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Apple Notes
For the person who already carries an iPhone and wants zero setup. Notes is already installed, syncs through iCloud and costs nothing beyond your iCloud storage, which is why so many switchers quietly end up back here.
Its old lock-in problem finally eased with iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe, which added Export as Markdown, giving notes a real exit to other apps rather than just PDF copies. The remaining catch is the platform itself: there is no Windows or Android app, only iCloud in a browser, so choose it only if you expect to stay with Apple hardware.
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Google Keep
For sticky-note thinkers who jot a grocery list, a parking spot and a half-formed idea within the same minute. Keep's colored cards, labels and reminders sync across Android, iPhone and the web through your Google account, and it is free, so it makes an excellent inbox even if your real notes live somewhere else.
Leaving is the untidy part. The exit is Google Takeout, which hands you a ZIP with each note as both an HTML file and a JSON file. Plenty of apps can import that, but nobody would call it a pleasant format to own.
More about Google Keep3
Simplenote
For people who want text and nothing else. Simplenote runs on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux and the web, and its apps, sync, backups and sharing are all free, with tags for finding things and an optional Markdown preview.
There are no notebooks to design and no blocks to drag around, which is the whole appeal and also the limit: if your notes are mostly screenshots and PDFs, this is the wrong tool. Because everything is plain text, leaving costs almost nothing, which makes it a sensible place to wait out your next app crush.
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Bear
For Apple users who like Markdown but want it to look good while they type. Bear formats notes with simple Markdown and organizes them with tags instead of folders, which suits people who never could decide which folder a note belonged in.
Sync is the paid part: Bear Pro, at $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year, unlocks iCloud sync across your Apple devices plus export to PDF, HTML and DOCX, so the free app really suits one device. It is Apple-only, so the day a Windows laptop or Android phone enters your life is the day you start another migration.
More about Bear5
Standard Notes
For people whose notes hold things they would never put in an email: password hints, health details, journal entries. Standard Notes encrypts everything end to end, and even the free plan includes unlimited device sync, offline access and a full data export in plaintext or encrypted form, which is a generous exit for a free tier.
The trade-off is that free means plain text notes; richer editors sit in the paid plans at $90 or $120 a year. Proton bought it in 2024 and promised it would stay open source, freely available and fully supported, which eases the usual worry about a small privacy app disappearing.
More about Standard Notes6
Joplin
For anyone who has been stranded by an app once and refuses to let it happen again. Joplin is open source, runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, and lets you write in Markdown or a rich text editor. You pick where your notes sync, Joplin Cloud, Dropbox or OneDrive among the options, with end-to-end encryption on top.
It looks plainer than the commercial apps and takes a few more minutes to set up. In return, no company decides what happens to your notes, and the Markdown underneath stays readable long after you have moved on.
More about Joplin7
Obsidian
For people who want their notes to outlive any app, this one included. Obsidian stores everything as Markdown plain text files in an ordinary folder on your own device, so if the company vanished tomorrow, any text editor could still open your notes. Links between notes, a graph view and a huge plugin library make it the default choice for building a personal wiki.
The app is free, commercial use included, and Obsidian Sync costs $4 a month billed annually if you want its own encrypted syncing. The real risk is not lock-in but tinkering: plugins and themes can quietly become the hobby instead of the notes.
More about Obsidian8
Logseq
For daily-journal people who think in bullets. In Logseq every line is a block that can be linked, referenced elsewhere and folded away, which suits meeting notes and research logs that grow sideways rather than top to bottom. It is open source and works with Markdown and Org-mode files, so the file-based version keeps your notes readable outside the app.
The project is mid-transition, and that matters before you commit. Its new database version is in beta with an explicit warning that data loss is possible, so anyone starting now should keep backups and know which version they installed.
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Workflowy
For people who think in nested lists and want nothing else on the screen. Workflowy is one long outline of bullets you indent and collapse, which turns out to be oddly good for agendas, reading notes and planning anything with sub-parts. There are no pages, templates or databases to set up first.
Its exit is one of the cleanest here: you can export a single bullet or your entire account as formatted text, Markdown, plain text or OPML. The catch is the free plan's 100 new nodes a month, which an enthusiastic outliner can burn through in a week; Pro is $6.99 a month billed annually.
More about Workflowy10
Notion
For people who enjoy building the system as much as using it. Notion puts notes, documents, databases and wikis in one place, which is wonderful for a shared team wiki or a reading tracker with filters, and a lot of ceremony for jotting down a phone number.
Exports are better than its reputation: non-database pages leave as Markdown, databases as CSV, and the whole workspace can be exported from desktop or web, though some formatting comes out as HTML. The bigger lock-in is that it lives online. You can mark individual pages available offline on each device, but automatic downloading of recent and favorite pages is reserved for Business and Enterprise plans.
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Anytype
For Notion fans who want the databases-and-pages approach without handing their data to someone else's server. Anytype builds everything from objects you can link and organize, and it keeps your content on your own devices as well as its sync network, encrypting it before it syncs so the company only ever passes along scrambled data.
The exit needs a little planning. Export runs from the desktop app only, as Markdown, PDF or HTML for use elsewhere, or as Anytype's own Any-Block format for moving into another Anytype space. Its approach takes longer to learn than a plain notes app, so it suits builders more than quick jotters.
More about Anytype12
Evernote
For people with a decade of clipped web pages, receipts and scanned PDFs already inside it. Evernote is still a capable everything-bucket, but its free plan now stops at 50 notes and one notebook on one device, so for anyone with a real archive it is a paid app.
If you are staying, fine; if you are wavering, export before the next renewal. Notes and whole notebooks leave as ENEX or HTML files from the desktop app rather than the web version, and ENEX is the format most rival apps, Joplin among them, know how to import.
More about Evernote13
Microsoft OneNote
For spatial thinkers who like dropping text, ink and images wherever they land on the page. OneNote's notebooks, sections and pages mimic a ring binder with tabs, it is free with a Microsoft account, and for anyone with a stylus on a Windows laptop it remains one of the few apps that treat handwriting and typing as equals.
Getting out is the weak spot. A whole notebook exports only through OneNote for the web, only for notebooks on a personal OneDrive rather than a work or school account, and what you get is a ZIP that few rival apps read gracefully. Plan the exit before you fill ten notebooks.
More about Microsoft OneNote14
Goodnotes
For students and anyone who thinks better with a pen in hand. Goodnotes turns a tablet into a shelf of paper notebooks, searches your handwriting as well as typed text, and lets you mark up PDFs the way you would a printout. It now runs on Apple devices, Android, Windows and the web, so a stylus habit no longer ties you to an iPad.
Budget for it: the free plan allows only three files in total, Pro costs $35.99 a year, and the one-time purchase offered on Apple in some regions leaves out Goodnotes Cloud. Handwritten pages leave most usefully as PDFs, which open anywhere but stop being editable ink once they do.
More about Goodnotes15
Notability
For lecture and interview note-takers who want handwriting and audio in the same place. Notability lets you record while you write, with live transcription on its paid plans, so a scribbled half-sentence can be checked against what was actually said.
It is less generous than it once was. The free Starter plan includes just five notes, the yearly Plus plan limits transcription, and unlimited live transcription sits in the higher Pro tier. It runs on iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows and Android, but it still feels most at home on an iPad with a pencil, and like Goodnotes its handwriting leaves most usefully as PDF.
More about Notability
