11 Best Note-Taking Apps to Drive Productivity and Staying Organized in 2024

Taking notes is something we all do. Whether you are taking notes during a meeting, capturing feedback, or simply jotting down your grocery shopping list, finding the right place to put these ideas is important.

Therefore, it is important to learn what the best note taking apps are to help you stay organized and on top of your tasks. 

If you are looking for a note taking app for meeting notes, documentation and wikis, personal notes, or educational purposes this article will provide you with the top 11 note taking apps for all of your needs. 

• What’s the best notes app?
• What makes a great note taking app?
• How to choose

What’s the best notes app? (11 alternatives)

To make your life a little easier, we have provided you with a list of the 11 best note taking apps.  So, sit back and read this perfectly outlined list that provides you with each app’s features, prices, and use-cases… 

• Fellow
• Evernote
• Notion
• OneNote
• Bear
• Apple Notes
• Google Keep
• Ulysses
• Zoho Notebook
• Dropbox paper
• Obsidian

1 Fellow

Features: Fellow is a fully integrated AI meeting management platform that connects to your calendar and centralizes all your meeting notes, recordings, discussions and action items so every meeting has actionable outcomes. Users can create their own digital notebooks for their personal notes, shared projects and collaborative meetings for teams and 1-1s.

Fellow meeting notes offer real-time collaboration directly in their video conferencing tool so users aren’t switching between tabs during meetings to take notes or access relevant documents. Users can also leverage the AI Meeting Copilot to automatically record, transcribe, and summarize every meeting for an accurate record of every discussion or decision. The note syncs with project management tools and offers embeddable media so everything is centralized and up-to-date. Private notes can also be taken during meetings and are only accessible to the author.

Nothing falls through the cracks or gets forgotten with previous meeting notes accessible below the current meeting and undiscussed talking points and action items automatically carrying forward to the next meeting.

Fellow is available on Mac, Windows, IOS, and Android phones, tablets, and web devices. 

Use-cases: Fellow is ranked as the #1 meeting management software to collaborate meeting agendas, assign action items, and summarize your meetings.

Pricing: Starts at $7 per user per month

Learn more about Fellow’s plans

2 Notion

Features: Notion is an app available for IOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Web devices, and provides users with a “Team Wiki”, “Projects & Tasks” and “Notes and Documents” feature. 

Users can create notes directly on the application and then share them with their team members to collaborate on. Notion also allows users to sync their notes across multiple platforms and on multiple devices. 

Use-cases: With Notion’s Wiki and documents features, this application is best used for documentation and company wikis. 

Pricing: Free plan is available with unlimited blocks for individuals, and a limited block trial for teams. Premium plans start at $8 per user / per month (billed annually)

3 Evernote

Features: Evernote is a note taking app that allows its users to create notes in the form of text, image, audio, drawings, and other web content. 

Evernote also allows users to sync their notes across platforms and devices, making it easy to access your notes through your computer, phone, or tablet. You can also access your notes via email. With Evernote Premium, the application allows you to save your notes offline by downloading them to your device. This is a big plus, especially for people who are constantly on the go. Find out more about Evernote and how it compares to Fellow here.

Use-cases: Evernote is best used for personal note-taking. 

Pricing: A free introductory plan is available, and paid plans start at $14.99 per month (as of April 2023)

4 OneNote

Features:  Microsoft OneNote is a note-taking application that allows users to create typed, handwritten (via a stylus), web clipped, and physically scanned notes. This application is available through various devices and works well with other Microsoft applications – such as Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. 

Use-cases:  This application is best used for personal note-taking due to the freedom to insert images, hand-write and draw, and scan physical documents which allows users to easily take elaborate and lengthy notes.

Pricing: Free for the first 5GB of notes, then i i’s $1.99/month for every 100GB added. 

5 Bear

Features: Bear is a note-taking application that is compatible with IOS and Mac devices. Bear allows users to create notes on their iPhone, iPad, or Macbook by simply creating a new note and then typing on their device. You can also add attachments to your notes via Bear. 

Additional features include:

• Markup Editor
• Encrypted notes protected by Face/Touch ID
• Rich previews 
• Multiple themes and export options (including HTML, PDF, DOCX, MD, and JPG) 
• Hashtag recognition 
• Focus mode (hides other notes)
• Multi-device sync

Use-cases: Bear is best used for quick, personal notes on all Apple devices. This includes things like grocery lists or to-do lists. 

Pricing: Bear is free for the basic features. You can upgrade to Bear Pro for $2.99 per month, or $29.99 per year.

6 Apple Notes

Features: Apple Notes is a note-taking application that is available on all Apple devices. This application allows you to create notes and then add texts, images, scanned documents, handwritten notes, and checklists to it.

One benefit of using Apple Notes is that for Apple users, the application is already on your device. This saves you the time of having to find an application and download it.  Users can also create folders to organize their notes in and use the search bar to easily find older folders/notes. 

Apple notes are also compatible with Siri. Therefore, if you are an Apple user, you can ask Siri to create a new note for you.

Additional features:

• Bold
• Italics
• Multiple fonts 
• Cross-platform editing

Use-cases:  Apple Notes is best used for Apple users who want an app for jot-notes or to-do lists. 

