
Google Keep is 100% free-there are no upsells or premium plans-although you need a Google account to use it. Joplin wins another Editors' Choice award while it doesn't support collaboration, it is among the best free and open-source alternatives to OneNote and Evernote. Evernote disappointed otherwise loyal users in late 2020 with a terribly buggy release, and OneNote has plenty of room for improvement in its layout and structure. For that reason, they are both Editors' Choice winners for note-taking apps. The two leaders, Microsoft OneNote and Evernote, continue to be the most powerful options with nothing else coming close. The note-taking app space is ripe for improvement and innovation. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions.


You can open any plain text files, do advanced interlinking between your notes, write custom code, create knowledge bases, store various data, use backlinks/outgoing links, and more. With Obsidian, you don’t just take notes. If you need an app for groceries or random ideas to remember later, you will not need an advanced app like Obsidian. This kind of app addresses either developers or professionals who want to keep all their things in one place and connect multiple files together (like knowledge bases).

While Bear is available only for Apple devices, Obsidian works on Windows and Android, too. Obsidian is a Markdown note-taking app, similar to Bear, but with more focus on creating connections between your notes.
