14 Best Note taking Apps: Which one is Ahead of the Pack?

Have a thought or an important reminder to set? But no paper or pencil, and no time to pen it down? Fret not, we have got you covered!

The thing with thoughts is that they hit you suddenly, irrespective of the time and place. A million-dollar idea can strike your brain while you are tuning to your favourite song, or walking down the street to fetch your morning coffee. We bet it happens to everybody, including you.

At a time like these, do you frantically search for a paper or pen or you wish for a readily available tool that allows you to make quick memo notes? The latter sounds perfect, and that’s why we’ve rounded up thirteen best note-taking apps and summarised their features. 

 
To find an ideal note-taking app with all the above features, we began with over thirty-six contenders and shortlisted our way down to thirteen plus most promising applications.

Evernote: The biggest note-taking app

This app allows users to prioritise and capture ideas, to-do-lists, and projects. It offers capable services such a supporting an extensive range of note types including sketches, checklists, plain text, images, audio memo, and clipped pages.

Available on: Windows, iOS, Web, Android, and macOS.

Pricing: Free plan for individual use. Premium plans start at $2.74 per month.

Microsoft OneNote: The Office user’s Note-taking app

With Microsoft OneNote, you can do a lot more than creating notes and checklists.

This tool is perfect for both professional and personal reasons, given how it allows the users to enjoy multiple features like organisation, collaboration, and sharing. It’s the best note taking the app for Android and Mac users.

 Available on: Windows, iOS, Web, Android, and macOS

 Pricing: Free plan with 5 GB file upload limit. Extra space can be purchased.

Bit.ai  (Document Collaboration Note Taking App)

Bit is a great Microsoft word alternative and the perfect app for team note-taking and documentation. Teams can create notes and documents like to-dos, client materials, project proposals, sales decks, training documents, how-to guides, etc. and collaborate in real-time. They can chat inside of documents, leave in-line comments to leave feedback, make decisions and get everyone on the same page.

Google Keep: The Personal user’s Note-taking app

This is another popular free note-taking app that offers users a tactile and comprehensive note-taking space.

The tool has an advanced array of inbuilt features. Keep by Google is the quickest way to offload thoughts and ideas without losing focus.

 Available on: Android, iOS, Windows, Google Chrome, macOS

 Pricing: Available for free

Simple Note: The affordable note-taking app

Simple Note being the easiest of all note-taking apps delivers a productive way of taking notes, maintaining lists, and penning down ideas.

The tool is clean, light, and free with all components like syncing sharing, and backup.

 Available on:  Windows, iOS, Linux, Web, Android, and macOS

 Pricing: Free  

Slips : The feature-stack Note-taking app

Slips support you to store your instant idea, a quick note, an image, an URL link, etc., just at the touch of a button.

It has power-packed feature-stack of auto text suggestions, organizes text with bullets and number lists, seamless keypad, supports instant image capture, and many more.

It enables the user to write text by choosing the font styles of Bold, Italic and Underlined. With the help of coloured templates, the user can easily pick the choice to make note-making more professional and beautiful.

Zoho Notebook: The most beautiful note-taking app

This is an excellent app for both professional and student, for it provides a wide range of features that allow users to jot down notes, set reminders, create checklists, and sync it all. Not only is it free, but it is ad-free too.

Available on: Windows, iOS, Web, Android, and macOS

Pricing: Free

Quip: The project-focused note-taking app

Quip is not your regular note taking application since it can do a lot more. There’s a reason why it is touted as best note taking the app for Mac users.

The app is a spreadsheet and works processing application that lets you work with others, take notes, create documents, and share spreadsheets on the go.

Available on: Windows, iOS, Web, Android, and macOS

 Pricing: $30 per month for a team of five, and an additional $10 per member.

Dropbox Paper: The Best Collaboration Note-taking app

Dropbox paper is a free note-taking tool from Dropbox which works by bringing creation and collaboration at one place. The tool allows the users to write, edit, review, brainstorm, and manage the task on the go.

Boostnote: An open-source Note-taking app

This is an open source memo app made especially for programmers. The stylish tools are backed up by a great community of developers and programmers.

With Boostnet, the users can take notes, write mathematical formulas, and codes, and customise as required.

 Available on: Windows, iOS, Web, Android, and macOS

 Pricing: Free

Colornote: A Smart Note-taking app

Colornote is a neatly designed application with coloured templates. The key features include quick creation of lists and notes, effortless organisation, and secure backup to the cloud.

All these features make Colornote the best note taking the app for students and professionals.

 Availability: Android and Amazon Appstore

 Pricing: Free

Notion: The all-in-one workspace Note-taking app

The notion makes for an all-in-one Workspace with excellent features like writing, planning, collaboration, and organisation. It's more than the note-taking app.

The tool gives the user the best of everything by bringing together productivity and collaboration features.

 Available on: Windows, iOS, Web, Android, and macOS

 Pricing: Free plan with 5 GB file upload limit. Paid plan at $4 per month with unlimited upload and storage.

Milanote: An easy-to-use Note-taking app

For creative minds, visual thinkers, and designers, Milanote is arguably the best note-taking app available on Android. It's for those who prefer images over words, and want to tool to express their creativity.

The tool has a tactile and fast interface which makes it best note-taking app for iPad user.

 Available on: macOS and iOS

 Pricing: Free version allows 100 notes, images, and link access. The professional plan, starting at $9.99 per month, offers unlimited storage.

Bear: A flexible Note-taking app

This digital note-taking app supports the Markdown format and allows the users to work inline images.

The best thing about the bear is how it enhances focus towards one task by eliminating all unnecessary elements from the display that's what makes Bear the best note-taking app for iPhone users.

Available on: macOS and iOS

 Pricing: $1.49 monthly and $14.99 annually

MyScript: The Digital Note-taking app

Next in the queue is MyScript which is designed with powerful technologies like handwritten technologies and digital ink. The tool is packed with features with allow users to take notes on the go.

 Available on: Windows, iOS, Web, Android, and macOS

 Pricing: Free product by Dropbox

Note Ledge 

NoteLedge makes note-taking not just easy, but also enjoyable. It doesn't matter whether you're taking notes at school or at work, the available set of tools allows you to create visual aids through drawing and sketching, mind maps for easy sharing and collaboration.

At the same time, your notes and other documents stay organized and synced across all of your devices while presentation tools allow you to create quick and easy-to-view presentations on the go. This is a versatile note-taking app that works for school or meeting notes, and as a creative outlet while staying user-friendly and truly useful.

Pro

• Web clipping

• Multimedia aids

• Ability to sketch/draw

• Ayto-sync to the cloud

• Rich text editor

• Slideshow mode

• Online file conversion

Pro

• Limited features with the free plan

• No social media integration

Final Verdict: Over to you now

Now that we’ve done an in-depth analysis of the thirteen best note-taking apps, we leave it on you to choose the one that is ahead of the pack and pick what's best for your professional and personal needs.

However, we see how the competition is pretty close in the class of Best note-taking app on iPad, and so we are listing some of the features that make a note-taking app ideal:

When it's about finding an ideal productivity tool, some standards and features have to be met. For example:

• The application should have a seamless User Interface

• It should offer an excellent user experience

• It should be cost-effective

• It should provide an option for multitasking 

• It should have additional tools like clipping, highlighting, image to text conversion 

• The app should offer distraction-free note-taking experience

• It should work across all operating systems

If the decision were on us, we'd choose Evernote for being feature-rich and for offering productivity features which make it so useful for professional use. If the decision was on you, which one would you pick?

Let us know in the comment section below.