Best Evernote Alternatives
Microsoft OneNote is one of the best Evernote alternatives available. OneNote is available on desktop, the web, and mobile Android and iOS. And with OneNote’s desktop version recently made free, it lacks the price tags that comes with Evernote. Simplenote is an Evernote alternative application that supports markdown application. You can use this app for iOS, macOS, Windows, Android, and Linux. Simplenote is an Evernote alternative application that supports markdown application. You can use this app for iOS, macOS, Windows, Android, and Linux. Evernote is fine, generally-speaking — but you’re not just anyone, and your notes aren’t just any notes. To find the best Evernote alternatives, we tested and used over 30 apps, reviewed top threads on Reddit, and consulted reviews on G2 to hear what the community had to say. Evernote isn’t the best choice in every single situation. Let’s take a look at five top alternatives to Evernote: Springpad. Springpad lets you create and save notes and tasks. You can create to-do lists, food recipes, grocery lists and keep track of your most important appointments and work commitments.
- Best Evernote Alternatives 2021
- Best Evernote Alternative 2021
- Best Evernote Alternatives 2020
- Alternative To Evernote App
Microsoft One Note
In the new world of Microsoft, every platform is an opportunity, and the company has made OneNote a universally accessible note-taking application. Based on the following platform and device list, OneNote is close to winning the comprehensive coverage award.OneNote has a perfectly intuitive user interface, and it syncs with the OneDrive service (which grants more free space than Apple’s iCloud).The benefit is good, if you are a Mac user (either for computers or for mobile devices) and think that you consequently won’t have access to this app, rest assured that Microsoft OneNote is free for all users.In the latest additions to this suite in OneNote, which is the same sort of organizer we’re talking about here: you can type, copy, paste, insert photos (and other multimedia) or even doodle in it like a whiteboard space.Microsoft One Note is available for almost all platform such as windows (desktop, tablet, phone), Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android, cromebook.Elephant
The elephant is a note taker with a classic interface you already know. Keep your notes to yourself. No accounts or clouds. For syncing use Dropbox, Github. No feature bloats or redesigns, ever. Elephant stores notes in plain files and folders. New versions will never offer weird functionality. There will never be a chat feature and it will never show stuff from Financial Times.READ ALSO15 Best Android Apps You Need to Use in Your New Smartphone
It will help you to keep your notes to yourself. No accounts or clouds. For syncing use Dropbox, Github etc. Elephant stores notes in plain files and folders. No databases and no migrations. Notes can be plain text, styled RTF, markdown or HTML (HTML is read-only).It has a Cross-platform for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It is built for longevity with a classic interface. New versions will never offer weird functionality. The Premium is free and has no ads of any kind.SimpleNote
Think of Simplenote as the WhatsApp of Evernote alternativesBest Evernote Alternatives 2021
— in that Simplenote favors ease of use and a streamlined experience over any of the myriad of options or bells and whistles you may find in the other apps listed.SimpleNote is another simple and free note-taking app that is light on system resources. The app is very easy to use when compared to Evernote. You can use it on Android, iOS, MAC, Windows, Kindle Fire, Linux and as the web app. It’s instant searching and tag feature allows you to search your notes with ease. You can synchronize your note on various devices you use. The app is developed by “Automattic”, the company behind popular WordPress.com.Turtl
Turtl lets you take notes, bookmark websites, and store documents for sensitive projects. From sharing passwords with your coworkers to tracking research on an article you’re writing, Turtl keeps it all safe from everyone but you and those you share with others and that too very easily.Turtl stores your info encrypted, unlike Evernote. Much more private and you can easily share boards of bookmarks & notes you can sync files & images its cross platform & freeAll data is stored in plain text files with wiki formatting. Various plugins provide additional functionality, like a task list manager, an equation editor, a tray icon, and support for version control.Together
Together is another Evernote Alternatives note-taking app for MAC systems. It allows you to keep your data at one place. This data includes text, docs, images, videos, sounds, web pages, and bookmarks. It is a great app for those who both want to extend the usability of their devices and exercise a little personal choice in the software they install on their devices. Together takes the simple notes functionality and it adds useful features like multi-screen support and tabs.
