Reviewed by Francesco D'Alessio
RemNote Review
A comprehensive review of RemNote: Features, Pricing & Alternatives
RemNote is a perfect note taking tool for capturing notes, creating flashcards and developing healthy study habits and spaced repetition to memorize important notes.
What is RemNote?
RemNote describes itself as all-in-one tool for thinking and learning, but in essence RemNote is a note-taking application perfect for students, researchers and those looking to use flashcards to remember important things, notes or for exam preparation.
RemNote has grown an audience of over 750,000 students using it for managing their notes into notebooks, creating quality notes and then using those notes to convert into flashcards that they can implement spaced repetition methodology, a system designed to optimise better long-term learning recommended by folks like Ali Abdaal.
RemNote allows you to take notes, daily notes, flashcards, documents and organize them folders within the workspace. You can save PDFs and web articles using RemNote and it allows you to expand your library of notes for saving the important ideas and thoughts.
RemNote is quite feature heavy making it a good balance between a notes app and the more modern approach to note-taking, personal knowledge management software.
Is RemNote good for students?
Yes, RemNote is designed really for students to better manage their notes and optimising for better notes in classes, for research and using for recalling most important note for later. Meaning it probably comes in comparison with OneNote and Evernote for students.
Best RemNote Features for Students
There's a fair few features in RemNote making it a powerhouse of lots of great features for students and even the more advanced note-taking app users alike, here's our best bits:
1. RemNote Flashcards
Flashcards in RemNote are the real gem of RemNote allowing students to turn notes into flashcards. But how does flashcards work in RemNote? Let's explore. Apparently it takes less then 0.5 of a second to create a flashcard in RemNote, all you need to do is with a piece of content or inside a note - hit ">>" and then the answer will be converted into a flashcard.
Now, there's no limit to how many flashcards you can add to your notes, but image flashcards come under the RemNote Pro account, something to note. This feature is superb for students wanting easy flashcard creation. This is a great alternative to applications like Anki that are more old-fashioned in their approach to flashcards.
Flashcards really don't take that long to learn and RemNote offer a way to onboard that saves you time learning it in a safe place (as not to mess up your class notes).
2. All Devices and Offline Access
This is one of the special elements of RemNote making it rival the likes of Notion - that doesn't have a fully formed offline function as of this review. You can download RemNote on all devices like macOS and Windows including Linux, iOS and Android for better on the go note-taking. Using the service offline is perfect for those lecture theatres that are lacking in quality Wi-Fi or even the on the go capture of notes. RemNote even has a "Web Clipper" that allows you to bring together notes by clipping them on Google Chrome.
The fact that RemNote has Linux makes it one of the few applications that focuses on building Linux applications - this is one of the specialist platforms.
3. PDF Connection & Annotation
PDF access is a perfect way to house Word, PDFs and Powerpoint files into notes. You can then go into these and annotate them, leaving highlights for quick access. Now the pain is that there's a limit to how many you can actually connect up in the free RemNote plan, but the Pro for RemNote unlocks this all.
This annotation looks great and works awesomely to give that layer for student productivity - for when a lecturer or staff member gives you some documentation, you can keep them housed very closely with your notes for the optimal, most organized setup. You might look like a champion and nerd, but hey!
Personally at university, I used to love doing this with Evernote - connecting PDFs and PowerPoints to notes and then sharing those notes with class members who weren't able to attend (or had better plans like sleeping) - this helped keep everything in one place.
4. Unlimited Notes in Free Plan
Free plan in RemNote is ideal for getting started building out your note library inside of RemNote. Whilst there's some limits to the abilities you have, the fact that you can add more and more notes (or rems) is a brilliant feature for students saving time and effort. Rems help you to better recall and this is perfect for exporting for later or importing from other applications too.
5. Daily notes is part of RemNote
Daily notes which allow you to take notes each day. Popular in tools like Craft and Reflect Notes, this feature can help you to better organize your day ahead and you could use it for tasks, notes for notes, or even journal writing.
This is an ideal experience for hosting RemNote as your everything note-taking application which many people end up continuing to use it past university or college.
What We Didn't Like About RemNote
Some elements of RemNote might not be right for you.
1. Learning Curve
Whilst RemNote is an investment of your time. Learning it actually is something that does take some time. Much like apps like Obsidian and Logseq, the concept of bi-directional links and connecting notes up isn't basic, it might take some time to learn and quite frankly a lot of students want simplicity when using productivity tools.
This is probably on par with the learning of Notion (the education needed to optimise) but with Notion there's so many more tutorials and students using it which makes it much more approachable in comparison with learning it alongside studies in college or university.
2. Obsidian is super free
Obsidian is a real competitive tool in this area. You can get Obsidian for free and use the majority of the features minus flashcards in this application. Again, Obsidian will take a lot of your time to learn maybe a little more than RemNote but as a student many look to save some money and this could be a better time investment.
This doesn't take away from the experience RemNote have made and they have really tailored the community and experience to the students trying to take notes and capture the important bits. There's no taking away from that.
RemNote Pricing
Okay, so how much does RemNote actually cost? Let's explore.
How much does RemNote cost?
RemNote pricing isn't too bad for students. RemNote charges $10 per month (billed annually) that gives you access to most features. RemNote Pro unlocks the more PDF, image, tables and grander features like graph view. The free RemNote pricing offers a decent set of features which less limits than we thought initially.
This is perfect if you're looking to start invest in your studies and want a one stop base for everything (PhD and Master students). RemNote pricing offers three core plans: free, Pro and Life-Long Learner. Pro is the best for ongoing use and Life-long learn will give you the best bang for your buck if you're committing to it for managing your notes.
RemNote: Final Thoughts
RemNote is best suited for students, or anyone looking to create a knowledge-based system to help with learning a new topic or subject.
RemNote uses spaced repetition to support learning and remembering information so it will be popular with anyone resurfacing notes they want to help remember for a dedicated purpose (exam, test, recall). You can also create flashcards, endless notes, and anything else a student may need to fulfil their note-taking needs.
Is RemNote any good?
Yes, RemNote is reliable and fast. Comes with great features and for the free plan a decent offering that any student should consider when bringing those notes in one place.
If you are a student, have some budget, and open to learning new tools - I'd say this is probably, if not, one of the best note-taking applications out there for students to adopt and learn right now. If you're trying to shy away from the Notion hype too.
Best RemNote Alternatives
There's not many student focused note taking applications, RemNote does offer a decent array of tools for students and with flashcards it does rival the likes of Anki.
- Evernote - another more traditional tool with ability to add tasks and calendar
- Obsidian - you could build a strong note layout inside of Obsidian like RemNote
- Logseq - similar to Obsidian with great features for note linking and with flashcards
What's the best RemNote alternative then?
Obsidian is the best RemNote alternative but not specialist to students to you'd have to build your own experience to get here.