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Comparison of note-taking software
Comparison of computer software designed for taking notes
The tables below compare features of notable note-taking software. These comparisons highlight differences in platform availability, synchronization capabilities, formatting options, storage limits, and integration with other applications. While some applications like Microsoft OneNote and Evernote offer robust features with cloud syncing across devices, others such as Simplenote prioritize minimalism and speed. Open-source tools like Joplin provide privacy-focused alternatives, allowing users to host their own notes and use end-to-end encryption. These tables aim to help users choose a note-taking tool that best fits their workflow, whether for academic, personal, or professional use.
The tables below compare features of notable note-taking software.
01General information
| Name | Developer(s) | License | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| AllMyNotes Organizer | Vladonai Software | Freemium | Microsoft Windows |
| Bear | Shiny Frog | Freemium | macOS, iOS |
| CintaNotes | Cinta Software | Freemium | Microsoft Windows |
| ConnectedText | Eduardo Mauro | Shareware | Microsoft Windows |
| Day One | Bloom Built (Automattic) | Proprietary commercial | macOS, iOS, Android |
| Dropbox Paper | Dropbox | Freemium | Android, iOS, web-based |
| Evernote | Evernote Corporation | Freemium | Android, iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows 7/8/10, Microsoft Windows Phone, and web-based |
| Gnote | Aurimas Černius | GPL-3.0-or-later | Linux |
| Google Keep | Freeware | Android, iOS, ChromeOS, browser based | |
| Joplin | laurent22 et al. | AGPL-3.0 or later | Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android |
| KeyNote | Marek Jedliński, Tranglos Software | MPL-2.0 | Microsoft Windows |
| Logseq | Logseq Inc | AGPL-3.0 or later | Windows, macOS, Android, Linux, iOS, BSD |
| Memonic | Nektoon AG | Freemium | Android (not released yet), iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7/Mobile web-based |
| Microsoft OneNote | Microsoft | Freemium | Android, macOS, iOS, Microsoft Windows (desktop and mobile), PWA |
| MyInfo | Milenix Software | Shareware | Microsoft Windows |
| MyNotex | Massimo Nardello | GPL-3.0-or-later | Linux |
| Notational Velocity | Zachary Schneirov | GPL-3.0-or-later | macOS |
| Notes | Apple | Proprietary commercial | macOS, iOS, web-based |
| Notion | Notion Labs Inc. | Freemium | Android, macOS, iOS (iPad, iPhone), Microsoft Windows, web-based |
| Obsidian | Dynalist Inc. | Freemium | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android |
| Open-Sankoré | Sankoré | LGPL-2.0-only | Linux, macOS, Unix, Microsoft Windows |
| Org-mode (Emacs) | Carsten Dominik, et al. | GPL-3.0-or-later | Linux, macOS, Unix, Microsoft Windows |
| PDF Studio | Qoppa Software | Shareware | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, web-based |
| Personal Knowbase | Bitsmith Software | Proprietary commercial | Microsoft Windows |
| QOwnNotes | Patrizio Bekerle it | GPL-2.0-only | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows |
| Qiqqa | Quantisle Ltd. | Freemium | Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7/8, Web-based, Android |
| Roam | Roam Research | Proprietary commercial | macOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows |
| Samsung Notes | Samsung Electronics | Proprietary commercial | Android, Microsoft Windows |
| Simplenote | Automattic inc. | Clients: GPL-2.0-only | Web app |
| TagSpaces | TagSpaces UG | AGPL-3.0-only | Web app |
| TiddlyWiki | Jeremy Ruston | BSD-3-Clause | Cross-platform (single HTML file, runs in browser, on a nodeJS server, on Android and IOS) |
| Tomboy | Alex Graveley | LGPL-2.1-only | Cross-platform (Mono/GTK+) |
| Ulysses | The Soulmen | Shareware | macOS, iOS |
| Whizfolders | AvniTech Solutions | Proprietary commercial | Microsoft Windows |
| Microsoft Windows Journal | Microsoft | Proprietary commercial | Windows XP Tablet PC edition, Windows Vista through Windows 10 v1511 |
| Zettlr | Hendrik Erz | GPL-3.0-or-later | macOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux |
| Zim | Jaap Karssenberg | GPL-2.0-or-later | Cross-platform (Python, GTK+) |
| ZOHO Notebook | ZOHO Corporation | Freemium | Web app |
02Basic features
| Name | Organizing principle(s) | Outline bulleting with indent |
Tabbed sections |
Sync | Web Clipping | PDF annotate and save |
Whiteboarding | Ink-pen input | Handwriting recognition |
Spell check | Search | Replace in note |
Printing | File save/export/import formats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AllMyNotes Organizer | Tree | Yes | No | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Proprietary, encrypted; import: plain text, RTF, CSV, images, HTML; exports: plain text, HTML, RTF, images |
| Bear | tags | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Proprietary, encrypted; export: plain text, markdown, textbundle, RTF, HTML, DOCX, PDF, JPG, ePub |
| CintaNotes | Notebooks, sections, tags | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Proprietary; export to Unicode text, XML and HTML |
| ConnectedText | Wiki, Tree and Categories | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Proprietary (SQL); Export to text, XML, CHM and HTML. Import from text, HTML, XML and RTF |
| Day One | Chronological, tags | Yes | No | Yes |
? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
Markdown (in GUI), XML (data file); Export as: pdf, txt, md |
| Evernote | tags, Notebooks, Stacks | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Partial |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Imports and exports in Evernote XML. |
| Gnote | Notebooks | ? | No | Yes | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | NoteXmlFormat, HTML, PDF |