It also organizes your data in groups, folders, tags and on the basis of rating. Your data will be available on other Apple devices with the use of iCloud.It is available for MAC, iPad, and iPhone.READ ALSOTop 11 Best Free Ringtone Apps for Android In 2021Read Also:-10 Best Skype AlternativesRead Also:-10 best youTube AlternativesZoho Notebook
Zoho Notebook comes with the pretty clean interface. Note-taking will be more fun in this app. With it, notes can be taken in form of text, checklist, audio, and pictures. You can choose between 25 covers. The interface of the Notebook app is clutter-free as menus & buttons are at the minimum.It also supports Apple watch for audio note-taking. The checklist is its one of the coolest feature. Its built-in checklist card allows you to focus on your most important tasks. Where Evernote takes the fee for cloud-sync of their note, similar is provided for free by Zoho Notebook and the service is completely free.Quip
The dark horse in this race is Quip, maker of a new collaboration suite that can be thought of as a pared down Microsoft Office or Google Docs. Quip goes far beyond note taking, with collaborative features across documents and spreadsheets. For syncing use Dropbox, Github. No feature bloats or redesigns, ever. Elephant stores notes in plain files and folders. The quip was quick to jump on the bandwagon to help disgruntled Evernote users. This import feature is only available in the web version. But once your notes are imported, you can access and use them across all devices and platforms. On that front, Quip does a very good job at device and platform support.Google Keep
Google Keep is the note-taking app from Google. Some of its useful features include list creation, color coding notes, sharing, geofencing and more. You can also even search on the basis of colors. It also allows you to set reminders in notes. These reminders are accessible to Google Now app. One of the finest features in Google Keep is its ability to extract text from images. To do this, it uses Optical Character Technology. The Notes can be categorized on the basis of labels. It also supports Android Wear. It is available for Android, iOS, and Chrome OS.Alternote
Alternote is not an Evernote alternative but an alternative Evernote client. It means you don’t have ditch Evernote as it uses Evernote’s backend and same data. You will use the same service from Evernote but with the refreshing interface.Some of its notable features include the clean & simple interface, built-in fonts, font’s size and more. as the name implies, does one thing well, which is the synchronization of plain text notes across devices. If you need rich media functionality, look to OneNote or Keep.It gives you features like tab, I mean, think of all the times you just want to copy a note from one file to another, but you can’t do that ever easily in Notes, because every time you switch from file to file, you go right to the beginning.READ ALSO9 Free Best Android Parental Control Apps In 2021Dropbox Paper
Dropbox Paper is another best alternative to Evernote that saves every key detail and document on the cloud, making accessing and sharing easier as you work with a team of professionals. Supported across all platforms, Web browser, Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, etc., DropBox Paper is the best Evernote alternative that you can use to share ideas, chat with your peers, create documents, and keep your stuff centralized.It’s more functional than Doc or Evernote as you get to brainstorm and collaborate together in one place. Compile, edit, brainstorm, review designs, manage tasks, run meetings, or share blueprints of your project; anything is possible with dropbox paper. You can also sift and search through saved notes by integrating them with the calendar app and access them quickly date-wise.SOHO Notes
SOHO Notes is one of the best note-taking apps for MAC. It let you store text notes, PDF’s, voice recordings, videos, forms, images and web archives. Its widescreen view helps you to better work on the app. You can also filter-notes on the basis of tags assigned.
You can also store bookmark or web archive of a web page in this app. Its interface is really cool. There are three types of views for navigating notes including List View, Cover View, and Icon View. Thus with its NoteLife app, syncing of notes including text, images, video etc. will be very easy. It will only sync to iOS. The app is not all about taking notes. It also provides you with useful features for organizing these notes. It organizes your notes in folders, sub-folders, labels, tags and database. It is one of the best apps for note-taking if you are a MAC and iOS user.In ConclusionIn Evernote, you can take notes in form of voice, photograph, web page and text Although Evernote is the best note-taking app in terms of features & usability but if you want to use any free note-taking app then you may consider this list of 11 Best Evernote Alternatives. As an Android and Mac user, I placed my main investigation there, but all of the following options have a decent level of coverage across iOS and Windows too.These apps I appreciated were because of the downloadable applications across devices, including both mobile and desktop devices. In short order, I was able to come up with four solid choices. Hope that you like reading. Please do not forget to comment below.Related Posts
Note-taking is personal. It has as much to do with how your mind works as it does with what you’re taking notes about and why you’re taking them in the first place.
