with contacts one at a time, but that's the extent of it. There's no convenient way to work with teams, so you're better off using a Google Doc. You can't attach files directly to notes in Keep, either; they must come from Google Drive. This is particularly irritating if you want to add an image from a website – you need to save it locally, then re-upload it. Not ideal.
Ultimately, Keep's little notes are essentially a portable alternative to a collection of Post-it notes orbiting your monitor reminding you to make a phone call at 3pm, or pick up cake ingredients on Wednesday. They serve a definite purpose, but you wouldn't use them to gather ideas for a novel or manage a project.
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Download here: Google Keep
5. Dropbox Paper
Wave goodbye to the office whiteboard
- Price: Free
- Storage: Unlimited (for now)
- Devices supported: Unlimited (online only)
In contrast to Keep, Evernote alternative Dropbox Paper (initially known as Note) is serious business. With support for images, tables and tasks (which can be assigned to people using their Dropbox usernames), it makes a great replacement for the usual handwritten minutes, hastily scrawled, then transcribed by an unfortunate soul and sent as a mass email. We're sure you've been there.
There's currently no size limit on notebooks created using Paper, but you can't insert documents directly; instead, the document must uploaded to your Dropbox account, then linked. Paper will display a small preview of the document, so teammates can see if it's relevant before adding it to their own Dropbox folder. The interface is straightforward, and everything can be clicked and dragged around the page.
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Paper is still in beta, so its features are subject to change, but if you already use Dropbox for filesharing at work then it's definitely worth a look. Bear in mind that it's still undergoing stability and security testing.
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Try it online: Dropbox Paper