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.

Best Note Taking Program For Windows

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 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.

Best App For Taking Notes

Here are 5 tips on on digital note taking as well some of the pitfalls to look out for. Make sure to stay engaged There is absolutely nothing more annoying that someone click-clacking their way away on a keyboard or iPhone when you are trying to have a conversation with them, regardless if they are actually taking notes or not. With 3D Touch on iPhone, a note in your list will show a larger preview of the note, and if you swipe up from there you get the same options as swiping right on a note. 3D Touch is also available on the home screen, which exposes quick actions for a new note, new to-do, new photo, and search. The Best Note-Taking Apps of 2018. Zoho Notebook is a free Mac app that makes note-taking simple. The Best Services and Software for Remote Employees.

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. 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:

Absolute Best Note Taking Programs For Mac

• Evernote Review

  
  MSRP: $0.00
  

  Pros: 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.

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• Microsoft OneNote (Web) Review

  
  MSRP: $6.99
  

  Pros: Rich with features. Reliable. Treats all note content as distinct page elements. Familiar interface for Office users. Office 365 users get 1TB of space.

  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.

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• Quip Review

  
  MSRP: $12.00
  

  Pros: 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.

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• Bear (for Mac) Review

  
  MSRP: $14.99
  

  Pros: 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.

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• Simplenote (Web) Review

  
  MSRP: $0.00
  

  Pros: 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.

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• Zoho Notebook (for Mac) Review

  
  MSRP: $0.00
  

  Pros: 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.

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• Google Keep (Web) Review

  
  MSRP: $0.00
  

  Pros: 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.

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