Still, search for the best note-taking app and you’ll invariably find Evernote at the top of most lists.
Some notes are for sharing. Some are a reminder. Some are taken and never looked at again.
Sometimes a note is a quick thought, jotted down on-the-go on a mobile device. Other times your notes are prepared at length at your computer over a large project, meeting, or study session.
Evernote is fine, generally-speaking — but you’re not just anyone, and your notes aren’t just any notes.
To find the best Evernote alternatives, we tested and used over 30 apps, reviewed top threads on Reddit, and consulted reviews on G2 to hear what the community had to say.
It’s not all just Evernote vs OneNote anymore. There are a slew of great note-taking apps, each with a key advantage over Evernote depending on what you are doing.
The best note-taking apps that aren’t Evernote:
Best Evernote Alternative 2021
- Hugo - Best meeting notes app
- CacoonWeaver - Best speech-to-text notes app
- Milanote - Best whiteboard-style notes app for creatives
- Bear - Speediest markdown notepad for iOS & Mac
- Typora - Best distraction-free notes app
- Workflowy - Infinite expandable bullet points
- OneNote - Best free option (not just for Microsoft lovers)
- Boost Note - Best note-taking app for developers
- Google Keep - Best note-taking app for Google fanatics
- Ulysses - Top-of-the line notes for serious writers
- Notability - Best notes app for iPad with Apple Pencil
- Nebo - Best note-taking app for Surface with Surface Pen
Why Evernote is no longer the gold-standard for notes
For many years, Evernote was on top of the note-taking game. With its sleek, comfortable interface, enjoyable mobile experience, and easy way of organizing with folders and stacks of folders, Evernote dominated the note-taking world after the iPhone’s original launch in 2007.
However, over the last 4+ years, Evernote has undergone a series of problematic changes, introducing bizarre new products in an attempt to expand its reach. They also changed the free plan in ways that have driven away users by crippling key features unless you pay.
Evernote remains a great product in many ways. It syncs across devices, offers a handy web clipper, and can even search handwriting.
But in trying to be all things to all people, the notes app market has opened up, offering a slew of note-taking apps that are going to appeal to more specific groups of people looking for more specific solutions.
What’s not on this list?
With note-taking apps, you need to be able to quickly take notes. Speed is of the essence. That means not having to waste time organizing and saving your files. You also need to be able to easily search your notes to find information.
Of course, you can take notes almost anywhere you can write.
Some people use the cells in a spreadsheet. Others use word processing apps like Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Authors may prefer to jot down notes inside the tools they are already working in, like Scrivener. You can also take notes in project management software like Asana, or collaborative docs like Dropbox Paper.
None of these, however, beat the speed and simplicity of a dedicated notes app.
So in this post, we’re only looking at tools that are primarily for notes. Full-on word processing tools aren’t in the running, nor are project management tools or CRMs that happen to have a notes function. (Ulysses might be a minor exception, as it can be both a notes tool and word processor depending on how you use it.)
With that, here are the best note-taking tools in 2020 that aren’t Evernote.
Hugo - Best meeting notes app
For iOS and in your web browser. (Android, iPadOS, and macOS are on the horizon)
Plenty of note-taking apps are good generally-speaking, but taking notes in meetings poses some unique challenges. Fortunately, Hugo is purpose-built for meeting notes at work.
First, staying organized. Hugo centralizes and organizes all of your meeting notes with the help of your calendar. Notes are associated with your actual meetings, so you basically don’t have to worry about categorizing anything. (You can always add tags if you want to.) This works with G Suite, Gmail, or Office 365 calendars.