| Google Keep | tags, colors | No | No | Yes | Partial |
No | Yes | No | ? | Partial |
Yes | ? | No | Proprietary; export to Google Doc and thence to PDF, Word, ODT etc. |
| Joplin | Nested notebooks, tree, tags | Yes | No | Yes | Browser Extension | No | No | Plug-In | No | Yes | Yes | Plug-In | Yes | Import/Export: JEX (Proprietary), RAW (Proprietary, directory), Markdown (optionally with front matter); Export: HTML, PDF; Import: Evernote ENEX |
| KeyNote NF | Notebooks, notes and tree | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Internal: combination of TXT and RTF; import/export: TXT, RTF, HTML, Treepad |
| Logseq | Notebooks, journal pages, blocks and pages | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Internal: There are two versions of the software: a markdown version and a database version; export: PDF, HTML. |
| Memonic | ? | ? | No | Yes | ? | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Notes stored as XML; can attach any filetype |
| Microsoft OneNote | Notebooks, notebook sections, section groups, tags (could be applied to content blocks) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Yes | Yes |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Imports: Evernote XML. Exports: OneNote binary format. |
| MyInfo | Notebooks, sections, notes, tree, tags, custom attributes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Proprietary, encrypted; import: plain text, RTF, CSV, MS Word, TreePad, images, web pages; exports: plain text, HTML, RTF, CSV, MS Word, TreePad |
| MyNotex | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Sqlite based, zipped attachments; export to HTML; copying as LaTeX; import text files, OpenOffice.org documents |
| Notes | notes, tree, tags | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Sqlite based; export to PDF |
| Notion | Notebooks, notebook sections, section | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
Yes |
No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Proprietary; export to PDF, HTML, Markdown, CSV |
| Obsidian | Wiki, Tree and Categories | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Plug-In | No | Plug-In | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Markdown, PDF |
| Okular | ? | ? | ? | No | ? | Yes |
No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | PDF, PS, TIFF, CHM, DjVu, DVI, XPS, ODF, others; export PDF+notes for sending to other Okular users |
| Open-Sankoré | tree, notebooks | No | No | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | Yes | Save/export: PDF, IWB, UBZ; Import: PDF, IWB, UBZ, images, image directories |
| Org-mode (Emacs) |
tree, tags | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Plug-In | Plug-In | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | LaTeX, HTML, DocBook, Taskjuggler, PDF, Freemind, XOXO, iCalendar |
| PDF Studio | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | |
| Personal Knowbase | tags | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Export to RTF, HTML, TXT, CSV |
| Qiqqa | tags, brainstorm | No | No | Yes | ? | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Proprietary, PDF, Brainstorm; export to RTF and Word |
| Samsung Notes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Simplenote | tags | Yes | No | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Export to XML |
| TagSpaces | tags, files, directories | Yes | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | Yes | PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, ICO, WEBP, SVG, PDF, HTML, MHT, MHTML, MARKDOWN, TXT, XML, JSON, OGG, OGV, WEBM, ODT, ODS, ODP, ODG, EPUB, ZIP |
| TiddlyWiki | tags (wikiwords) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Via plugin | No | ? | No | Yes(via browser) | Yes | ? | Yes | HTML, json, txt, csv |
| Tomboy | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | NoteXmlFormat, HTML, PDF, wiki-formats |
| Ulysses | Notebooks, sections, tags | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Rich text; export as HTML; import text files; markdown editing. |
| Microsoft Windows Journal | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | No | ? | Yes | Yes |
? | ? | ? | Yes | Proprietary |
| Zettlr | Tree, Tags, Wiki | Yes | ? | Yes |
No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Markdown, Export and Import of Pandoc supported formats. |
| Zim | tags (wikiwords) | Yes | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, using installed web browser | Stored in modified DokuWiki Markdown; export: HTML, LaTeX, Pandoc Markdown, Sphinx RST (reStructuredText) |
| Name | Organizing principle(s) | Outline bulleting with indent |
Tabbed sections |
Sync | Web Clipping | PDF annotate and save |
Whiteboarding | Ink-pen input | Handwriting recognition |
Spell check | Search | Replace | Printing | File save/export/import formats |
03Advanced formatting and content
| Name | Drawing atop text |
Text box, flow diagram |
Text and paragraph formatting |
Insert hyperlink |
Insert image |
Resize image |
Insert table |
Insert audio |
Insert video |
Attachment |
Other objects | Remarks / other features |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AllMyNotes Organizer | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Alarms, check-boxes, bullets, phones, advanced links, autosaving; last cursor position memory, passwords on tree folders, failure-resistant self-healing DB engine | |
| Bear | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | check-boxes, bullets, link to notes, encryption, document scanning, OCR search | |
| CintaNotes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No | No | Yes | Links to notes | Tagging and searching for tags, tag hierarchy |
