Oct 24
A list of the best second brain apps for note taking, including tools like Notion and Evernote. Find the best second brain note taking app and pair it up to your way of note-taking and the powerful Second Brain ideology.
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The Second Brain concept has been adopted by millions worldwide.
Becoming a global system for those wanting to take better notes & store their memories digitally, Tiago Forte has created a cult-like tribe of people who want to focus less on remembering things and more on doing things.
That being said, the rise of note-taking applications has been perfect for the generational evolution into use for your second brain, allowing you to take, store, capture, and re-surface notes for later, all in the manner the concept endorses.
Second Brain apps come in many shapes and sizes, some with AI note-taking abilities, others with a focus on bringing tasks, calendars, and notes into one location; here are some of the reasons why we picked these Second Brain apps:
Reasons | Why? |
---|---|
Well-known options | These second-brain apps are established in the market with active users globally. |
Reliable backgrounds | They all come from credible developers that have been added to our site. |
Tiago Forte approved | Some of these tools have been used and shared by Tiago Forte as options. |
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Notion is one of the most popular second-brain software tools available, mainly due to its flexibility and alignment with Tiago Forte's concepts.
The first key feature is Notion’s capture abilities.
Notion includes a web clipper, allowing you to collect information from the web. It can also integrate with services like Readwise, helping you gather content from books, articles, conversations, and more.
Notion even uses AI, letting you access helpful web resources directly within the platform. These capture tools are available on various devices, making them highly versatile. This is still something that is growing in use cases, but can be useful.
Once you’ve gathered your information, Notion provides extensive ways to organize and structure it into projects, categories, or areas. Its flexibility in setting up your account means you can implement methods like PARA (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives) for efficient storage and organization.
If setting up such systems feels challenging, templates are available from Notion and third-party developers. Templates like the Easlo template can help you start quickly and organize information, as Tiago recommends.
Notion’s AI features now assist with distilling and summarizing your knowledge. You can use the Notion Q&A tool to extract insights from your notes or highlight key takeaways using in-page AI—something that is difficult for many other productivity apps to replicate.
Expressing your knowledge in Notion is also highly customizable. It supports collaboration and sharing, and with the new Notion Sites feature, you can turn your pages into websites which can be updated and shared in real-time.
This is particularly useful for those interested in creating "digital gardens", where you can continue to develop and refine your ideas without leaving Notion. If you have a Pro account, you can even connect it to a custom domain.
Although Notion offers many benefits, such as its flexibility and creative elements, it does have a learning curve.
Compared to other second-brain apps, it might take the longest to master. However, once you do, the possibilities for organizing and expressing your ideas are significant.
Notion is an all-in-one productivity app for notes, project management, tasks, and calendar management. It is available for macOS, Windows, web, iOS, and Android. Although it is a complex tool, users can use the no-code layout to build workspaces for any scenario.
Notion has been a popular Evernote alternative.
Evernote is one of the most traditional second-brain applications on the market. It has a long and rich history of being out there as one of the digital brain options.
There is also a whole host of systems that can help you organize and structure, as Tiago Forte recommends.
Evernote is well known for its web clipper, which allows you to capture PDFs, web pages, and much more. But most importantly, it lets you annotate it in real-time, giving you some important insight before you add it to your system.
This is a fan favorite for many people, and one of the reasons why many people have not moved from the application is the Chrome extension, as well as the other abilities for clipping on mobile, which allow you to quickly bring stuff into your system.
The benefit is that it has its own built-in document scanner experience, which allows you to quickly import items into your system.
In terms of organization into Evernote, it isn’t as complicated as the structure of Notion, and it does allow you to create structures like PARA or manage all of your systems.
In terms of coordinating what that looks like, you can use notebooks and folders to organize your structure, and more recently, Evernote has introduced a better, more organized sidebar.
There’s also a new ability to see the tasks and the calendar items outside of just your notes, which allows you a better view of things that need to be done and brought out of your tasks and notes collectively.
Distilling knowledge in Evernote is actually really helpful thanks to new artificial intelligence features. For example, there’s a new AI search function, which, available in a premium, can allow you to scan across all of your accounts and find relevant notes that meet the question of your answer.
This is really helpful for defining what a certain note needs to do. For example, if you searched, "what was the tool that I was recommended by Richard in the meeting?" It will scan through your account and find that relevant note.
So, distilling knowledge is pretty helpful. Expressing knowledge is something that can turn it into an actionable element, like creating content or sharing with others.
Whilst it doesn’t have a phenomenal sharing ability like Notion Sites does, it does have a good way to share notes with other people and notes that can be shared and viewed on the web. You can also collaborate in real time on notes, much like you can in Notion, which is a more recently added real time editing ability that you can find in Evernote.
