Writing is an impeccable part of human existence. Everyone does it either at the time of preparing a grocery shopping list or at the time of reading a new book.
Isn’t it?
Though now, we have started calling this process of writing down things “note-taking.”
Earlier people used to take notes with a pen and paper but the note-taking process has completely changed after various utility applications have arrived in our life. Note-taking is a good habit as it enhances your productivity and efficiency. Now, you can take notes on your smartphone, tablet, or computer device by using a simple note-taking application.
Indeed, a good note-taking application can work as the assistant that reminds you of everything that you could have missed in case of not having proper notes to remember.
In addition to this, these high-end apps can work in multiple formats like simple note-taking, sketching, graphics, etc. Moreover, some note-taking apps can also add other forms of content like images, audios, and even videos, to your notes.
So, whether you are an ephemeral note taker or a curator who grasps everything in detail. With the help of these 7 best note-taking apps, you can collect, organize, and remember every piece of information easily.
So without much further ado, let’s dive into the post.
7 Best Note-Taking Apps in 2023
There are a lot of different digital note-taking apps available online, and every one of them is claiming that it is the best. After going through a thorough analysis of various note-taking apps, we have curated this list of the 7 best note-taking apps in 2023.
We would advise you to go through this list carefully and understand the functions of each app to find the right one for yourself. Though for your convenience, we have shared a small tip to find the right note-taking app as per your requirements. Now, let’s get started.
1. Evernote
One of the oldest and most traditional note-taking apps, Evernote is used by students and professionals for taking important notes during a meeting or lecture. It is one of the best note apps available online.
The best thing about Evernote is that it offers the Web Clipper Extension (supported in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari), which enables you to save entire web pages – including images, text, and PDFs – with a single click. You can access this app on your laptop, mobile device, or on the web. This way, you are rarely left with a situation where you can’t recover what you have saved.
In addition to that, you can also set reminders, present notes in PowerPoint-style, and merge them to create a single file. Overall it is a powerful tool to take notes from anywhere, anytime, on any device. Another benefit that Evernote provides to its users is that each free account gets 60 MB of space for uploading files to the cloud.
On the other hand, the Evernote premium plan allows its users to integrate Slack, Outlook, Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, and Salesforce, along with that it provides artificial intelligence for content suggestions like similar content in other notes that you have taken.
Notes in Evernote are managed by a three-level hierarchy of Stacks >> Notebook >> Notes. It is an uncomplicated yet useful way of managing different content in one place. If you want some more hierarchical levels, you can use the searching and tagging features to find what you want.
Evernote has 4 different plans: Personal Plan ($7.99 USD / per month), Professional Plan ($9.99 USD), Teams ($14.99 USD / user / per month). However, you can use Evernote for free with a limited number of features.
2. GoodNotes
Goodnotes is a very helpful note-taking app used by a lot of students and professionals worldwide. In this app, you can find a bunch of different utility features that make your note-taking journey easy and smooth.
The UI & UX of this app is easy to understand and you would not have any complication navigating it. Goodnotes is a useful app for people of any age group who need to take notes frequently for their studies, work, during meetings, or for any other purposes.
The “home” view for Goodnotes is the library. You can find different items like folders, notebooks, or individual notes which you can view as a grid or a list. From here, you can select the note you want to see or edit.
Unlike other apps, you can even use a stylus pen to take notes on this app. Convert your handwriting to text with different color and highlighting options. On top of that, you can add rich media like photos.
Indeed, this application is best for avid note-takers who read books, documents, or newspapers online as it also provides PDF annotation.
The search feature in Goodnotes allows you to search the notes by different segments such as handwritten notes, typed notes, text in PDF documents, document titles, and folder names. In addition, it helps you initiate a search in an open document.
Finally, the price of Goodnotes is $7.99, and you can download it from the App store. This app is only available on macOS and IOS platforms. So, windows and other users can find other alternatives in the later options.
3. Notion
Notion is one of the best project management and note-taking apps used by millions of people globally. Here, you can prepare compact notes, manage tasks, and team wikis. With Notion, you can digitally store notes and documents efficiently in the form of listicles. Having a listview helps you find the noted content easily.
If you observe closely, you would find that this note taker app breeds its features with those of Kanban boards and wikis. The core idea of developing this app is to create a space where users can take notes without just using one app. Even people working in an organization are using this application to manage their projects and documents efficiently.
Users can use notion on browsers, as a desktop app, and on native apps for Android and IOS. It also helps you perform real-time collaboration with other users to enhance productivity. It is a sleek and sophisticated app that is a blend of note-taking and utility apps.
So, if you are a college student or a researcher, Notion’s all-in-one note-taking software is the best utility app that you could have. If you want all features, choose the Persona Pro plan worth $4/month. However, you can use Notion with its free version for personal use.
4. OneNote
Microsoft’s OneNote is an app to consider if you are an active user of Microsoft Office apps such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You can easily integrate OneNote with other Microsoft apps.
It has many of the same features as Evernote, but its approach is different. While Evernote has a rich collection of notes and digital notebooks, Microsoft OneNote gives a feel of a physical notebook. You can effortlessly type, write, and draw using the freeform pen. Moreover, its powerful organization tools like pinning can put your managerial skills on top.