| ConnectedText | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Scripting of pages with Python and other scripting languages. | LaTeX, Scripts, RSS Feeds, Transclusion, Directed Graphs and Flowcharts by GraphViz, many other features. |
| Day One | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | Yes | No | tags, bullets, numbering, line, programming code snippets | editable note metadata (date/time, location, weather, motion activity, music playing, step count) |
| Evernote | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Check-box, line, tags | Business and personal notes integrated in same client; businesses have control over business notes, but cannot see personal notes |
| Gnote | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | Port of Tomboy to C++; wiki-style linked notes |
| Google Keep | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Partial |
Yes | ? | No | Google Calendar reminders | Notes can be shared with other Google Keep users. |
| IPython Notebook | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Part of IPython shell; allows for programming code, output and annotation to be combined in single interactive environment |
| Joplin | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Links to other notes | Configurable editor layout with live preview of Markdown; Command pallette; Notes <--> Todo conversion; Plug-ins; Cloud sync available with various services, including a separate server self-hosted server; Configurable note history; Optional client side encryption; Custom CSS (imported from local or remote source) for rendered Markdown as well as app interface; |
| KeyNote NF | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Yes | Yes |
No | No | Yes | OLE objects; "virtual nodes" which integrate and edit the content of external plain-text or rich-text files; internal links; mirror nodes. | Text processing; tree numbering and sorting; custom tree icons; node checkboxes; checkbox filtering; search filtering; reminder alarms; compressed or encrypted notebooks; auto-minimize and/or auto-lock when idle; quick access key for fast notes; additional scratchpad; autosave of up to 9 previous file versions; automatic clipboard capturing; read-only notebooks or notes; macros; templates; text shortcuts; plug-ins; bookmarks; custom keyboard shortcuts; program can be made portable through "Options" setting |
| Logseq | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Schedule/Deadline, TODO, LaTeX, arbitrary extensions | |
| Memonic | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Microsoft OneNote | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Yes | Yes | OLE, bullets, line, flags, formulas | No local storage of notebooks on Mac or versions past Office 2016 |
| MyInfo | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | OLE, bullets, numbering, page breaks, advanced links | Tags; filters; calendar; reminders |
| MyNotex | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Activity lists; tags; notes management by subject; encryption with AES or GPG; multilingual |
| Notational Velocity | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Instant open and searching |
| Notion | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Bullets, numbering, checkboxes, reminders, calendars | |
| Obsidian | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Bullets, numbering, checkboxes, canvases, HTML, LaTeX, internal links | |
| Okular | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Open-Sankoré | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | plug-ins, web pages, applications | Annotate live desktop applications and web pages; autosave; plug-in system; audio recording |
| Org-mode (Emacs) |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Advanced linking, bullets, tags, checkboxes, full spreadsheet, embedding of programming code, formulas, markup | Major mode of Emacs; uses plain-text; includes ToDos, spreadsheet, deadlines, encryption, reminders, agenda, calendar |
| PDF Studio | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Personal Knowbase | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Passwords; portable |
| Qiqqa | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | PDF, brainstorm, citations | |
| Samsung Notes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | ? | ? | ||
| Simplenote | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No | No | No | ||
| TagSpaces | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Tags, plugins | Plugins, you can present your local images, videos and music to your TV via ChromeCast. You can create a personal "wiki" for tracking of your projects, ideas or memories. |
| TiddlyWiki | ? | Yes(with plugin) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | HTML, LaTeX, markdown plugins | Plugins; user scripts |
| Tomboy | Partial | No | Partial | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Note Links, highlighting, fixed-width | Reminders; to do-lists; formulas in LaTeX |
| Microsoft Windows Journal | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Zettlr | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
Yes | No | No | No | Bullets, numbering, checkboxes, HTML, LaTeX, internal links, citations | |
| Zim | No | Yes |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Plugins; Versioning; LaTeX integration (formulas, export); HTML export (including slideshow); GNOME's Zeitgeist integration; Lilypond music sheet integration | ASCII diagram drawing; Tags; Tasks; Table of Content navigation; SQLite3 search indexing; Autosaving; Last cursor position memory; Tabbed multi-documents |
| Name | Drawing atop text |
Text box, flow diagram |
Text and paragraph formatting |
Insert hyperlink |
Insert image |
Resize image |
Insert table |
Insert audio |
Insert video |
Attachment | Other objects | Remarks / other features |
Sources and credits
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