So collectively, Evernote isn’t a bad option for your second brain. It’s a bit more traditional in nature, and whilst it does have new ownership, it will try to build a better artificial intelligence system for your notes. However, in terms of its traditional structure and layout, it is still much more archaic compared to other options.
Evernote is a note-taking application that was first built in 2000. It is available on iOS, Android, macOS, web, and Windows. Professionals and individuals use it to take notes, add tasks & manage calendar notes in one.
It is famous for note-taking and has a traditional format for collecting and organizing notes. Bending Spoons acquired Evernote and are the developers and owners.
Here's everything you need to know about Evernote in 2024:
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Evernote used to be a brilliant Second Brain app, but sadly they lost their way.
They are now back and hungry for more in the note-taking realm allowing you to not only capture your notes but also task management and calendar in one place. This makes Evernote a more attractive option for those using the Second Brain concept as they have abilities within the application that still are popular like Web Clipper and a powerful search that has been upgraded with AI abilities.
Files is now a better part of Evernote. This feature allows you to scan only the files you've uploaded inside of your Evernote account making it much more accessible to find and seek notes in the past, a lot of people tended to find this a huge time-saver in Evernote.
Evernote can incorporate a lot of the methodology with PARA - the system used in the concept to organize folders and better sort things coming in.
Other functions including OCR, audio files, and the famed Web Clipper give Evernote a solid footing for your note-taking and capturing into a Second Brain.
If you're looking for something more general and all-around in nature, Evernote is much more structured than Notion and gives a new lick of paint that will allow it to be around as a tool much longer into the future.
Obsidian describes itself as a private and flexible writing app.
For many, Obsidian is the best PKM focused second brain app as it brings the power of networked thought with the traditional note-taking feel. These are commonly referred to as PKM tools and we've listed many of them because they make nice second brain apps.
Obsidian stands at the balance between Evernote and Notion in terms of complexity, but for many Second Brain adopters, using Obsidian's features like graph view (for viewing how notes connect), backlinks (for connecting notes together) and canvas (below) are a welcomed set of advanced note-taking features for going deeper with ideas.
Obsidian is a great all-rounder in the PKM note-taking space.
In our opinion, this space is reserved more for the advanced note-taking community, ones who want to do more with their notes, typically researchers and those who think in terms of building connections. Before you dive in, do explore how networked thought works and operates and if it aligns with how you think, it'll make a good second brain app.
Obsidian is free and for those who want to go online to store their notes, sync costs $10 per month, which is fairly inline with the cost of note-taking apps these days.
Reflect is a good second brain app, it resembles a PKM software but with a friendly feel.
Whilst this application charges $10 per month (annual), this application presents a solid release cycle, new features to expand line-up like tasks and Google Calendar connection. Many people also like how in Reflect you can connect it up with the likes of Amazon Kindles so that you can better save notes and bring them into your second brain system with ease.
Reflect is reserved for the iOS and macOS goers, but it does have a neat Chrome and Safari clipper for better saving. One element of Reflect that goes unnoticed is the focus on privacy and security, with encrypted notes being one of their key priorities.
Reflect is a more premium PKM tool for second brain use.
If you're open to the cost, per month, which isn't more expensive than Evernote, and on par with the Obsidian Sync pricing, Reflect is a good tool for your second brain. It reminds us of an approachable PKM tool, which in layman's terms means you can get without the need for lengthly courses or implementation.
Daily notes is a nice addition in Reflect and the newer releases of tasks continue to expand the Reflect line-up for managing everything in your second brain.
Logseq is very much like Obsidian.
It comes with an advanced note-taking focus that many people like for research or in-depth team or personal knowledge bases. Logseq has got a bunch of abilities that do extend the nature of the tool like flashcards and whiteboards both allowing you to bring to life existing notes and craft them more suitably for your Second Brain.
Imagine that you use the flashcard functionality to re-surface notes that you want to remember, not only for an exam but for future recall, this feature could be very helpful. One of the other tempting elements is that privacy is a key focus on Logseq, as well as storing your information and notes offline, locally - better for those sensitive to their Second Brain being in the hands of others.
Logseq is only suitable for advanced note-takers.
If you're someone looking for something that has networked thought abilities, ways to express your notes as relationships, and more into hardcore note-taking, Logseq is more suitable as your Second Brain compared to the other tools.
If this doesn't sound like you, we'd recommend more general ones like Evernote.
Milanote is great for visual thinkers and learners, providing a good choice of second brain app for anyone who would rather save more visual notes and ideas rather than just linked notes between each other. This is going to take some getting used to as notes don't sit like they do inside of the canvas and are perfectly searchable like other apps do in this list.
Milanote is much better if you like to plan notes & projects at the same time.
