If you're looking for a notes app for iPhone in 2026, you've got more options than ever. The default Apple Notes is solid, but there's a whole ecosystem of third-party apps that do specific things better. Some focus on beautiful design, others on powerful organization, and a few try to do everything.
We tested dozens of iPhone notes apps to find the ones actually worth downloading. Here's what we looked for: clean interface that doesn't get in your way, reliable sync across devices (because you will want to access notes on other devices eventually), good search functionality, and export options so you're not locked into one ecosystem forever.
The best notes app for you depends on how you actually take notes. Quick voice memos? Long-form writing? Study notes with images? Meeting minutes? Different apps excel at different things. We've broken down each option by what it does best so you can skip straight to the one that fits your workflow.
1. Bear Notes
Best for All Round: Bear Notes
Bear Notes is a friendly, well-designed notes app with fun and personality. The application allows you to take simple notes with images, files, and even drawings, for iPad and iPhone users alike. Bear also has a world-class macOS application that presents a clean and easy way to take notes on the desktop.
But if you're on the hunt for a solo iPhone notes app, Bear Notes is well put together for managing notes. The app won Apple's Design Award for good reason. Using it feels polished in a way most note apps don't achieve.
You can organize your notes in markdown, use features like tables, and organize your notes in hashtags which makes for nesting of hashtags and easy simple notes without the hassle of folders. This means you can make a note that lives in two places, or two hashtags at once.
The hashtag system is brilliant for people who think in tags rather than folders. Type #work #project-alpha and that note appears in both contexts. No duplicating notes, no choosing between categories. Just tag it and move on.
Markdown support means you can format text without lifting your fingers off the keyboard. Type ** around text for bold, _ for italics, # for headers. If you're writing long notes on your iPhone (brave), this speeds things up considerably.
Themes are where Bear shows its personality. Pick from dozens of beautiful color schemes, from minimal black and white to vibrant reds and blues. Sounds superficial, but when you're staring at notes for hours, aesthetics matter.
What's good: Beautiful design with personality. Hashtag organization system. Full markdown support. Cross-note linking for building knowledge bases. Multiple export formats. Themes that actually look good.
Best for: Writers who want a beautiful writing environment. Anyone who prefers tags over folders. People who use markdown regularly. Users invested in the Apple ecosystem (Mac, iPad, iPhone sync is seamless).
Pricing: Free version is usable but limited. Bear Pro is $2.99 per month or $29.99 annually for sync, themes, and export options. Fair pricing for what you get.
Bear Notes is a minimal, markdown note-taking application perfect for iOS and Mac.
2. Apple Notes
Best for Easy Access: Apple Notes
Apple Notes is many people's go-to notes application and provides the best overall experience. If you want basic text, lists, small tables, folders to organize, and easy sharing between apps on your iPhone, then Apple Notes is perfect.
Typically we recommend Apple Notes to everyone because it tends to serve the job and for many people the meme is true. You know the one: "I've tried 47 note-taking apps and always come back to Apple Notes." There's truth to it.
For many people, the notes experience is best with Apple Notes because it doesn't have crazy complex features and is a portable iPhone notes experience. Many people love Apple Notes and millions, maybe even billions use it daily.
The integration with iOS is unmatched. Swipe up from lock screen with Apple Pencil (or tap the note icon), and you're writing immediately. No unlocking, no opening an app. Share sheet works perfectly. Select text in Safari, share to Notes, done. It's these tiny friction-reducing moments that add up.
Recent updates added some genuinely useful features. Math calculations happen inline, so type "156 * 23" and it solves automatically. Useful for quick calculations without switching apps. Smart folders auto-organize notes based on tags or keywords you set.
Collaboration works well for shared grocery lists, trip planning, or project notes with family. Everyone with an iPhone can access and edit in real-time. No accounts to create, no permissions to manage. Just works.
The scanning feature is clutch. Point your camera at a document, receipt, or whiteboard, and it captures, crops, and enhances automatically. Way faster than third-party scanning apps for quick captures.
What's good: Zero friction with iOS integration. Free with unlimited storage (iCloud dependent). Collaboration without setup. Document scanning built-in. Math calculations. Quick note from lock screen.