Pricing: Apple users can access Apple Notes for free for up to 5GB. You can also upgrade for $0.99/month for every 50GB added. 

7 Google Keep

Features: Google Keep is a note-taking app created by Google that allows users to create virtual sticky notes. This application is compatible with IOS and Android, however, is mostly recommended for Android users. You can also access your Google Keep notes on your Gmail account and through your Google Drive (Google Docs). 

Some of Google Keeps features include: 

• Reminders with the date and time you want the reminder at
• Pin important notes at the top
• Colour-coded notes
• Sync with Google Docs

Use-cases: Google Keep is the best note-taking application for Android users to jot down notes and make checklists (not recommended for lengthy notes).

Pricing: Google Keep is free for the first 15GB of storage. You can upgrade to $1.99/month per additional 100GB. 

8 Ulysses

Features: Ulysses is a note-taking application available for Apple devices (IOS and Mac). It’s a great app for multiple notetaking purposes – both short jot notes and long summaries – and it allows users to organize their notes in folders. Users can then organize their notes in the folders by hierarchy. 

Some additional features include:

• Full-screen focus mode
• Customizable (dark-mode)
• Sync with WordPress 

Use-cases: This application is best for students or people who take long notes.

Pricing: This application is $5/month. Students can also apply for a student discount which brings the price down to $1.83/month.

9 Zoho Notebook

Features:  Zoho Notebook is a note-taking application that allows users to take notes in multiple formats and is available for IOS, Android, Mac, and Web.

The app colour coats notes based on which type of notes that you are taking:

• Yellow = Text
• Blue = Checklist
• Red = Audio

The application also allows you to add PDFs, Word documents, and Spreadsheets to your notes and can be used across other platforms such as Slack, creating shared notes between team members. Additional features include to-do lists and whiteboard features

Use-cases: This application is best used for users who make personal notes in multiple formats.

Pricing: Zoho Notebook is free for users to sign up and can be upgraded for $1.99/month

10 Dropbox paper

Features: Dropbox Paper is a note-taking application that enables you to collaborate with your team members through sharing your notes and previewing and editing other people’s notes. It is available for IOS, Android, and Web users.

Dropbox Paper allows you to:

• Create and assign to-do lists
• Edit other people’s notes
• Share notes with a group
• Add comments to notes
• Add due dates to notes 
• Connect your calendar
• Add multiple types of content (ex, images, YouTube clips, GIFs, etc.)

Use-cases: This application is best used for collaboration and for users already using Dropbox

Pricing: Dropbox Paper is free for users to sign up and use. 

11 Obsidian

Features: Obsidian is a knowledge-based tool that enables users to create a personal wiki, users can link their notes, visualize their connections through a graph view, and embed content within each other. Obsidian is available for iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, and Linux.

Use-cases: Obsidian is best suited for those looking to build a personal knowledge base or a Zettelkasten system where each piece of information is densely interlinked with others.

Pricing: Obsidian’s core features are free for personal use. For commercial use, licenses are available for $50 USD per user per year. Additional add-ons are available.

What makes a great note taking app?

At one time or another, we’ve all experienced the dreadful task of trying to find the perfect meeting notes app on your phone, desktop, or tablet. This usually includes downloading app after app, wasting your time and money. 

Finding the perfect note taking app can make you feel like this. Therefore, it is important to learn what exactly makes a great note taking app… 

1 The app should perform like it says it does

Downloading an app just to find out it doesn’t do what you need it to do is very frustrating. So, reading the description of the app’s functions is important. Reading the reviews and ratings of the app will also help you determine if the app’s description matches what the app says it does. 

For instance, you can read reviews from Fellow.app users here.

2 The app should be quick and easy to navigate

Overly confusing apps only frustrate users. Thus, it is important to look for note taking apps that are easy to navigate. Looking for mobile apps that provide “how to use” tutorials is a great place to start.

3 The app should be a good value for your money

Spending ridiculous amounts of money on an app is not necessary when you can find apps that are reasonably priced. Therefore, looking for an app that fits your needs while also fitting your budget is important. 

How to choose the note-taking app that’s right for you 

Choosing the right note-taking application for you can be difficult. So, remember to set your priorities straight before searching for your perfect app. 

Knowing what you are looking for in a note-taking application will be the determiner for which application is best for you. Whether you are looking for a note-taking app for meeting notes, documentation and wikis, education/collaboration, or personal purposes, this article will help you determine which note-taking app is best for you. 

Personal Notes:

• Evernote
• OneNote
• Fellow
• Bear
• Apple Notes
• Google Keep
• Zoho Notebook

Documentation and Wikis:

• Notion

Education/collaboration:

• OneNote
• Ulysses
• Dropbox Paper
• Fellow

Meeting Notes:

• Fellow

Parting advice

Keeping in mind what you need and what you want to spend on your note-taking application will help you figure out which app is right for you. This article has provided you with a breakdown of the top-11 best note-taking applications, outlining their features and prices.

Taking good notes is an important step in ensuring good record keeping, building accountability, and overall moving work forward. Thus, investing in a good note-taking app, whether it is Fellow.app or one of the other apps that we’ve highlighted, is certainly worth your time and money.