Note-taking is a task that most of us perform regularly. Whether you're in a meeting, discussing deliverables with your colleague, or have a personal matter to attend to, most of us resort to our Notes app to pen all of them down. Owing to this, it becomes extremely important to pick the right note-taking tool based on one's specific needs. If you end up picking the wrong platform, you may be stuck for a long time, since you may have paid for it, or you wouldn't want to migrate all your data to an alternate app or tool. The fact that there are tons of note-taking apps out there makes things harder for the average user.

Notion is all the rage right now. But is it good enough for me? OneNote is included with my Microsoft 365 subscription. So, should I use it by default? Is Joplin the most secure way to take notes, since I can self-host it? These are questions and dilemmas I have had for the longest time. That's when I decided to chalk out a proper plan to determine which is the best note-taking app for me. During this process, I realized how everyone's requirements for a note-taking app are so different, which encouraged me to write a detailed guide on how you can find the perfect note-taking app that works perfectly for you.

Identifying your primary use case

Do you write with a stylus or collaborate often?

Everyone uses note-taking apps for different purposes. Some may use it to jot down quick pointers during a meeting, while others may use it to brainstorm a project idea. These are just a few examples. Designers may want to create rough sketches of their work with pointers on what they can change or improve. Personally, I use my notes app to quickly pen my ideas and pitches around which I want to write articles. Once I do that, I note down all the individual pointers I want to talk about, along with links to potential sources. Apart from this, I also use it for personal purposes, like creating shopping lists, making a list of tasks that I want to achieve in a day, etc.

Some users may also want to use a common app for taking notes and managing projects. Maintaining a knowledge base has also become a popular use case for apps like Notion and Obsidian. These are apps that allow you to have dedicated pages for your goals, to track your progress, and create dashboards. Notion also makes it easy to create landing pages and websites that you can share with colleagues or on your social media.

This brings me to the importance of collaboration. If you're a one-person team like I am, you rarely need to collaborate with someone. However, if you work in an organization, you may want a platform that allows multiple people to work on the same note or document in real time. If this is of the utmost importance, platforms like OneDrive and Google Keep are some good options.

It's necessary to be clear about your use cases before zeroing in on which app you wish to use. Based on my requirements, it's clear that I want a service that can do basic tasks with ease. I don't want to navigate through a lot of menus or click around too much. Additionally, the ability to create to-do lists with checkboxes is a must. I don't sketch, I use a separate app to manage my projects, and I track my work using Excel.

Organization styles and workflows

Are you a knowledge base kind of person?

I like all my notes to be independent, since organization doesn't matter to me. I don't create folders for my notes. They're scattered all over the place, and I use the search functionality to find what I'm looking for. Owing to this, apps like Notion and Evernote aren't as useful for me since the highlight of them is the ability to group notes into folders and sub-folders.

On the other hand, you may be extremely organized, and you care about nested folders to segregate notes of the same type together. Obsidian even allows two-way linking and interconnection of multiple notes. This allows for jumping from one note to another with a single click. If you use templates, Notion and ClickUp have you covered there. These are all additional perks that several users may find handy either for organization or to make their notes stand out.

Device compatibility and customization

Simple vs complex UIs

Platforms like Evernote and OneNote offer a simple UI where you see a board with all your notes. You can then decide if you want to rearrange them as per our requirements. On the other hand, Obsidian and Joplin have list-based views wherein you have a pane with all your notes listed in order. This makes it easier to navigate between all your notes. There's no clear winner here; it all depends on your personal preferences.

As for compatibility, most note-taking apps nowadays are available on all platforms. However, not all apps may be available to use offline. For instance, Google Keep on the web requires an active internet connection to be accessed. But the smartphone app works without being online. So, you'll also have to consider how frequently you would be taking notes without being connected to the internet. Most note-taking apps also upload to the cloud, so you may be worried about your privacy. In such cases, you can use Joplin since it allows you to self-host your own server.

The type of notes you take also matters, because every platform has different formatting options. Obsidian, for instance, has a markdown editor that is well-suited for pasting the contents onto web-based services like WordPress. Consider all of these parameters and pick the level of organization you want for your notes.

Which one are you picking?

The way I went about this exercise was that I designated points for each parameter, and then decided the weightage to give to each of them. Using this method, I determined that all I need is a simple note-taking app that can be used as a to-do list, has a UI that's easy to navigate, allows for collaboration, and is free. I don't need superb organization or mapping between multiple notes. Nor do I want to merge my notes app with a project management service. With all this in mind, I decided that Google Keep is the best choice for my usage. What's yours?