In OneNote, you can easily create lists and revise notes by highlighting, marking, and inking annotations, which are fun to add if you are having a touch-screen device. Along with this, you can also share ideas and collaborate with other note-takers to share ideas in OneNote.
If we talk about the availability of OneNote, then it is available for macOS, Android, iOS, and in the cloud. With easy navigation and versatile search tools, you can find notes without delay. OneNote’s high-end organizational acumen helps to capture, store, and organize notes.
Overall, OneNote is an amazing app to gather information and place it anywhere on a flexible digital canvas. It allows you to use a stylus pen to draw figures and take your own handwritten notes. If you want different colors for different notebooks, you can do it by using the notebook color options on OneNote.
There are two variants of OneNote: First, OneNote 2019 is free and is available on Microsoft Store and Mac App Store. Second, OneNote for windows comes with every window installed.
However, a Microsoft 365 subscription opens up more advanced features like the Math Assistant. It is one of the best note-taking apps for students because it accentuates educational features.
5. Zoho Notebook
Zoho Notebook is an entirely free note-taking app that helps teams to develop unlimited notes and notebooks in the cloud. Moreover, Zoho Notebook allows its users to collaborate with other users in real-time so that the information can be easily shared, stored, and managed.
Unlike other note-taking applications, Zoho Notebook uses a common method to handle multiple notes. It applies a different approach for each note type. If you want a note-taking app that operates on different note types, Zoho Notebook is going to be your favorite.
The user interface looks minimal with the card-based design. With Zoho Notebook, managing different kinds of notes is a cakewalk. If you want, you can give a unique color (e.g. green for text, blue for the checklist, orange for audio, etc) to different cards.
In addition, each card has a customized function, which helps you manage the notes associated with them. Indeed, it’s a revolutionized way of note-taking.
For example, you can use a text card to create a to-do list. On the other hand, file cards can be used to add PDFs, word documents, and spreadsheets to notes.
Finally, Zoho Notebook is offering all these features without charging even a single penny from its users.
Isn’t it amazing?
So, if you are using an IOS, Android, or macOS device, Zoho Notebook should be the right note-taking app for you.
6. Bear
Bear is relatively a new app in the note-taking domain. It is somewhere similar to Evernote, as it allows you to create notes and sync them across different Apple devices using iCloud. Bear has a unique slack-like three-pane interface, which helps arrange notes using hashtags.
It uses markdown for editing so that you can submit links into documents even without displaying full URLs. In addition to this, bear also allows you to add images directly into your notes. These features make this a far more valuable note-taking application. Users can also create sketches in this app using an Apple pencil.
Bear has a compact information panel that gives you the option to view the word count of a note and export it in various formats.
In its free plan, users can export notes in TXT, RTF, or MD formats. However, the pro users can get notes in PDF, HTML, JPG, or DOCX formats. Pro users can also ‘lock’ a note.
Furthermore, you customize the theme and typography as per your requirements. You can find different editing tools to edit or optimize your notes. Create to-do lists, use hashtags, and much more.
So, from quick notes to in-depth essays, and advanced mark-up options, this app can be your online note-taking friend.
Ultimately, it is a compact note-taking app that can take different types of notes alone. It can be beneficial for both students and professionals for taking notes either offline or online. While many features are free to use on any IOS device, the paid version of Bear can take your note-taking to the next level.
7. Simplenote
Simplenote is one of the most compact and lightweight note-taking apps available online. As its name suggests, Simplenote is quite a simple app that allows you to sync all notes across various devices. It enables you to track past changes using the markdown mode.
With its clean and minimal interface, Simplenote could be your online note-taking buddy. Its compact design provides it with speed and efficiency, which makes sure that your note-taking process doesn’t stop. You can create various notes in the app and keep them all straight with basic managerial features such as hashtags and search.
Besides, it allows its users to collaborate and share lists/notes and meeting items with other people. The best thing about this app is that all the notes are automatically synced across your account whenever changes are made so that you don’t miss anything accidentally.
Hashtags and inbuilt search tools help users find what they are looking for and notes can be shared or published to others working in the same team or on a project.
Ultimately, all you need to get started with the app is a free account, which lets you backup your notes to the cloud. The synchronization will share your notes across different devices.
You can easily use Simplenote on platforms like IOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Linux. However, it is also available on the web.
Conclusion
The digitalization of studies and work have given birth to various digital note-taking and text editing applications. A few years back, we were following the age-old way of taking notes with a pen and paper.
But now, the entire scenario has changed. The sudden shift from offline to online education and work put the foundation of different remote technologies such as online meeting applications, note-taking apps, and a lot more. Apart from that, with the help of this article, we have tried to brief you on the 7 best note-taking apps available online.
It’s time to tell you about our recommendations. Although the aforementioned apps are amazing, every person has different requirements. So, by considering those requirements, we are going to suggest some applications for a specific group of individuals.
If you are a student who needs to prepare notes with different diagrams and illustrations, Notion is the note-taking app for you. Not only will it help you take amazing notes, but also help you add images and graphics into your notes.
Evernote and OneNote are best for individuals involved in research or statistical works as they provide various advanced functions like math assistants, etc.
Finally, if you are a working professional, Simplenote would be the right app for you.
However, it’s just a suggestion and you can pick any note-taking app as per your needs and requirements.
