Highly recommended note taking apps

There are tons of Notes app available in the playstore and f-droid. I have use my fair share of them these are my best 5 recommendations. All of these are free to use and have to pay extra if you want specific features.

  1. All in one - Wenote - This is the most powerful note app I have used. This has memo, voice record, calendar, sync, color coding, various fonts, categories etc. Some of these features are behind a paywall. But It is a one time payment. It looks minimal and is light weight.
  2. All in one but foss - Joplin - This is an open-source project. Available on almost all platforms. If you want a powerful cross-platform note taking application then this is the best bet. This is Completely free but has an option of premium sync option. You can use free sync service to nextcloud and webdav.
  3. Security - Standard Notes - This is a note taking application that focuses on security. This is an open-source private notes app meaning your notes are end-to-end encrypted, so only you can read your notes. It has a minimal and clean UI. It has dedicated apps for most platforms and syncs your notes securely across all your devices, including your Android devices, Windows, iOS, Linux, and Web.
  4. Modern - Bundled Notes - This is the most modern looking Notes app on my list. It is aesthetically pleasing and intuitive. A powerful notes, lists, reminders and to-do app. Easily organise notes, lists, photos, files, and more. A google keep alternative.
  5. For casual use - Notally - A lightweight note taking application. A simple and elegant open source notes app. Notally is a minimalistic note taking app with a beautiful material design and powerful features. Dark mode, Completely free, Adjustable text size, Auto save and backup, No permissions required.
plantedworld,

I used OneNote all thru grad school and while I had complaints with the app, the ability to have notes on my surface that updated on my phone and desktop, accessible anywhere, without tons of notebooks and paper, and the PowerPoints included in the one note pages with my diagrams and notes alongside… It was great! I don’t need a notes app anymore but man what a useful concept. I hope they get better with time

alonely0,

I use noteshelf on my tablet for quick n’ dirty notes, and then I write them down on obsidian so they’re tidy.

Nighed,
@Nighed@sffa.community avatar

Where does one note stack up against the options suggested here?

ExLisper,

What are all you people taking notes about? Is everyone here still in school? Why not just remember things?

agame,

Why are you depressed? Just be happy. Why are they starving? Eat something.

ExLisper,

Are you suggesting everyone using those apps has amnesia?

Niiru,

D-Notes is what works best for me. It’s more or less the default google keep app on steroids.

markdown is a little too much overhead for note keeping on a phone IMO

agame,

Joplin is the only rec that focuses on markdown. You can also use it without knowing anything about markdown.

Destraight,

That’s okay, my phone keep pre-installed with a notes app

worldofgeese,
@worldofgeese@lemmy.world avatar

Logseq is FOSS and easily one of the best notetaking apps out there. It’s got whiteboards, interlinking at the block level, a big ecosystem of extensions and multiple panes so you can derive context as you write.

It’s my choice for the majority of writing I do in my day to day and hasn’t let me down once. My only wish list feature is multiplayer but that’s coming soon.

bbigras,

Logseq is FOSS

Not their sync sadly.

worldofgeese,
@worldofgeese@lemmy.world avatar

You can use Git, Syncthing or any other FOSS sync tool of your choice.

bbigras,

Yeah. For me it worked well with syncthing. I can’t recommend it to less tech-savvy people though.

Robboman93,

Notesnook is a really great note taking app. It’s opensource, and cross platform available.

ashtrix,

Second notesnook. I really like the web interface too

TurboLag,

I used Standard Notes selfosted for a while, but, like many others, I’ve given up due to frequent issues. I’ve been trying Notesnook since and it more than does the job for me. A selfosted version should also be coming soon.

hottari,

Obsidian or Nextcloud Notes.

StereoTrespasser,

I love Obsidian on the desktop but I find the mobile version really hard to use. It just never responds the way I want it to and I can’t be bothered to set up all my plugins again.

hottari,

I use the mobile app and it works just the same as it does for me on desktop. Though I only use one plugin for syncing my files to cloud and that’s about it.

nameisnotimportant,
@nameisnotimportant@lemmy.ml avatar

Can we can that one synced without having to pay something?

I remember that the only workaround available was something like folder setup on mobile which in turn had to be synced with another app in order to ensure WebDAV sync for instance.

Needless to say that this is really inefficient.

hottari,

I already had a OneDrive account so using this plugin was easy. You can also use Syncthing for syncing the markdown files across your devices.

nameisnotimportant,
@nameisnotimportant@lemmy.ml avatar

Thanks, I will have a look at this. I assume you didn’t ran into any sync issues since you started using this, right?

nameisnotimportant,
@nameisnotimportant@lemmy.ml avatar

Quick heads up: I tried to setup the plugin for a Nextcloud WebDAV service I use and couldn’t succeed to a misconfig on the server side or a bug in the plugin. That’s too much of a hassle to switch, if someone has a better option please chime in.

Damage,

Hey, thanks for the write up. This comment doesn’t add to the conversation but I felt like this post deserved more than just an upvote.

agame,

Thank you. If you have any doubts please feel free to ask.

ElectronBadger,
ElectronBadger avatar

Signal's "Note to Self".

agame,

Classic.

people_are_cute,
@people_are_cute@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I just use an empty WhatsApp group 🙃

agame,

Left whatsapp 3 years ago.

Live_your_lives,

I find that the default Samsung Notes app is actually pretty good.

SkabySkalywag, (edited )

Totally agree. It’s such a pity that there is no easy way to sync them with any iOS app, that I’ve explored. On the other hand, I really wish that Notability would be offered on the Play store.

Edit: for anybody that cares, what the guy above and I (or maybe just me) are talking about are “hand written notes” with a stylus.

agame,

I heard good things.

SkabySkalywag,

Thanks for the ones above, will definitely try some out

donuts,
donuts avatar

I use Joplin and really like it. I sync it between my devices using nextcloud on my home server, but it seems like there are quite a few other options for syncing.

dantheclamman,
@dantheclamman@lemmy.world avatar

I use syncthing to sync it :)

agame,

Indeed there are dropbox, onedrive etc. I also use nextcloud to sync.

habanhero,

Joplin is my daily driver. Although the interface isn’t nearly as polished as the others, it’s feature-packed and the fact that you can E2E encrypt means you are essentially free to use any cloud provider to sync. Safe to store sensitive personal info as well. Been running solid for 2+ years.

agame,

Joplin is nice.

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