Plus, Hugo also integrates with over 20 other apps used for work. It syncs notes to your CRM (e.g. Salesforce), pushes tasks to project management tools (e.g. Jira), and works seamlessly with video conferencing tools (e.g. Zoom).
The Chrome browser extension gives you access to your notes from any page in your browser, which means you don’t have to dedicate your screen to note-taking during a video call. Just open and close the Hugo drawer when you need to check your agenda or jot a note down.
Hugo isn’t designed to just help you (although it will). With accounts for teams, collaborative note-taking, and a library of 80+ meeting note templates, everyone in your organization can use Hugo to centralize your meeting notes together.
During the pandemic, Hugo is offering free accounts to teams of up to 40 users. If you sign up during this period, you’ll get to keep that pricing even after the pandemic is over.
Hugo Pricing:
- Free plan: Yes
- Paid plan: $6/user/month for teams 11+
ALSO: Take a look at this guide to taking amazing meeting notes.
CacoonWeaver - Best speech-to-text notes app
Compatibility: iOS (iPhone/iPad)
CacoonWeaver is the best way to collect audio notes for iOS. Pop open the app and transcribe your ideas, thoughts, memories, and dreams. To organize your notes with voice commands, just say something like, “Cacoon Shopping” and the app will automatically put your notes in the Shopping category.
Unlike other note-taking apps where you need to enable dictation to record an audio note, and then carefully watch to make sure your text is going in correctly, CacoonWeaver records your audio and transcribes at the same time.
You can play back your notes, or read them back, which gives you the peace of mind to know that no matter what, your information won’t be lost, and there are no limitations on the max length of an audio recording.
CacoonWeaver also keeps track of where you had ideas, showing you blips on a map.
The UI is clean and minimalistic for distraction-free recording and offers custom push notifications and nudges to help you be your best self.
Because it is still in its debut phase, CacoonWeaver is currently free and keeps your data private and secure. The app claims to be in beta but it is fully functional and in better shape bugs-wise than a lot of other apps you’ll find on the AppStore.
CacconWeaver Pricing:
- Free app: Yes
- Paid plan: N/A
Milanote - Best whiteboard-style notes app for creatives
Compatibility: Desktop apps for Mac and Windows, plus mobile apps for iOS and Android
The Next Web calls Milanote “the Evernote for Creatives” and it’s easy to see why creative directors, filmmakers, photographers, marketers, and designers of all kinds enjoy using it.
Unlike most note-taking apps, Milanote takes a highly-visual approach, allowing you to organize your ideas and projects in visual boards. Collect images, videos, text, and tasks all together on your screen.
If your creative process includes activities like mood boarding, brainstorming, storyboarding, or mind-mapping, the visual canvas offers a flexible and delightful experience.
Milanote works for teams and clients too, with build-tin commenting, sharing, and notifications. Plus, you can download a high-quality, printable PDF of any board.
You can try Milanote free with no time limit, although it is limited to 100 notes, images, or links (and only 10 file uploads). After that, it’s $9.99 for unlimited storage
Milanote Pricing:
- Free plan: Yes
- Paid plan: $12.50/month when billed monthly, $9.99/month when billed annually.
Bear - Fastest markdown notepad for iOS & Mac
Compatibility: iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Mac
For Apple fans looking to upgrade beyond Apple Notes, Bear offers a good balance of features, design, convenience, and software speed. If you’re coming from Evernote, for example, it’s so fast, you’ll notice the difference immediately.
From your very first note, Bear’s design shines, treating you with elegant typography and theme options which include multiple dark modes.
Bear's speed isn't just for writing notes, either. Searching in the app also runs fast, with minimal delays when searching notes.
With many advanced markdown options (or is it markup?), Bear works great if you like to format as you type. Hybrid markdown support means you can see the formatted text as you’re typing, although if you’re not a regular user of markdown, you might not enjoy the experience at first. You can easily export these nicely-formatted notes to HTML, PDF, and TXT.
It also has quick shortcuts, such as for finding today’s date, and supports checkboxes to help with to-dos. Built-in tagging is powerful and allows you to create tags anywhere in a document that are automatically captured in the sidebar.
