Note-taking is one of those simple yet extremely personal things. Some notes are more important than others, but we keep them all together to ensure they're organized in one place. Whether you're jotting down a simple grocery shopping list or a random thought that you want to save for later, having a dedicated and reliable note-taking app that works well on your computing devices such as Windows laptops, desktops, and Mac is extremely crucial to ensure you can quickly access it wherever and whenever you want.

Finding the right note-taking app, however, can be a bit overwhelming due to the sheer number of options that are out there. There's no shortage of note-taking apps on the market in 2023, so I've highlighted some of the best and my favorite ones below. Not only do they cover all the basics, but many of them offer advanced features like voice recording, cross-platform support, and more. I've highlighted them in no particular order, so feel free to go through each option and find out which one is right for you.

1 OneNote

Best for most people

Microsoft's OneNote is a feature-packed cross-platform note-taking app that's available across different platforms for free. It's integrated into Microsoft's OneDrive and offers a laundry list of features, including the ability to protect your notes with a password, real-time collaboration, and easy export options, among other things. The fact that it's integrated with Microsoft products like Word, Excel, etc., makes it special and very easy to access, but you don't necessarily have to be a part of Microsoft's eco-system to enjoy everything it offers.

OneNote also offers a number of rich features to improve your note-taking experience. In addition to the basic features that let you edit text and add media, you also get a solid text editor with different formatting options and features like voice recording. OneNote takes advantage of Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage to save and sync your data, and it also works very well on various platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android, and more. There's no official OneNote app for Linux, but there are ways to access OneNote on Linux, too.

2 Obsidian

Offers a ton of customization

Obsidian is also an excellent note-taking app that works well across various platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android, and even Linux. It's a relatively simple note-taking app that offers a lot of great customization features and neatly presents all your notes. This particular app works very well across different platforms, and everything from opening new notes to searching for them feels smooth and snappy. It offers a lot of great features, but what I like the most is that it lets you add tags to any note and also creates internal links between them. That makes it incredibly easy to refer to a particular note that you may have saved with some useful information.

Obsidian also has a great add-on eco-system, that can make it more robust and useful. You can even turn Obsidian into a powerful productivity tool with the right add-on, which is great. You can even integrate ChatGPT to automate and get more out of Obsidian. Obsidian is completely free to use for individuals, and it works very well across various platforms without any issues.

3 Google Keep

Best for casual, everyday use

Google Keep is one of the most popular Google apps that barely needs an introduction. It's among the simple note-taking apps that let you save all your notes easily and access them across a bunch of platforms, including the web. You get different themes, background colors, and other customization options for your notes, and they all show up as neatly arranged cards that you can scroll through. You can get an option to search, but keep in mind that you can't search for a particular text within each note.

Google Keep offers a decent set of features, including voice recording and the ability to collaborate with people, but it misses out on things like password protection and good search options. It's good for those who want a basic note-taking app for everyday use and is also part of Google's rich eco-system, but it won't be my first pick for advanced users who are looking for a more reliable and feature-rich notes app to keep up with their digital lives.

4 Notion

Comes with a bunch of productivity tools

Notion is also an excellent note-taking app that also offers a healthy list of productivity tools to help you get things done. In addition to the standard notes, Notion offers support for multiple content types and the ability to save and sync them across devices. One of the highlights of Notion is that it also works very well with other third-party services like OneDrive, GitHub, Slack, and more. The support for rich integration is what makes it popular among various businesses. Notion even has a built-in AI writing feature that can build up on your notes.

You can also use Notion across different platforms, and it even works very well on the web. Another interesting feature of Notion is that it comes with a packed template library, letting you pick and choose between a variety of templates for your notes and other text content. You can even explore the templates submitted by the Notion community and invite other people to collaborate on your notes. Some other highlights of Notion include password protection, bulk PDF exports, and more. Not all features are readily available to use, though, and you'll have to pay a monthly fee to use the ones that are locked behind a paywall.

5 Apple Notes

Best for Apple users

Apple Notes, as you probably know, is not for everyone. But you can't go wrong with this particular app if you only use Apple devices. It ships with all Apple devices out of the box, meaning you don't have to spend time downloading an additional app on your device. You can access it on the web if you want to access your notes on other platforms for whatever reason. The process isn't as straightforward as you'd like, but you can access the notes you've saved in Apple Notes on Android and Windows if you really want.

Apple Notes isn't the most powerful or feature-packed note-taking app on this list, but it comes with all the essentials, including the ability to organize and search notes, collaborate on entire shared folders or on specific shared notes, and more. It also comes with a built-in document scanner that works very well to convert your physical documents into digital PDF files. I highly recommend considering this if you're looking for a simple note-taking app and primarily use Apple devices.

6 Evernote

Best for features

Evernote is one of the more popular options that's been around for quite some time in the note-taking scene. It has evolved a lot over the years, and it offers a great list of features that are used by millions of users across different platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android, and more. From a rich text editor to more advanced features like a tag system to organize all notes, Evernote comes with a lot of useful features to help you save all your important notes. You'll have to pay a monthly or an annual fee to unlock all the Evernote features, but the free version is enough to get you started.

Some other highlights of Evernote include a robust search function that even lets you search for a particular text in PDF files, a browser extension, a fully customizable dashboard, and more. The free version of Evernote will limit your monthly uploads and note size to 60MB and 25MB, respectively. A personal plan will boost those numbers to 10GB and 200MB while also adding support for homescreen dashboard customization, Google Calendar integration, and more. Evernote also has a professional plan to increase those limits and give access to multiple calendar accounts and more.

Best note-taking apps: Final thoughts

The apps listed above, as I mentioned earlier, are in no particular order, and they're all equally capable of replacing your physical notes. You may have to pay a small fee to unlock some premium features on some of the above apps, but they all offer a free tier to get you started. I highly recommend considering OneDrive and Google Keep if you don't want to spend any money to maintain your notes. Apple Notes is also a solid choice for Apple users, and it's one of the built-in apps that's ready to go out of the box as soon as you set up your Apple device.

Lately, I've been using the self-text feature in messaging apps to stay on top of my notes and to-do lists, and you can do this as well on pretty much any computing with access to the web. I truly believe it's a convenient way to save and access all your important notes, files, and checklists. It's not for everyone, but I highly recommend considering it if you don't want to use the apps highlighted in the list above or if you want to explore something new.