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Best App for Keeping Notes

over 4 years ago from , Visual Designer at Honeywell Aerospace

Hi everyone,

I had struggled to find a note-keeping app that I won't drop by a week or two, I had tried Stickies, Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, etc.

Are there any other apps you could recommend, that I might be missing?

Thank you!

36 comments

  • Ivan BjelajacIvan Bjelajac, over 4 years ago

    Once you figure out Notion and the way you organise notes in it, it's pretty irreplaceable.

    26 points
    • Andy MerskinAndy Merskin, over 4 years ago

      Notion is an absolute delight to use on desktop and mobile. Highly recommend!

      3 points
      • Florian GrauFlorian Grau, over 4 years ago

        Really? The lack of a native mobile app is keeping me from really committing to Notion. I find the performance pretty bad and the overall smoothness and polish obviously lacking. And always-on is not a great requirement for a notes application.

        0 points
        • Andy MerskinAndy Merskin, over 4 years ago

          All fair points! I've actually found Notion to be pretty performant considering it's written with the web stack and Electron (I'm assuming), but I understand. A lot of apps are going that route these days and you can feel it.

          I'm curious about what exactly is performing poorly in the app?

          0 points
          • Adam Fisher-CoxAdam Fisher-Cox, over 4 years ago

            It takes about 5 seconds from icon click to usable window in my experience - unacceptable.

            0 points
            • Andy MerskinAndy Merskin, over 4 years ago

              Understandable! It does have a hefty load time thanks to its web-based stack, but once up, things feel pretty zippy to me, but it definitely doesn't come close to our lovely native apps for sure. The tradeoff between cross-platform ease of development and product development versus 2-3 separate teams for different platforms (and higher cost for that).

              Crazy world of products we live in!

              0 points
        • Naz Dash, over 4 years ago

          Check https://unit.ms/

          0 points
    • Andrew C, over 4 years ago

      Yeah I switched to Notion earlier this year and it’s phenomenal.

      1 point
    • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, over 4 years ago

      Another +1 for Notion

      2 points
    • Ryan Parag, over 4 years ago

      Switched to Notion from Bear Notes earlier this year. Notion also lets you manage multiple workspaces without multiple logins - similar to how Slack handles different teams.

      Available on mobile too: iTunes | Play Store

      2 points
    • Mark Lamb, over 4 years ago

      There is a lot to like about Notion, but some real dealbreakers like poor image handling (try creating a moodboard), performance, only basic search, and limited copy and paste functionality on mobile.

      0 points
  • Or Arbel, over 4 years ago

    iOS native notes app

    8 points
    • Adam Fisher-CoxAdam Fisher-Cox, over 4 years ago

      This - I've never found any use case that moves me away from the native answer. It's well done, continues to get better, and requires no new accounts or company relationships.

      2 points
    • Mark Lamb, over 4 years ago

      It's pretty rock solid. The ability to insert a sketch with Apple pencil is cool, and they just announced some new features in iOS 13 :)

      1 point
    • Emil Edeholt, over 4 years ago

      I totally love it as well. After years with different notes apps I think notes have the perfect balance between low cognitive load and still being able to do the job.

      1 point
    • John MauroJohn Mauro, over 4 years ago

      If only they would remove the textured background and have an infinite x-y canvas when drawing. :)

      It is pretty great though.

      0 points
  • Nitin GuptaNitin Gupta, over 4 years ago

    Checkout Bear. It's a beautiful notes app.

    7 points
  • Diego LafuenteDiego Lafuente, over 4 years ago

    I use Google Keep.

    7 points
  • Noah SNoah S, over 4 years ago

    I'd have a look at Milanote. Been using for many years after migrating from Evernote wanting something similar to an infinite canvas for notes as well as other kinds of media. Its great for mood boarding, mind-mapping, writing etc. has some powerful starter templates to build on. Easy to share with collaborators and you can use in chrome, on mac via their app or on iOS.

    2 points
  • Lawrence Santos, over 4 years ago

    Agenda has been the best for me after trying many.

    The organization by dates are extremely helpful for myself.

    Notion is perfect if you need more personalization.

    2 points
  • Ken Em, over 4 years ago

    https://simplenote.com

    It's probably my most used app right now. In addition to using it for notes, I'm using it to write two books at the moment.

    2 points
  • Joe SeifiJoe Seifi, over 4 years ago

    Try WorkFlowy, I’ve found its simplicity very useful and good for productivity. It’s basically wiki on steroids with lots of cool tricks you can use along the way. There’s an iOS and Mac app, also works on the web.

    WorkFlowy - (referral link)

    1 point
  • Ashish BogawatAshish Bogawat, over 4 years ago

    I've tried a bunch and at this point, my notes are scattered all over the place. Every one has something lacking, though.

    • Evernote: Dated editor, can get sluggish on mobile
    • OneNote: Weird editor with freely-placed content blocks (can be as asset if you prefer it that way, but I don't)
    • Notion: No native apps, start times and new note creation can feel slow
    • Bear: iOS & Mac only
    • Simplenote: Plain-text only, no local image support
    • Google Keep: Too 'post-it'y, very weak organization capabilities
    1 point
  • Dan Shilov, over 4 years ago

    Depends on your use case. Why are the apps you've used inadequate? What are you trying to do?

    1 point
  • Adam WAdam W, over 4 years ago

    The Archive is hands down my favorite note-taking app out of all of the ones mentioned here for pure knowledge work. I had previously used iA Writer pretty heavily as well, and it strength lies in its simplicity. Notion is a close second for me for more productivity-related tasks and documents.

    1 point
  • Naz Dash, over 4 years ago

    Sorry for bumping an old thread. I would recommend Unit. But at this moment it's iOS only.

    0 points
  • Michael RurkaMichael Rurka, over 4 years ago

    Used to use Evernote (reluctantly) for 2 years before switching to Notion. Also tried Bear for about 2 months between Evernote. Notion is king. Use my link and get $10 ;) https://www.notion.so/?r=7ce0cafc49db40f3927febb195eeeaf7

    0 points
  • J. C.J. C., over 4 years ago

    I've been using Typora for a while and really loves the way it removes the markdown as you type, making the text body nice and clean. No need for a separate preview window.

    0 points
  • Ryan DeBeasi, over 4 years ago

    I really like https://fromscratch.rocks/. It's not as full-featured as Evernote or even Keep, but it's super simple for quickly jotting down ideas.

    0 points
  • Stefano TirloniStefano Tirloni, over 4 years ago

    iA Writer for quick notes (like during the meetings, quick reminders) Notion for planning and more advanced notes.

    0 points
  • Nassos KappaNassos Kappa, over 4 years ago

    I guess it depends on what type of notes, how many, what are you want to do with them (keep a list or also share/export).

    For the past few months, I'm working for Brill, an app that helps you convert your handwritten notes into text. Please give it a try!

    https://brill.app

    0 points
  • Kirill KKirill K, over 4 years ago

    I've been using Boostnote for a while, for daily notes + dev snippets. Syncing notes via dropbox. UI could use some improvements but other than that pretty light (cpu load wise, compared to evernote and snippetslab, these 2 felt sluggish over time in my experience).

    https://boostnote.io/

    0 points