Note-taking apps are not all created equal. In fact, the deeper you dig into them, the more you realize how different they all are in terms of what they offer in both concept and abilities. While a solid note-taking app is a necessary piece of any suite of productivity apps, figuring out what to do with it in the first place is half the challenge.
- Note App For Mac
- Best Note Taking App For Windows 10
- Best Note Taking App For Windows 10
- Best Note Taking App For Mac 2018
App developer Ginger Labs recently launched a companion app for the Mac ($10; OS X 10.9 or later), where you can sync your notes via iCloud across devices. If you're not a Mac user, you can still. Standard Notes app is the only one note-taking app which has an end to end privacy. Thus, this app sounds suitable for both office and personal work. Standard notes App is compatible with iOS, Android, Windows, Web and Mac. TopXNotes is a native Mac note-taking app that landed alongside Evernote on Lifehack's list of best note-taking software. The application supports rich-text notes and password protection.
Getting the right note-taking app is as much about finding one that clicks with you as it is about the nitty-gritty details of the service. In general, however, a reliable note-taking app lets you jot down all the things you want to remember quickly, easily, no matter where you are, and likewise lets you refer to all those notes anytime and anywhere.
The only thing I didn’t like about NotesTab was having to use two keyboard shortcuts to add a new note: one to bring the app into focus and another to create a new note. So, I was back to searching for another menu bar note-taking app. Apple's Notes app is a great starting point for handwriting on the iPad Pro.The default drawing tool is a pen, and you get a horizontal sheet of paper to draw on. One nice touch is the.
The giants in the space, namely Editors' Choice Evernote and runner up Microsoft OneNote, aim to do it all, offering rich features, support for multimedia notes, and tools that blur the lines between apps for personal use and those intended for work.
Evernote caused a ruckus over the past few years among its paying users for hiking the price and slashing the lower tiers of service. While many people are thinking about leaving Evernote, the sad state of affairs at the moment is that nothing lives up to it. If you use the full gamut of Evernote's features and functionality, there simply isn't a good Evernote alternative just yet. OneNote is a close second, but transitioning to it from Evernote is tough. The two services have structural differences that make it difficult to map one set of notes into the other app.
There are alternatives, of course, and hopefully some of them will get better in time. Zoho Notebook is a fine example. It scored low in our testing because it's only available on limited platforms (a Mac app and web clipper only just became available), but the company formerly had a full range of apps for a very similar product by the same name that's been retired. With the rebirth of Zoho Notebook, we should soon see more apps and additional functionality in this rookie service.
Pricing and Plans
A huge part of the reason people got miffed at Evernote was its price hike. It costs more than any other note-taking and syncing app. While it does have a free version, nonpaying Evernote members are limited to syncing their notes among only two devices and the Web app. That's painfully limiting.
Evernote accounts come in four tiers of service: Basic (free), Plus ($34.99 per year or $3.99 per month), Premium ($69.99 per year or $7.99 per month), and Evernote Business. The free tier lets you upload only 60MB of data each month, but the data you use is yours to keep. So technically speaking, the total storage is unlimited because you get more every month ad infinitum. Plus and Premium members can upload more and get a whole host of features that aren't included for free.
Google Keep is free with no upsells or special plans. All it requires is a Google account. The amount of storage space you get in Keep is dependent on your Google Drive storage, which is 15GB by default. You can pay $1.99 per month for 1TB of storage, which will be shared across all Google apps. There is an upload limit for images of 10MB and 25MP.
Microsoft OneNote handles storage similarly to Google Keep, using OneDrive for storage the same way Keep uses Google Drive. OneNote is also free with no special upgrades for extra features. The max file upload size is 100MB. Free users get 5GB of space, whereas Office 365 account holders get 1TB all told, shared among other Office Online apps. An Office 365 Personal account costs $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year.
Simplenote is a free service with no upgrades or in-app purchases. It has a variety of apps for all major platforms, and there is no limit on storage, so long as you don't abuse it, according to the company's terms. Simplenote doesn't support uploads, multimedia, or even formatting—just text. Best virtual machines for windows 10. It's worth noting that you'd have a hard time abusing limitless storage with plain text.
