Best Note-Taking Apps 2024: Data & screenshots for 44 apps

NoteApps.info offers a searchable database of 341 features with 6,596 screenshots across 44 note taking apps. What does the data have to say about which one will work best for you?

Content published 2024 by NoteApps Editorial Team. Last feature update on November 19, 2024

When a person searches the web for "best note taking apps," which apps ought to appear? Spoiler alert: there's no single right answer. It depends entirely on your note-taking use cases.

And yet, when you Google this, you'll find no shortage of beat writers offering their unqualified opinions as to which note taking apps are "best for 2024." Nothing against beat writers, but their confidence that they could know what's best for every user is misplaced. With 44 note taking apps that could credibly call themselves the best in some user niche, it's an impossible task for any writer to fully cover the vast expanse of the "note-taking universe" in 2024.

We believe the most useful take on "the best note taking apps of 2024" is one that considers as many note apps as possible, grounded with hard data and screenshots to show how each feature looks in each app. So, that's what we built, and what you will find on the rest of this page.

To date, NoteApps.info has cataloged 16,152 provider-features (44 note apps with 341 features evaluated per app), to allow data-backed decision-making about which note app best matches your needs. This is the largest freely available data set illustrating what features are available in which note apps.

Table of contents

Let's try to find the perfect note taking app for you 👇

1. Best note taking apps by what you've liked best before
2. Best note taking apps by your biggest sticking point
3. Best note taking apps by the specific features you tell us you need 🤓
4. Best note taking apps by total features cataloged

Best note taking apps by what you liked before

If you're already a note-taker, the app you use as a go-to says a lot about your needs and preferences. For those who are coming from apps that Google indicates as common search terms, we have created data-backed guides to help evaluate a possible switch.

These apps have a strong overlap with Evernote's featureset, while bringing more modern sensibilities to the mix. Most have an Evernote importer. Top recommendations: Amplenote, Obsidian, Reflect , Notion.

Data-backed guide to the best Evernote alternatives of 2024

These recommendations are weighted toward advanced table support, collaboration/team-based features, and better offline document availability. Top recommendations: Tana, Craft, Coda, Amplenote.

Data-backed guide to the best Notion alternatives of 2024

These apps offer the most analogous drawing and free-form canvas experience to the venerable Microsoft incumbent. Top recommendations: GoodNotes, Evernote, Notion, Craft.

Data-backed guide to the best OneNote alternatives of 2024

Best of 2024: Best note apps by category

Different apps specialize in different areas. The list is ordered by perceived degree to which app embodies the best version of category.

• 🎨 Aesthetic excellence

  

  Apps regularly praised on X and by industry press for their product design. These generally offer a minimalistic UX, along with slick native apps. See Craft, Reflect , Obsidian, Milanote, Capacities or compare all five

• 🧑‍💻 Blogging

  

  Built for users who want to use their notebook as a replacement for (or augmentation of) Wordpress. These apps provide a straightforward path to publish, embed and style note content. See Craft, Notion, Amplenote, Obsidian, Bear or compare all five

• ‍✨ Buzziest

  

  Apps that received the most user interest on NoteApps during 2023. See Obsidian, Amplenote, Anytype, Reflect , Tana or compare all five

• 📆 Calendar/to-do integration

  

  These apps have all to-do lists to be scheduled to one's external calendar, while allowing the user to view their existing calendar obligations from within the app. See Amplenote, Capacities, Taskade, Notion or compare all four

• 🎭 Collaboration

  

  The extent to which collaborative faculties are offered is a major differentiator among note taking apps. The apps on this list make it easy to share note content with groups of users, and to collaboratively edit note content. See Notion, ClickUp, Coda, Asana, Taskade or compare all five

• 📱 Superior iPad experience

  

  iPad users need native drawing tools, a diverse range of features & navigation available via keyboard, and a striking aesthetic presentation. These apps best deliver all of the above. See Craft, Evernote, GoodNotes, UpNote or compare all four

• 🧠 Networked thought

  

  Third-generation note apps have gone all-in on backlinks and Zettelkasten as a means to organize life and "build a second brain." These apps draw disproportionate interest among those who use their note taking app for undertaking research. See Tana, Obsidian, Amplenote, Anytype, Heptabase or compare all five

• 🤓 Programming

  

  Good code highlighting is the baseline requirement for this category, but these apps tend to also have a focus on security and plugins/extensibility. See Obsidian, Logseq, Standard Notes, Joplin, Amplenote or compare all five

• 🔒 Client-side security

  

  Apps with a documented claim to secure note client on the client, such that notes can be stored in a way the note app provider themselves could not access. See Joplin, Standard Notes, Logseq, Amplenote, Obsidian or compare all five

• 📑 Tables/databases

  

  Robust table/database support can starts with allowing formulas to be applied within tables in the note app, but also includes enumerated data types and thus notes that lend themselves to sharing as templates. See Notion, Coda, Tana, Heptabase, Evernote or compare all five

• ✅ To-do lists

  

  Powerful to-do list features like recurring tasks, unlimited task attachments, and collapsible task hierarchy are available. See Amplenote, Capacities, Taskade, ClickUp, OmniFocus or compare all five