Best for: iPhone users who want simple, reliable notes. Families sharing lists and plans. Anyone who values integration over features. People who've tried everything and keep coming back.
Pricing: Completely free. Storage limited by your iCloud plan (5GB free, paid plans if you need more). No subscription, no in-app purchases.
Apple Notes is a note-taking that comes with all iOS and macOS devices for notes.
3. Google Keep
Best for Reminders & Notes: Google Keep
Google Keep isn't just Google's version of Apple Notes; it extends to iPhone users, too. This is the perfect example of Post-it notes if they had a dedicated notes app (which I'm sure they probably do), but Google Keep does notes like Post-it notes in a great way.
Adding notes is really fast, you can set reminders on notes, turn them into checklists, capture audio too and really bring together a set of colorful notes. The speed is what keeps people using it. Open the app, tap the plus, start typing. No folders to navigate, no templates to choose. Just note and done.
The visual grid layout works differently than most notes apps. Instead of a list, you see all your notes as cards in a Pinterest-style grid. Color-code them (yellow for personal, blue for work, green for shopping), and you can scan visually for what you need. Sounds chaotic, but somehow it works.
Reminders tied to location are stupidly useful. Set "buy milk" to remind you when you're near the grocery store, and your phone buzzes as you drive past. Works way better than time-based reminders for errands.
Google Keep is free too, meaning you get totally free experience and with the newer AI image abilities you can search for images in your Google Keep and get instant results. You can also organize by object, color of note and much more for easier AI based note-taking.
The image text extraction is handy. Take a photo of a business card, receipt, or handwritten note, and Keep pulls the text out so it's searchable. Not perfect with messy handwriting, but gets the job done for most use cases.
Collaboration is simple. Share a note with anyone via email, and they can edit in real-time. Great for shared grocery lists or group project notes. Works cross-platform, so your Android friends can participate too.
What's good: Blazing fast note creation. Location-based reminders. Color coding and visual organization. Image text extraction. Cross-platform (works on Android, iOS, web). Completely free with no limits.
Best for: Quick note capture without organization overhead. People who think visually. Users who want reminders tied to locations. Anyone in the Google ecosystem. Cross-platform users who switch between iPhone and Android.
Pricing: Free. No premium tier, no subscriptions, no catches. Google makes money from you in other ways, so notes are totally free.
Google Keep is the digital version of Post-it Notes created by the folks at Google.
4. Evernote
Best for All Round: Evernote
If you're looking for a good way to manage notes on iPhone and beyond, Evernote is probably the best recommendation. Evernote is available on all devices and has an iPhone version that makes notes easier to capture. Been around since 2008, so it's had time to mature and work out the bugs.
Now, in Evernote, you can capture not just notes but tasks, calendar events, and more. Document scanning, business card scanning, image upload, and powerful search mean your notes get the power treatment. The OCR (optical character recognition) is genuinely impressive. Handwritten notes, printed documents, even text in images becomes searchable.
Bending Spoons now owns Evernote, meaning the AI focus will now be brought to Evernote. To be honest, they have a history of developing good iPhone apps, so the next few years for Evernote will be very, very interesting. They acquired Evernote in late 2022 and have been steadily improving it since.
The web clipper functionality is still unmatched. Save articles, recipes, product pages from Safari with one tap. Everything saves with formatting intact, and you can annotate or highlight important sections. Perfect for research or saving things to read later.
Notebooks and tags give you flexible organization. Create a notebook for work, one for personal, tag notes with projects or topics. Search across everything instantly. The search is stupid fast even with thousands of notes.
What's good: Powerful search with OCR. Web clipper for saving articles. Document and business card scanning. Cross-platform sync. Notebooks and tags for organization. Long-term stability (16+ years old).
Best for: People with large note collections. Anyone doing research or saving web content. Business users who need document scanning. Power users who want advanced organization. Long-form note takers.
Pricing: Free plan is limited (60MB monthly upload, 2 devices). Personal plan is $14.99 per month or $129.99 yearly. Professional is $17.99 monthly. Pricing is steep compared to alternatives, but you get a lot of features.