Features Worth Having
A few features worth having in a note taking and syncing app are optical character recognition (OCR), a good Web clipper, and organizational tools that work for you.
OCR comes in handy when snapping pictures of text. Google Keep can actually transcribe text that's in an image into typed text that you can then copy and paste or edit at will. Evernote Premium can run OCR on all text in images, including handwriting, when you look for words in a search. Microsoft OneNote can also read OCR text from photos. It also has a useful Digital Ink feature that turns your own handwriting into typed text when you use a tablet. It's handy for students writing equations that are otherwise difficult to type with a keyboard.
A Web clipper is another great feature for your note-taking app if you often find things on the Web that you want to save. For example, I clip a lot of recipes that I find online into my note-taking apps. Evernote and OneNote have Web clippers, and both give you options for saving the entire page or just core elements. Google Keep has a Web clipper, but it only saves the URL and a title, not the actual contents.
In terms of organizational tools, every app is different, but the important thing is you have an interface that makes sense to you and that helps you find what you need when you need it. Evernote uses notes, notebooks, stacks of notebooks, and tags, whereas OneNote has pages, sections, and notebooks. Both Simplenote and Google Keep only use tags, so if you prefer to not think about where you're putting your notes, those tools might be better options.
Take Notes, Sync, and Go
While Evernote remains PCMag's Editors' Choice for note-taking and syncing apps, we did lower its overall rating to reflect its drop in value after the changes in its pricing and services. Hopefully, the uproar caused by Evernote will light a fire under competitors to hurry up and improve their apps. There are a lot of promising apps, but most of them need more time to mature. The read the capsule reviews below, and, if one of them sounds interesting, please be sure to click through to the full review for more details.
Featured Note-Taking App Reviews:
Evernote Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Effortless note-taking and syncing. Incredible search. Great features. Flexible.Cons: Free level of service too restrictive. Expensive Premium plan.Bottom Line: Evernote has long been one of the best productivity apps. Even though rising costs have lessened the value proposition, long-time users will have a hard time finding a better replacement.Read ReviewMicrosoft OneNote (Web) Review
MSRP: $6.99Pros: Rich with features. Reliable. Treats all note content as distinct page elements. Familiar interface for Office users. Office 365 users get 1TB of space.Best music visualizer app for mac. Basically, in this visualizer, you will get to see particle bursts on the screen. This particle burst depends on the tempo and beats of the songs being played.Cons: Slow and clunky. Confusing structural design. Poor search in Web app. Requires OneDrive for some management features. Can only share at the notebook level.Bottom Line: OneNote is a feature-rich note-taking and syncing app, and it gives away a lot for free. But it's still second best to Evernote.Read ReviewQuip Review
MSRP: $12.00Pros: Combines team messaging with collaborative document creation and editing tools. Quick to set up. Easy to use. Free version available. Supported by Zapier.Cons: No team calendar or other apps to add. Interface could be more sophisticated. No rich markup tools. Lacks explicit limits on storage space for free accounts. Limited API.Bottom Line: Quip is a team collaboration tool for both document editing and group communication. It's quick to set up and easy to use, but it may not scale for fast-growing businesses.Read ReviewBear (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $14.99Pros: Supports Markdown. Good options for exporting. Can import notes from Evernote and other services. Inexpensive Pro account.Cons: Extremely light on features. For Mac and iOS users only. No option to selectively sync to iOS devices. Syncing requires paid plan.Bottom Line: Bear is a lightweight among note-taking and syncing apps, although it could meet your needs if you only use macOS and iOS devices and only take simple notes.Read ReviewSimplenote (Web) Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Simple. Apps for a wide variety of devices. Unique sharing options. Reliable search. Supports Markdown on some devices. Free.Cons: Lacks notebooks or folders for organizing. Only supports text notes. No formatting tools. No Web clipper.Bottom Line: For a basic note-taking and syncing experience, Simplenote is a reliable, if stripped-down, choice. If simplicity is what you're after, this free service is worth a try.Read ReviewZoho Notebook (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Great implementation of locked notes feature. Can stack notes. Free.Cons: No Web or Windows apps. Can't upload documents. Limited sorting and organization features.Bottom Line: Zoho Notebook is a free Mac app that makes note-taking simple, but to be really useful, it needs a web version and better organizational features.Read ReviewGoogle Keep (Web) Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Fast. Customizable labels (tags). Transcribes image text to typed text. Works well with other Google apps. Reminders are well integrated. Free.Cons: No audio recording ability in the Web app. No desktop apps. Can't mark up images, PDFs. Weak Web clipper. Preview images not well displayed. OCR feature not automatic nor intuitive.Bottom Line: Google Keep is a free note-taking and syncing app with a nifty OCR feature, but it lacks the features and mobile apps offered by the competition.Read Review
From the living room to the lecture hall to the conference center, these are the best note taking apps for Mac!
