When a good suggestion strikes, what’s one of the simplest ways to seize it? You possibly can scramble for a bit of paper or hope you will bear in mind it when you get dwelling, however the very best answer for holding all the pieces you want to bear in mind at your fingertips is a note-taking app in your telephone, tablet, or laptop computer. With the proper app, you may write down or dictate notes across platforms, have them synced and able to entry wherever, and have a straightforward approach to discover an vital piece of data if you want to refer again to it later.
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Be aware-taking apps can range in high quality, options, and value, however in our e book, Microsoft OneNote goes to be the very best for most individuals. It is free, helps a wide range of completely different inputs, is totally searchable, and needs to be acquainted sufficient to make use of for anybody who already makes use of one other Microsoft productiveness app. However easy note-taking is not going to work for everybody, so in the event you’re particularly concerned about having an important search expertise, need one thing extra Google or Amazon-friendly, or just wish to give attention to taking notes with a stylus, we have got you lined within the listing under.
Our favourite note-taking apps
Microsoft OneNote
1. Greatest total note-taking app
Covers all of the fundamentals
Microsoft OneNote crams many of the text-formatting prowess of Microsoft Phrase right into a note-taking app that is equally able to dealing with audio and handwritten textual content.
- Completely usable free of charge
- Helps handwriting enter
- Works throughout platforms
- Works greatest with Microsoft’s different apps
It by no means feels thrilling to suggest a Microsoft app due to how well-known they’re, however Microsoft OneNote has earned its place within the pantheon of straightforward, however highly effective instruments for accumulating your ideas. Its normal interface and structure appears quite a bit like Microsoft Phrase, together with the trademark “ribbon” of buttons for altering formatting and different settings.
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It may well create notebooks with sections and particular person be aware pages, with room for hyperlinks and pictures like another textual content editor. The place OneNote shines is handwritten enter, with deep integration with Home windows Ink in the event you’re writing on a Surface Pro or different convertible laptop computer, and the choice to transform handwritten notes into typed textual content.
You may get all of the options you want with a free Microsoft account and the flexibility to entry the app throughout Home windows, Android, macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, however if you would like extra storage (a free account will get you 5GB) or entry to AI-powered options that may show you how to resolve math issues or summarize your notes, you will have to spring for a private or enterprise Microsoft 365 account. They begin at $6.99 per thirty days, however you will get entry to the remainder of Microsoft’s productiveness suite too, so it is greater than price it.
Notion
2. Greatest premium note-taking app
Notes, databases, wikis, and extra
Notion is a stable note-taking device, however with a bit of effort and a bit of more money, it may remodel right into a database, wiki website, and even an AI companion for work.
- Extremely versatile use instances
- Subscription will get you a customized area
- AI Q&A characteristic constructed in your information
You need to use Notion as a easy note-taking and journaling device and be very happy, however the app is fashionable due to how versatile it’s. Notion’s system of “block” parts makes it comparatively easy to spin up a database, to-do listing, activity tracker, or wiki, and hyperlink between them while not having to know any sort of programming expertise. Plus, you may share something you create in Notion with different individuals for collaboration and, as a result of Notion pages are hosted on-line, it is very simple to transform them to a web site.
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You get all of that free of charge, with limitless pages and blocks, and the flexibility to herald 10 collaborators. What makes Notion a implausible premium note-taking device is the way it improves in the event you’re keen to pay. Fork over a month-to-month price of $8 per thirty days or extra, and you may take away the cap on file uploads (free accounts can solely host 5MB), carry on much more collaborators, get customized domains for every Notion web page, and create personal pages for particular staff members.
Notion can also be experimenting with AI features that may generate textual content, mechanically write assembly notes, create summaries, and reply questions on all the data saved in your Notion account for a further month-to-month subscription.
Google Preserve
3. Greatest funds note-taking app
Ridiculously simple to make use of
Google Preserve is barebones, however hides a versatile textual content editor and reminder system that makes it a helpful cross-platform note-taking app for anybody with a Google account.
- Notes, to-dos, and reminders
- Can convert notes into Google Docs
- Helps Android, iOS, and the net
- Not as fully-featured as different apps
Google Keep is stripped-down, however oh so dependable. You possibly can entry Google’s free, collaborative note-taking and reminders app from the net, Android, and iOS. It is nice for creating notes on the fly, writing out a purchasing listing, or setting down some to-dos and reminders for the day. Notes in Preserve could be formatted and stuffed with hyperlinks and pictures, however their actual profitable high quality is how they work together with Google’s different providers.
