Best 10 Note-Taking Apps: 2023 Recommendations
Take better notes and organize your thoughts and ideas with PKM tools, all-round note-taking tools and advanced tools with new AI abilities, here's our top note-taking picks.
Wednesday 12th Apr, 2023
The World of Notes Apps
The world of note-taking applications can be daunting.
There's a wide variety of notes apps now on the market designed for the average Joe note-taker, all the way to the more advanced, premium note-taking lovers out there. From students to working mums, the spectrum of notes apps is hard to choose from.
We've shortlisted these as great all-rounders, they all present unique features but all are the most accessible on our list of note-taking tools and good all-round tools for your notes to be captured, linked and expanded on.
Best 10 All-Round Note-Taking Apps
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Passionate All-In-One'ers
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Traditional Note-Taking
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Beginner Note-Taking
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Best For
Advanced PKM note-takers
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Personal Note-Taking
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Note-Taking
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Feature-Rich Note Taking
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Do I Need a Note-Taking Application?
This all depends on what you need to capture. Note-taking applications tend to be good when used daily to bring together notes - or capturing things on the go.
Tools like Evernote and Obsidian in the list are different, but offer two great ways to take notes, Evernote more traditional - with the quick capture of documents, photos and short checklists, whilst Obsidian more networked, for the more advanced note-taker.
Matching something to your needs can be helpful for long-term note-taking, as moving between note-taking apps can be like moving house - stressful, expensive and tiring.
How to Choose the Best Note-Taking App for You
When choosing a note-taking app, it's important to understand the four personalities of a note-taker. These include the Organizer, the Collector, the Sketcher, and the Notetaker.
- The Organizer is someone who prefers to organize their notes in a structured way. They may want to use a note-taking app that offers a range of organizational tools, such as folders, tags, and labels.
- The Collector is someone who likes to collect lots of information. They may want to use a note-taking app that offers a range of options for saving and storing information, such as cloud storage and searchable notes.
- The Sketcher is someone who prefers to draw and create diagrams. They may want to use a note-taking app that offers a range of tools for drawing, such as shapes, arrows, and text boxes.
- The Notetaker is someone who prefers to take notes quickly and easily. They may want to use a note-taking app that offers a range of features for taking notes, such as voice dictation and text-to-speech transcription.
By understanding the four personalities of a note-taker, you can easily find a note-taking app that suits your needs. These concepts are so well explained by Anne-Laure Le Cunff of Ness Labs, in here piece about the types of note-taking users.
Focus on Research
Another option is to read through articles and reviews that compare different note-taking apps. This will give you a sense of what each app offers and how they differ from one another. Finally, you can always try out a few different apps to see which one you like best. Many note-taking apps offer free trials, so you can test them out before making a decision.
This is some good generalised advice on picking productivity tools:
For some people, Notion might be the house for everything, tasks, notes and calendar — but for others — a tool for each of them like for notes, for tasks and for calendar could be the perfect productivity set-up.
Still struggling?
If you're struggling to find note-taking apps that suit your needs, there are a few things you can do. First, consider what features are most important to you, followed by:
- Do you need an app that syncs across multiple devices?
- Do you want an app that integrates with other software you use?
- Are you looking for a simple, distraction-free interface?
Once you know what you're looking for, you can search for apps that meet your criteria.
We've got plenty of different types of productivity apps across the board on Tool Finder. Well worth exploring other note-taking apps or searching for another type for you.
Table of Contents
- The World of Notes Apps
- Best 10 All-Round Note-Taking Apps
- Do I Need a Note-Taking Application?
- How to Choose the Best Note-Taking App for You
- Focus on Research
- Still struggling?
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