5. Supernotes
Best for Students: Supernotes
Supernotes launched with their 3.0 release and have been a hit since. Supernotes is a PKM-like notes app that wants to help you manage your notes with no folders, but the concept of a notecard, a much more friendly way to take notes and link them up.
Much like PKM, a personal knowledge management app, Supernotes handles your notes in a graph and bi-directional links, but the notecard makes taking notes in Supernotes straightforward and natural. Think of each card as a focused thought or concept.
The card-based system sounds gimmicky until you use it. Each note is a card that can link to other cards. Over time, you build a network of connected ideas. Way more useful than dumping everything into folders and forgetting it exists.
Bi-directional linking means when you link Card A to Card B, both cards know about each other. Following connections between ideas becomes natural. Great for studying complex topics where everything relates to everything else.
Popular with students, this is one of the best iPhone apps for student note-takers, but as a whole, it can be used beyond the academic for taking notes and bringing your ideas together. The iPhone app is surprisingly good for such a feature-rich tool. Quick capture works smoothly.
If you use notes with others, one of the best things is that notes can be collaborative in Supernotes. Share cards with classmates, and everyone can edit and add links. Perfect for group projects or study groups. But remember there's a limit of 100 note cards in the free plan.
Daily cards and parent-child relationships let you organize hierarchically when you need structure. You can have a "Biology" parent card with child cards for each chapter or topic.
What's good: Card-based system for focused notes. Bi-directional linking between ideas. Collaborative cards for group work. Beautiful, minimal design. Cross-platform with solid iPhone app. Daily cards for journaling.
Best for: Students building knowledge bases. Anyone studying complex topics with interconnected ideas. People who want networked thought without Roam or Obsidian complexity. Collaborative note-taking with classmates.
Pricing: Free for 100 cards (sounds limiting but goes further than you'd think). Unlimited plan is $10 per month or $96 yearly. Reasonable for students.
A beautifully-designed note-taking tool that was originally developed for students.
6. Agenda Notes
Best for Dates: Agenda Notes
Agenda won Apple's Design Award a few years back, for good reason. Agenda presents a beautiful design with a simple concept: connect your notes with calendar-associated dates. This makes it excellent for those who plan with a date in mind. This makes it popular with those who take meeting notes, plan trips, or even have a calendar blocked with events.
Agenda Notes works with Apple Calendar, making the import of calendar events easy to get started. It is free with premium pricing but offers a great deal of features like "On the Agenda" for keeping track of what's most important and timely note-wise.
The timeline view is what makes Agenda special. Your notes appear on a timeline corresponding to calendar dates. Notes for yesterday, today, next week, all laid out chronologically. Makes sense if your work revolves around dates and deadlines.
"On the Agenda" is a brilliant feature. Pin important notes to this special view so they're always accessible regardless of date. Meeting notes that need follow-up, trip planning that spans multiple dates, ongoing project notes. Keeps them visible until you're done.
Projects organize related notes together. Create a project for a client, a trip, or a work initiative. All notes for that project appear together, sorted by date. The combination of projects and dates gives you two ways to find things.
What's good: Calendar integration that actually makes sense. Timeline view for date-based organization. "On the Agenda" for pinning important notes. Beautiful, award-winning design. Works with Apple Calendar seamlessly.
Best for: People whose work revolves around meetings and deadlines. Trip planners who think in dates. Anyone who wants notes connected to calendar events. Mac and iPhone users who live in their calendar.
Pricing: Free version is functional. Premium features are $24.99 yearly or $74.99 lifetime. Premium unlocks extra features like premium templates and extended customization.
Agenda Notes is a note-taking app with calendar focus for managing dates & notes.
7. NotePlan
Best for BuJo: NotePlan
NotePlan has evolved in the last few years as a way to take notes on the go. Not only notes but tasks and calendars can be made up in NotePlan, allowing you an ultimate note-taking system for your productivity. NotePlan is in open-text format, meaning it can be used with Markdown to take notes and even create tasks in Markdown.