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You possibly can convert Preserve notes into Google Docs, saving you time getting a draft able to publish, and Preserve is definitely accessible from the sidebar in Gmail or Google Calendar in case you want to jot down a be aware or reminder whereas reviewing your electronic mail or schedule. Google would not cost cash for Preserve, however you do have to create a free Google account and notes saved in Preserve depend in opposition to your total Google account storage, so that you may wish to improve sooner or later in the event you want more room.
Evernote
4. Greatest note-taking app with OCR
The OG notes app
Evernote is without doubt one of the unique be aware apps, and regardless that its value has modified, it nonetheless has a number of the greatest search and doc scanning options within the enterprise.
- Notes and information in a single app
- Help for handwritten notes
- OCR seek for discovering data in PDFs and pictures
- Free accounts are very restricted
- Nice options like OCR value cash
Evernote was one of many first note-taking apps on the scene, and whereas it may do quite a lot of what the opposite note-taking apps on the listing can do by way of interlinking notes, nesting notes inside different notes, and supporting a number of sorts of content material in a person be aware, it is nonetheless greatest at what it has been doing from the start. Evernote is a bit like a storage app and a note-taking device in a single.
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You possibly can jot down some ideas, scan and add a receipt, and search by way of a PDF all in the identical place. The app nonetheless provides nice OCR (optical character recognition) seek for discovering issues within photos and PDFs, and Evernote shines in linking disparate kinds of data collectively.
Within the years since Evernote’s launch and later sale to app developer Bending Spoons, it is also develop into extra of a normal productiveness device, with a dashboard of helpful widgets to maintain you on high of reminders, your calendar, and previous notes. The one drawback is that the free model of Evernote is pretty restricted, and to get the very best options, like OCR search and the flexibility to markup PDFs, you must pay a minimum of $14.99 per thirty days or $129.99 per yr.
Obsidian
5. Greatest note-taking app for regionally saved notes
Safe and highly-expandable
Obsidian appears intimidating, however solely as a result of it is a extremely versatile note-taking, brainstorming, activity monitoring, and even publishing device that shops data securely and regionally.
- Completely free for private use
- Lots of of plugins
- Graph and Canvas for visible notes
- Complicated
- Syncing between apps prices cash
Obsidian has many of the options of an Evernote or Notion, however with out the necessity for an web connection, as a result of it shops your entire notes and information regionally, fairly than within the cloud. That retains notes saved on Obsidian safer – your data is rarely on anybody else’s server – and simpler to port to a different app in the event you get uninterested in Obsidian’s interface. That safety would not come with out a few drawbacks, although.
Obsidian could be as inscrutable to make use of as Notion, particularly if you wish to create a nesting doll of notes, charts, and lists. There’s even a approach to illustrate that complexity with the app’s visible graph, which might illuminate how your notes are linked to one another with coloured nodes. With a whole bunch of plugins and a number of methods to show data, there’s positively quite a bit you are able to do with Obsidian, however you will seemingly have to look at a number of YouTube tutorials to do it.
You need to use Obsidian free of charge to your private note-taking, in the event you’re a nonprofit, otherwise you’re an organization of 1, however for anybody else, Obsidian asks that you just buy a industrial license that prices $50 per yr per consumer. On high of that, if you wish to securely sync your notes between variations of the Obsidian app, you will need to pay $8 per thirty days, and if you wish to publish instantly from the app to the net, you will have to pay a further $8 per thirty days (although you do get a customized area and theme choices).
Bear
6. Greatest note-taking app for Apple gadgets
Like an Apple app from one other universe
Bear is an elegantly designed Mac, iPad, and iPhone app with a tagging system and Markdown help that makes creating and organizing notes simple.
- Markdown textual content enhancing
- Helps sketches with Apple Pencil
- Tag system for group
- Solely works with Apple gadgets
Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and Macs all include a built-in Notes app, however regardless that it is improved drastically through the years, you may nonetheless do one higher. Bear is the best way to go. As a note-taking device, Bear is easy. It helps you to write and edit textual content in Markdown (a markup language that permits you to format textual content as you kind) and it helps you to tag every be aware as a way to arrange all of the belongings you write down. However if you would like, you may nest notes underneath different notes, hyperlink between notes, and embrace sketches utilizing the Apple Pencil. You too can lock notes, and use the apps search to look by way of notes, photos, and information you’ve got uploaded for a selected piece of textual content.
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Bear provides you quite a lot of what Evernote does, however in an elegantly designed app that feels proper at dwelling on Apple’s gadgets, and at a less expensive value. Bear can be utilized free of charge in the event you’re comfy solely having the ability to export .TXT, Markdown, and TextBundle information or for $2.99 per thirty days or $29.99 per yr if you would like all of the export choices (together with ePub), OCR search, iCloud syncing, and plenty of theme choices. $30 a yr is not pretty much as good as free, however in the event you worth design and a seamless expertise, it is laborious to beat Bear.