Best Evernote Alternatives 2020
Bear uses iCloud to speedily sync notes between iOS and Mac with a Pro membership. Still, some users complain that this should be a free feature like it is with most other note-taking apps.
Bear is rated 4.5 out of 5 on G2 Crowd with positive reviews from many note-taking app power users, such as consultants, software developers, and UI/UX designers. The biggest complaint about Bear is a lack of helpful or effective support.
Bear pricing:
- Free app: Yes
- Paid Plan: Bear Pro is $1.49/monthly, $14.99 annually with a free trial
Typora - Best distraction-free notes app
Compatibility: For desktop/laptop computers only (Mac, Windows, and Linux)
Typora is a slick alternative to Bear that is even more minimalist and distraction-free. The app is simple, with very little UI getting in the way. It’s also beautifully designed, with clear, aesthetically-pleasing text.
Typora has a night mode and also supports custom themes so that you can create the perfect writing experience.
It also has two cool modes. One is a unique Focus Mode that highlights the paragraph you’re currently working on, while graying out everything else. Typewriter Mode similarly highlights the center of your screen.
Many of the same advanced markdown features are in Typora, meaning that you can type up nicely-formatted notes without ever having to shift your hand to your mouse. Even so, if you want to get a little bit fancy, Typora supports tables, diagrams, mathematical formats, footnotes, code fences, and task lists.
Typora Pricing:
- Free app: Yes, during beta
- Paid Plan: Not yet announced
Workflowy - Infinite expandable bullet points
Compatibility: Desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux, plus iOS, Android, and in your browser
Do you love taking notes with bullet points?
Do you wish everything in life could be bullets — Infinite, ever-expanding bullet points, as far as the sky can reach?
Does your whole world spin around lists and bullet points? If not, would you like it to?
If the answer the above is a resounding Yes!, you’ll be in heaven with Workflowy.
The concept is simple. Workflowy lets you create infinite piles of bullet points which are also each their own document. Expand, collapse, move documents, drill in and out — it’s intuitive and natural bullet points at a scale that you may have never dreamed of.
The product works well for outlining and project organization just naturally. It’s novel, intuitive, and requires very little learning to figure out.
The only downside to Workflowy is in organizing more matrixed information. This might be more challenging, because every bit of information may not have a clear place in your stack of bullet points for where it should belong. (Contrast this with Hugo, which organizes meeting notes based on your calendar, so notes don’t live in just one particular place — they’re associated with names, companies, dates, meeting titles, etc...)
Still, for your next novel or work project, especially for people whose minds work in a certain bullet-driven way, give Workflowy a try.
Workflowly Pricing:
- Free plan: Yes
- Paid plan: $5/month
OneNote - Best free option (not just for Microsoft lovers)
For iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and in the browser
Simple, practical, and ubiquitous for Windows and Office users, OneNote is a free note-taking app that seems to be everywhere.
It’s a great basic option, with a familiar UI to anyone who has ever used Microsoft products like Word, and while it does most of the things Evernote does, it stands out because of one big four-letter word that starts with an F.
Free.
You get more advanced functionality here without having to pay.
In OneNote, you can add multimedia elements to your notes, such as audio, video, images, and even websites using the Webclipper browser extension. Task lists are an option, although robust task management in OneNote can be challenging because you can’t put due dates on anything.
OneNote has a large folder organization system, letting you create notebooks and sections, and nest them inside each other. The way that sections get dragged around can be frustrating — trying to move one section below another and can have it end up inside on accident — but again, for a free option, for many, this may be a minor inconvenience. Cross-notebook search is available, although there is a learning curve to finding your information.
OneNote uses OneDrive to sync across all of your Microsoft apps. If you don’t have an Office 365 subscription, you can upgrade your OneDrive to a paid plan for an increase in storage space.
OneNote Pricing:
- Free app: Yes
- Paid plan: Upgrade OneDrive for more storage space, starting at $1.99/month for 100 GB
Boost Note - Best note-taking app for developers
Compatibility: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and in your browser
Stylish, markdown-enabled, and fully open-source, Boost Note is a developer’s dream. The interface resembles Sublime, the popular text editor, with a slight skew toward taking quick and easy notes.