Here's some of the best bits of Milanote that make it special:
Milanote is perfect for Second Brain if you know you're a visual thinker. Those who find it difficult to express ideas and bring them together will love apps like Milanote. Tiago shares how he could use Second Brain to manage in this video below, we'd recommend watching.
Mem is a strange note-taking application as it focuses more on your connection with notes and AI technologies. It uses your notes and brings them into a chat like experience to help communicate with your notes & AI for better output.
For example, you can add many notes about your day-to-day business operations and then ask your notes questions like "what do you think the biggest issue is with how I do things" and it will help compile a recommended answer based on all your notes taken.
If AI is not for you, then no. If the concept is too intense, Mem might not be for you. We'd say Mem best serves people that want to build a relationship between their notes taken and their AI assistant.
For people that want to enhance the expression side of their CODE system in Second Brain, then this could be a good way to re-surface notes for better absorption or seeking out truths later on.
Capacities Notes wants to be the studio for your mind by offering a unique way to take notes with objects in mind. Objects help structure a note from the core by offering repeatable note templates that save time and effort. Think "book" capture for learnings from books, this might save you time knowing you are adding a book as an object and building from that.
This is much more approachable for people who want to get into PKM apps but don't know how to get started. Capacities bridges the gap between complex and simplistic.
Capacities is much like Notion but with a twist, the focus on objects within your notes can be very helpful for creating structure, building relationships and adding notes fast. The first few weeks of setting up your Second Brain in Capacities might be intense, but the payoff will be much greater than many of the other apps in this list - as the system is set up for your types of notes that live as objects.
Workflowy wants you to organize your brain by using an outliner concept.
Unlike the second brain apps on this list, Workflowy uses something called outliner notes which are text based notes that expand as you click into them. This is a concept that is something that has evolved into full-fledged notes apps, but people still use and love for simple and nested notes that are designed to be more organized.
Workflowy has kanban boards, tags, live copy features - which all help you expand notes and use this outliner for bringing and capturing your best ideas, thoughts and notes into a tidier system than your first glance. Worth looking at for more simple second brain use.
Great for bullet-based powers, Workflowy is simple and called an outliner for a reason. Second Brain users won't find it as valuable as others thanks to the lack of focus on media and file upload, but still perfect for those who want to keep things simple and concise.
Many people turn to note app that allow for better research and data collection and Heptabase is one of those for your notes.
The visual canvas allows you to connect the notes you're working on but largely the notes allow for better research collation and curation. Many visual thinkers and researchers find that this is one of the best second-brain apps for that combination.
If you're torn between Milanote and this, you're thinking visual note-taking as a concept to use. For Heptabase, it works very well with those who are researching and for many that is a popular use case for the Second Brain concept.
We'd recommend exploring our list of the best visual note-taking apps to go deeper as many of them too, map to the Second Brain concept.
Amplenote is a GTD dream.
The combination of notes, tasks, and calendar management is something people love with Amplenote. The note-taking abilities are really good, despite the design not being as "sexy" as apps like Notion or Obsidian. The software works well to balance those three parts of your productivity and house them in one. The ability to backlink, connect tasks, and capture allows for a super second-brain layout.
For housing everything, Amplenote is a great tool that works like Evernote but with more superpowers packed in. For those who have used Evernote and want an alternative to it, Amplenote is one of the best ones - and it presents a good house for your Second Brain with the intense stuff like linking notes & bonuses like task management too.
Let's narrow down the recommendations for you to make the perfect one.
Obsidian and Notion are both superb applications for more general use and very innovative when it comes to updates and releases, meaning you get better and greater reach.
Both Heptabase and Milanote win here. They provide a great visual canvas to manage your notes and ideas in a visual space. People also like Obsidian for this too with canvas mode.
Better for those who want more structure, Amplenote & Evernote do a good job at this and we'd recommend looking at both of them, even noting Evernote's pricing leaps.
Both of these apps are heavily invested in notes + AI. We'd say that Mem and Evernote in 2024 will have the biggest leaps for AI technologies within notes apps, if that's your thing.
You can use anything really. A great starting point is using a notes app or notebook.
Both work very well and can be your central base for all your notes. All this Second Brain software is helpful but why use the system?
The best, and probably only way to build a successful second brain system is to use a suitable application for storing endless notes, thoughts, ideas and snippets.
Of course, you can stick with traditional ways of keeping notes and ideas in a mountain of notebooks for different categories, but the chances are you will still forget, lose the notebook, or spend too much time trying to find a specific note.
By using an app you can organise your notes using the simple CODE and PARA method. To recap here's what they mean...
Second Brain apps also come with search abilities, so if you know you previously made a note about something you could search the key term and bring up all notes and things you have saved to do with that topic.
Applications that link notes can also bring up relevant and suggested topics to further extend your learning and note-taking. Search all our note-taking apps on Tool Finder, one of the best productivity blogs out there for finding tools.
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