NotePlan 3 can be used as a daily note-taking app with the daily notes function, a bullet journal in the fashion it allows notes to be added, a planner for your calendar events and adding associated notes to them like Agenda Notes, and even a task app for adding tasks alongside your calendar and notes.
The bullet journal approach works naturally on iPhone. Each day gets its own note. Add bullets for tasks, events, notes, whatever. Tasks can carry forward to the next day if incomplete. It's like a paper bullet journal but with the benefits of digital (search, sync, no running out of pages).
Markdown everywhere means you control formatting with plain text. Type - [ ] for a task checkbox, # for headers, ** for bold. Your notes are readable as plain text files, which means you're not locked into NotePlan's ecosystem forever. Export and take your data anywhere.
Calendar integration pulls events directly into your daily notes. See meetings alongside your tasks and notes for the day. Add notes to calendar events without switching apps. Actually useful for planning your day in one view.
Backlinking lets you connect notes across days and projects. Reference a project from today's daily note, and it creates a link. Similar to Obsidian or Roam but simplified for mobile use.
What's good: Bullet journal methodology in app form. Full markdown support. Calendar and task integration. Daily notes for journaling. Backlinks between notes. Plain text files you can export.
Best for: Bullet journal enthusiasts who want digital. People who want notes, tasks, and calendar in one app. Markdown lovers. Anyone who values data portability and plain text formats.
Pricing: Free trial available. Subscription is $12.99 monthly or $104.99 yearly. On the pricier side but includes everything (notes, tasks, calendar) in one package.
Common Questions About iPhone Notes Apps
What is the best iPhone note-taking app for beginners?
Apple Notes wins here. It's already on your phone, syncs automatically with iCloud, and has enough features for most people without being overwhelming. The learning curve is basically zero. Open it, start typing, done. For people who want something prettier with more organization options, Bear Notes is the natural next step. Still simple, but with hashtags and themes.
What's the best note-taking app for students on iPhone?
Supernotes or Apple Notes, will serve you well as a student on iOS. Supernotes is the more detailed tool and requires some light learning, but is worth it for managing notes and sharing them with others. Supernotes comes with a card-like feel allowing you to bring study notes and share them with other users of Supernotes. Good for missing lectures or classes. The free plan's 100-card limit is actually enough for a semester or two if you're focused.
What iPhone note app works best for advanced users?
NotePlan is a great one for the more advanced note-taker on iPhone. It includes features like bullet journal abilities for daily notes, planning views, calendar connection and even task management in markdown. There's lots of powerful ways to use NotePlan. Well worth it for those note-taking nerds with an iPhone who want everything in one place. The markdown support and plain text storage mean you're not locked in.
Can I use Google Keep on iPhone?
Yeah, Google Keep has a solid iPhone app. Works across platforms, so if you switch between Android and iPhone or use multiple devices, Keep stays synced. The location-based reminders are particularly useful. Free with no limits, which is nice. Interface is more colorful and visual than most notes apps.
Which notes app has the best search on iPhone?
Evernote takes this one. The OCR technology means it can search text inside images, PDFs, and handwritten notes. Even if you take a photo of a whiteboard or business card, that text becomes searchable. Apple Notes has improved search recently with Smart Folders, but Evernote's still ahead for power users with thousands of notes.
Look, the "best" notes app for iPhone depends entirely on what you're doing with your notes. If you're just capturing quick thoughts, grocery lists, and random ideas, Apple Notes or Google Keep will do everything you need without costing a dime or requiring setup.
For people who take notes seriously (students, researchers, writers), the specialized apps justify their cost. Bear Notes for beautiful markdown writing, Supernotes for networked knowledge, NotePlan for bullet journaling, Evernote for research and web clipping. Each does something specific really well.
My advice? Start with Apple Notes. Use it for a month. When you hit a limitation or frustration, that tells you what features you actually need. Then pick the app that solves that specific problem. Don't download the most powerful app just because it has features. Download the app that fixes your actual pain point.
Most of these apps offer free trials or free tiers. Test them with your real notes and workflow before committing. What works for someone else might feel clunky for you, and vice versa. The best notes app is the one you'll actually use consistently.