Goodnotes 6
7. Greatest note-taking app for handwriting
The killer app for the Apple Pencil
Goodnotes 6 works throughout gadgets to gather handwriting and typed textual content in the identical be aware, and notably useful AI-powered search and spell examine options on iOS and iPadOS gadgets.
- Handwriting and typed notes in the identical doc
- AI options for spell examine, search, and research guides
- Edit and annotate PDFs
- Some options unique to Apple gadgets
- Pricing is complicated
Goodnotes 6 is designed with handwriting in thoughts first-and-foremost and works seamlessly with Apple Pencil. You possibly can mix sketches and handwritten textual content seamlessly alongside typed textual content in the identical be aware, edit and annotate PDFs, and transfer and resize photos and textual content, however most of Goodnotes 6’s flagship options concern stylus enter, particularly on the iPad. With AI, Goodnotes 6 can appropriate handwritten spelling errors, mechanically resolve math issues, and search by way of handwritten notes on the iPad. You possibly can even document and sync audio to your notes dwell and pay attention again to them with a faucet.
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Whereas these flashy options are at the moment particular to the iPad, the bread-and-butter sketching and writing Goodnotes 6 is able to working throughout Home windows, Android, iPadOS, iOS, and macOS. Sadly, a free account solely will get you three notebooks, so to essentially reap the benefits of what the app is able to you will need to pay $9.99 per yr, however in the event you really feel such as you ideas stream best once you’re writing them down by hand, there actually is not a greater digital expertise you may get than Goodnotes 6.
The underside line: What’s the greatest note-taking app?
Should you’re out there for a brand new note-taking app, the most suitable choice for most individuals goes to be Microsoft OneNote. You need to use the app fully free of charge in the event you’re simply jotting down textual content, it performs good with styluses and handwritten notes, and it really works throughout all the key platforms. For a extra premium possibility, paying for a Notion account will get you all kinds of niceties, like no cap on the scale of information you may add and a customized area identify on high of the app’s versatile system for organizing data. And in the event you privilege value and ease above all else, Google Preserve works like a allure nearly wherever.
Microsoft OneNote
Editor’s Alternative
Microsoft OneNote crams many of the text-formatting prowess of Microsoft Phrase right into a note-taking app that’s equally able to dealing with audio and handwritten textual content.
How we picked the very best note-taking apps
As writers overlaying client expertise and leisure on the every day, Pocket-lint has greater than our justifiable share of expertise accumulating our ideas and organizing data earlier than we truly sit down and write an article. I primarily drew from that have constructing this information. I’ve tried dozens of note-taking instruments all through my profession as a pupil after which a author, and upended my digital life greater than as soon as by making an attempt out a brand new system for storing data. This listing displays what I feel issues in a very good note-taking app.
Be aware-taking apps needs to be easy to make use of, particularly if all you care about is creating visually pleasing textual content. They need to ideally have a free possibility, so you may strive them with out committing, and be accessible on a couple of machine, so you may jot down a fast thought on the go. And lastly, they need to supply a approach to kind and search by way of the notes you create. All the things else is gravy, and fortuitously for readers of this information, we discovered a number of note-taking apps with glorious further options, like help for handwritten notes, linking between notes, tables, databases, AI, and extra.
Is it price paying for a note-taking app?
That is going to depend upon you, what sort of notes you are taking, and what number of notes you suppose you will take, however typically I might say sure. Give it some thought this fashion. We pay for different digital instruments in our lives, whether or not they’re a photograph enhancing app or a web based storage service. Why should not you pay for a note-taking app that may seemingly enhance over time?
The excellent news is, if all you intend on doing is typing notes, you may get fairly far with a free account from Microsoft OneNote, Notion, or Google Preserve earlier than you run into any sort of storage challenge. It is solely once you begin importing information that storage will get eaten up extra shortly, and even then, in case you have a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace account by way of college or your employer, you won’t have to fret concerning the points anyway. Give a note-taking app a attempt to see if it is price paying for. You could be stunned at how you are feeling.
How vital is OCR?
OCR or Optical Character Recognition is the expertise that lets an app’s search engine acknowledge textual content in a file, picture, or piece of handwriting and never simply the be aware format of a given note-taking app. It is a useful device if you must juggle plenty of completely different PDFs in your day-to-day life, however not a necessity for most individuals. That being stated, when you depend on it, you may discover it fairly darn helpful, particularly for digging up a hard-to-find scanned receipt.
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