If it wasn't almost as convenient to open the notes app and create a quick note as it was to reach across my desk for a Moleskine and a pen, it didn't make the cut. The real competition when you're looking for somewhere to write a note isn't other note-taking apps, but a pen and scrap of paper. Second, all the note-taking apps had to be quick and easy to use as intended. Not every note-taking app needs to have features like image-to-text conversion or stylus support, but if it boasted about them on its marketing page, they had better be well-executed and nice to use. This sounds like an easy bar to clear, but you'd be surprised at how many apps fell short. With so many apps to consider-and so many apps claiming to be notes apps-I had some pretty strict criteria for what made an app worthy of this list.įirst, the best note-taking software has to be good at what it claims to do. If your favorite app isn't on the list, feel free to shout at me.

For example, while I love text-heavy notes apps with support for Markdown (which shouldn't really be a surprise), I recognize that other people are looking for different things. I've done my best to leave my preferences out of the decision-making process here. Even after 10 years, I'm still fine-tuning the system I use.

Note taking is something I have opinions about. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog.Īs a tech writer, I've been taking notes and reviewing software every day for over a decade. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site-we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. Microsoft OneNote for a free note-taking appĪll of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Here are the best note-taking apps I could find. As a rule, if an app supports video calls out of the box, it's not a notes app.Įven with all these criteria in place, I still tested close to 40 different note apps for taking notes online. There are some great super-niche notes apps designed for fiction writers or developers, but they aren't fit for most people, so weren't in consideration for a place on this list. Similarly, there are lots of powerful business collaboration tools that claim to be notes apps but just aren't suitable for one person. I also only really considered general-purpose personal note-taking apps. So for this list, I didn't look at every app that could be used to take notes or even every business collaboration tool that claimed it was a notes app-I was only interested in apps that were explicitly designed to be notes apps.

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