Staying organized means having a good note taking app. Whether you're a student or professional, compulsive or casual, note taking apps can help you gather your thoughts, keep information synced across all your devices, or simply keep your memos handy for when you need them the most, there are a lot of great choices. Apple offers their own, built-in Notes App, but the Mac App Store has amazing alternatives as well. Which one is the best one for you? Here are my favorites!
Evernote
Evernote handles not only free form notes like champ, but lets you upload images and make checklists too. It can then sync your data across platforms, including iPhone and iPad. As far as organization goes, Evernote lets you use both tags and separate notebooks. One of my favorite things about the Mac app is that if you click on a note to open it, you can also see related notes underneath it based on tags and keywords. In my experience they're always fairly accurate and make it even easier to find notes on a particular topic or subject.
If you want the best cross-platform support available paired with powerful organizational tools, Evernote fits the bill.
- Free - Download Now
See also:
- iOS - Free - Download Now
Simplenote
Simplenote, as its name implies, is simple. You're basically given a blank canvas and the ability to create endless amounts of notes. There is support for search and tags though which makes finding things later on a relatively easy task. Simplenote has no frills and absolutely no learning curve. Sign up for an account in order to sync your notes with the Simplenote service and start typing. That's it.
For a barebones note taking app that gets out of the way, there's nothing better than Simplenote.
![Best Note Taking App For Mac 2012 Best Note Taking App For Mac 2012](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126136794/298167955.jpg)
- Free - Download Now
See also:
- iOS - Free - Download Now
NoteSuite
NoteSuite is a free form note taking app that lets you take notes in rich text format, instead of just plain text. If you choose to let it, NoteSuite can also double as a task manager of sorts and handles alerts and reminders rather well. In my experience it isn't as powerful and flexible in that aspect as dedicated todo apps, but for an all-in-one solution, it'll work for most people. NoteSuite links in with iCloud too so all your notes are synced across iOS and OS X at all times.
If plain text isn't your thing or you want a complete todo and note taking solution, NoteSuite is a perfectly acceptable option.
- $4.99 - Download Now
See also:
Note App For Mac
- iPad, $4.99 - Download Now
Best Note Taking App For Windows 10
Notational Velocity
Notational Velocity is a simple note taking app for Mac that was created around taking super fast notes without ever having to take your hands off the keyboard. With shortcuts and ways to easily start new notes and link to others, it's one of the quickest options around, once you learn the shortcuts. It's plain, it's basic, and it'll be perfect for a lot of people.
If you want to hammer out notes as fast as humanly possible, no mouse required, get Notational Velocity.
Best Note Taking App For Windows 10
- Free - Download Now
Byword
Even though Byword is technically a text editor more than it is a note taking app, I've used it for both in the past. If you're writing lengthy notes or outlines and know Markdown, Byword is an excellent option. Not to mention it tackles two birds with one stone since you can use it for general purpose writing as well. Byword not only contains iCloud support but integrates with services such as Wordpress and Evernote as well.
If your notes are long form or you want Markdown support without the frills, Byword is where its at.
![Evernote Evernote](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126136794/355099248.jpeg)
Best Note Taking App For Mac 2018
- $9.99 - Download Now
See also:
- iOS - $4.99 - Download Now
Your picks?
Have you settled on a note taking app for Mac? If so, let me know which one and why you picked it? Also, what's the most important feature to you when it comes to note taking apps? Let me know that too!
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