Boost Note highlights syntax for you and recognizes over 100 programming languages. It also supports math blocks where you can write math equations using LaTeX syntax. Themes are fully customizable.
Notes are stored safely in the cloud, with more file system-based storage coming soon.
Boost Note Pricing:
- Free app: Yes (100 MB cloud storage)
- Paid plan: 2GB cloud storage at $3/month. Boost Note for Teams launches in June 2020.
Google Keep - Best note-taking app for Google fanatics
Compatibility: Android, iOS, and in your web browser
Google Keep is a straightforward notes app that comes as part of your G Suite or Gmail account. It offers a clean, nicely-organized UI that has most of the standard features you’re looking for in a note-taking app, without too many bells and whistles.
If the rest of your life already revolves around Google products, Google Keep may be the right pick for you.
Alternative To Evernote App
As you create notes, they are organized on your screen visually in a corkboard style. You can change the background colors to give it a post-it notes effect. While if you take a ton of notes, this may feel haphazard, with moderate use it's colorful and fun.
You might be wondering, Why do I need Google Keep when I have Google Docs?
For some users, it may be redundant to have multiple types of Google Docs, but others may enjoy the simpler note-taking experience in Google Keep. And if your notes start to become something more than just a note, there’s always the Copy to Google Docs action to transfer it over.
Google Keep Pricing:
- Free app: Yes
- Paid plan: N/A
Ulysses - Top-of-the-line notes app for serious writers
Compatibility: Mac, iPad, iPhone
For writers and authors, Ulysses is a notes app that will replace your word processor 99% of the time. Fully-featured and elegant, it is a very power writing app.
Export in various file formats, including text, HTML, ePub, PDF, and DOCX, plus a number of export styles for professional-looking PDFs and manuscripts. You can also schedule or publish articles to Wordpress and Medium directly within the app.
Ulysses also excels at organizing, if you’re willing to set it up. With views, custom searches, filters, and tags, it’s the most organizable note-taking experience on this list (except for Hugo, which auto-organizes meeting notes based on your calendar.)
All of this functionality comes at a cost, however. Ulysses is free to try, but if you get hooked, there’s not paired down free version to stick with.
Ulysses
- Free plan: Trial only
- Paid plan: $4.99/month or $39.99 ($3.33/month) when paid annually
Notability - Best note-taking app for iPad with Apple Pencil
Compatibility: iOS (iPhone and iPad)
Combine handwriting, photos, and typing into a single note with Notability. The elegant interface is nicely-designed, letting you choose from a variety of typing and drawing instruments with ease.
Notability has a nice range of sketching tools that make it easy to recolor, scale, and adjust your ideas and sketches. You can also pick from different paper backgrounds, for example, to sketch your notes on graph paper, or more textured art paper.
Notability syncs with iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, AirDrop, and Email for easy sharing with colleagues and study partners.
It’s also great for annotating PDFs.
Notability Pricing:
- Free trial: No
- Paid app: $8.99
(Note: Nebo, discussed below, is another great option that works across all tablet platforms.)
Nebo - Best note-taking app for Surface with Surface Pen
Compatibility: iOS, Android, and Windows
Microsoft’s Surface Pen offers a delightful drawing experience on the Surface Book, Pro, and Studio, and there’s no reason you can’t use OneNote for this purpose. The anniversary update of Windows 10 also brought the Windows Ink Workspace, which gives you three cool apps: Sticky Notes, Sketchpad, and Screen sketch.
If you have an active pen like the Surface Pen, you might be asking, with all this greatness bundled for you in Windows, can note-taking get any better?
The answer is yes, and the other answer is Nebo.
Draw sketches and diagrams. Easily switch between your pen and keyboard.
There are tons of cool gestures that make the experience delightful, like how you can scratch out a letter to delete it, or swipe up to join two sentences together.
Getting notes out of Nebo is a breeze, with image, text, DOCX, and HTML formats available. You can also copy/paste diagrams to PowerPoint and they stay fully-editable.
Nebo pricing:
- Free app: N/A
- Paid app: $9.99